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Langston Hughes, an influential literary artist, explore[d] the lives of African-Americans during the Harlem Renaissance (Mother to Son 177). Because he was black himself, Hughes could write about his first-hand experience of the tacks and splinters associated with discrimination, and provide the privileged with his perspective (Miller 432). Hughes reveals the impediments blacks faced by writing with figurative language (Miller 426). By using those metaphors in his work, Hughes was encouraged to capture the particular speech of African Americans and write in such a way that celebrated their way of life (Mother to Son 181-182). Through his selective language and dialect, Hughes recognizes the struggles of African Americans as well as the perseverance of their race in his poem Mother to Son.

Hughes begins his poem with a conversation between a mother addressing her son. Well, son, Ill tell you: (Hughes 1) directly implies a parental figure is beginning to educate their child. Hughes conveys the conversational effect by writing with a colloquial tone, mocking the flow of a realistic conversation (Evans). Hughes continues writing with a simplistic voice in order to place readers in the sons point of view (Mother to Son 184). Hughes writes with an intimate tone and personal view (Evans) so the sons frustrations become our own (Mother to Son 184). A conversational tone is further developed as the mother repeats the conjunction and (4-6) and writes with irregular line lengths (Mother to Son 181). By using anaphora, Hughes juxtaposes (Evans) the splinters (4) and places with no carpet on the floor (6) to the crystal stair (2) that she never experienced. The repetition of and creates a rhythm of a natural conversation while also reflecting the mothers persistence to give her son a life she never knew (Evans). In addition to constructing an informal tone, Hughess use of free verse depicts the setbacks and complications the mother faces (Mother to Son 181). Shifting from shorter to longer lines further develops the causal effect of the poem while also mirroring the setbacks, turns, and uneven (Mother to Son 181) obstacles of the mothers life. Hughes achieves a conversational tone by writing with rhetorical devices to convey how the mother perseveres in order to have a better life for her son.

As the poem advances, Hughes continues writing with African American dialect to build a character. Hughess use of I’ve (9, 18-19) portrays a personality, specifically, the point of view of a black person. The dialect of African American language has many negative connotations, and for that reason, Hughes works to revoke those labels (Mother to Son 182). By incorporating specific dialect into his writing, Hughes creates a mother with uneducated diction, further revealing a lifetime of the reduced opportunity (Mother to Son 182). Many readers recognize Hughes is not building a lazy speaker (Mother to Son 182), but the uneducated speaking instead signifies the missed opportunities of blacks (Mother to Son 182), resulting in their own diction. Her effortless dictum may come across as uneducated, but in her ideas, she embodies the wisdom of her own race (Evans). Hughes continuously sought to portray the mothers persistence through her language: Where there aint been no light. (13). Aint is commonly seen in our language today as slang, but Hughes utilizes it to build style and further leave clues (Mother to Son 180) to show how far the mother has come, despite the discrimination she has faced. Hughess word choice conveys the darkness the mother has seen as well as how her determination allowed her to overcome her physical and spiritual obstacles (Mother to Son 179). Her diction is seen again in finds (16) as she warns her son to not give up if he crosses a difficult path since she has gotten him far in life (Mother to Son 180). Hughes uses specific African American language to depict the mother and show her determination of providing a better life for her son.

Through the length of Mother to Son, readers can acknowledge Hughess desire to recognize the discrimination and hardships of African Americans in the mid-1900s. The poem begins with the mother pronouncing Life for me aint been no crystal stair (2), indicating that she hasnt had a perfect life. The crystal stair could represent dreams that the mother once held or her spiritual quest towards heaven (Mother to Son 179). Whatever the indication may be, Hughes intends for the stairway to connotate smoothness and ease (Mother to Son 179), something many blacks in the twentieth century never got to experience. The mother goes on to explain shes been a-climbin on (9) and sometimes goin in the dark (12), highlighting the history of African Americans and their endless fight for equality (Mother to Son 186). Hughes concludes his poem as the mother motivates her son to not fall now (17) because she is still goin (18) and climbin (19). Because the mother has grown up facing hardships, she encourages her son to not fall into the pressures of society since his perseverance will benefit their race as a whole (Mother to Son 180). The last line of Mother to Son repeats the crystal stair (20) she never had. This closing line is a final encouragement to the son, pushing him to climb the stairwell in order to find freedom for African Americans and complete the work she started (Miller 432). In summary, Hughes works to include the black races hardships in his work.

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