The poem "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes was written in 1922. Langston Hughes was an African American writer, whose work began to be published in the 1920s. "Mother to Son" is a poem that the speaker is a mother who describes her hardships to her son by comparing her life to stairs. Hughes poem "Mother to Son" has many poetry elements within the poem. The two strongest poetry elements within Langston Hughes poem "Mother to Son" is symbols and imagery.
             Hughes uses symbols in the poem "Mother to Son". The strongest symbol in the poem is the stairs. In line number two Hughes says in the mothers voice "Life for me ain't been no crystal stair." The stairs symbolize the mother's life. In the poem the mother uses the stairs to illustrate to her son how difficult her life has been, how she must climb up the stairs everyday to improve her life and how she still continues to struggle. The stairs could also be a representation of the different phases of life the mother goes through. It's had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, says Hughes in lines three, four, and five. The mother is describing the rough conditions of the stairs in those three lines. Those three lines are also symbols in the poem, representing the mother's difficulties throughout her life. In addition the stairs could be a symbol for African Americans and their fight for equality during the 1920s and the need to keep enduring the hostile climb on the stairs for the African American people and their rights. In line seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen Hughes says "Don't you fall now– For I'se still goin', honey, I'se still climbin'." Hughes expresses in these lines that just because the stairs get hard to climb at times do not quit. One of Hughes' strongest elements is symbols in his poem "Mother to Son."
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