Langston Hughes Mother To Son Analysis

The simple, straightforward title of the poem “Mother to Son,” by the African-American poet Langston Hughes (1902-1967), finds both the speaker of the work and the person to whom her words are discussed. The very first line of the poem is typical of the rest of the work in its use of phrasing that is colloquial—that is, in this case, phrasing that implies one person speaking to another. Yet the phrasing is also colloquial in the sense that it is ordinary, unpretentious, and informal. By beginning with the word “Well,” the mother sounds as if she is responding to a question from her son, while the use of the generic word “son” sounds (ironically) more affectionate than if she had used the son’s proper name. By using the word “son,” the mother also makes their relationship seem universal and archetypal—as if this might be any mother speaking to any son. (The effect would be significantly different, for instance, if the poem had begun “Well, Richard,” or “Well, Langston.”) As presently written, the opening line implies the close, loving relationship between almost any parent and his or …show more content…
The tone of these lines is interestingly ambiguous. On one hand, the tone is gentle and encouraging; on the other hand, the tone is assertive and challenging, as if the mother means to say, “if I have worked hard, you have no excuse for not working hard yourself.” Both tones are present, creating a mingled attitude of concern, encouragement, and challenge. Similar ambiguity and complexity are present in the phrase “kinder hard” (16), where the first word can initially seem consoling and positive until we realize that “kinder” is just the dialect form of “kind of.” Thus, just when a slightly cheerful note has entered the poem through the word “kinder,” that note instantly disappears with the entrance of the word