Every mother would like to see her child succeed in life. The following passage from the poem, “Mother to Son,” by Langston Hughes demonstrates the love and concern a mother has for her child. He teaches them using his own life as an example; his life like climbing a ladder. The image of the advice given in the verse is explicit and touching: Well, son, I'll tell you: life for me has not been a glass staircase. There are nails and splinters and boards all torn up. And places without carpet on the floor -Coffins (lines 1-7). The metaphor in this poem combines life and a ladder: “Well, son, I'll tell you:/ Life to me has not been a crystal ladder.” The mother tells her son that life is not an easy journey to travel on foot. Instead, in this passage of the poem, he tells his son that life is hard, full of obstacles, but you have to keep climbing, you can't go back or sit down, because you will catch a break, a turning point, a landing and you will go after you. He uses the "crystal ladder" to describe a life that is opposite to his own. Crystal is thought of as something delicate, precious and precious; every step of life on a crystal staircase would be full of priceless opportunities. The mother in this poem had no such life; in fact, his description seems harsh and unpleasant. The mother establishes the importance of her challenging life when she says, "There are tacks, / And splinters, / And torn boards, / And uncarpeted places the floor-." In everyday life, tacks are used to secure an object in place. With pressure they act like nails, fixing various objects. When the mother says that her life "has dots in it", she is referring to things... middle of paper... telling him that she herself still struggles to climb the stairs but never gives up in lines 18-19 , “Cause I'm still going, darling, / I'm still climbing.” Through these lines, she also reveals that no matter how tough life has been for her, it has not tarnished her morale because she continues to climb. It shows life as an ascent up a ladder: it is a difficult climb, but one that must be attempted and achieved. To convey his voice, he uses a dramatic monologue. He uses words like: isn't, I am, and climb, which is common language in black culture. The language she uses gives the impression that although she is not "educated", she is still intelligent and wise due to all the difficult experiences she has overcome in her life. The rhythm of the poem does not rhyme but has a rhythm that flows tiredly but is built like a ladder, one step at a time.