Bill Casperson
The Harlem Renaissance was an increase in music, writing, and art in Harlem during the 1920’s. One influential writer was James Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. He was raised by his grandmother until he was thirteen, when he moved to Lincoln, Illinois, to live with his mother before the family eventually settled in Cleveland, Ohio. It was in Lincoln, Illinois though, when Hughes began writing poetry.
Langston Hughes was one of the most important writers and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance, which was the African American artistic movement in the 1920s that celebrated black life and culture. Hughes's creative genius was influenced by his life in New York City's Harlem, a primarily African American neighborhood. His literary works helped shape American literature and politics. Hughes, like others active in the Harlem Renaissance, had a strong sense of racial pride. Through his poetry, novels, plays, essays, and children's books, he promoted equality, condemned racism and injustice, and celebrated African American culture, humor, and spirituality.
Hughes wrote poetry, short stories, novels, plays, children’s books, and magazine articles. Many of Hughes’ writings reflected his outlook on the world. For instance, during the depression his work mirrored his socialist attitude and during World War II some of his literature was patriotic in its tone. He also explored segregation, the life of ordinary blacks, and black culture. It was not uncommon for Hughes’ inspiration to come while sitting in jazz clubs listening music; a good deal of his work was influenced by jazz.
In the poem, "Mother to Son", Langston Hughes demonstrates the love and concern a mother has for her son by the wisdom she imparts on him through the example of her own life, a climb up a staircase. Hughes does this by using stylistic devices such as figurative language, diction, and rhythm. The advice given in the poem is graphic and stirring: life is hard, full of stumbling blocks, but one must keep climbing, one cannot turn back or sit down, because one will catch a break, a turn, a landing, and keep going.
The metaphor in this poem relates life to a staircase. "Well, son, I'll tell you:/ life ain't been no crystal stair."(Lines 1-2). The mother, who is talking to her son, is saying life is not just something you can walk through with ease. It is a long and hard journey. This entire poem is based on this one metaphor. "It's had tacks in it,/ And splinters,/ And boards torn up,/ And places with no carpet on the floor-"(Lines 3-6).
