Langston Hughes’s poem “Mother to Son” alludes to the challenges experienced during one’s life. The author’s goal is to showcase the complexity of educating children on their future. Hughes accomplishes it via a mix of metaphors with real-life remarks. Most of the poem is highly metaphoric, which is evident in allusions to climbing as in the line “I’ve been a-climbin’ on,” and imagery of darkness as in lines “And sometimes goin’ in the dark” (Poetry Foundation, 2002, 9, 12). However, I find the poem especially compelling because some lines may have no hidden meaning. For instance, the lines “And places with no carpet on the floor—Bare” and “Where there ain’t been no light” can be read directly: staying barefoot on cold floors and being in dark-lit rooms (Poetry Foundation, 2002, 6-7, 13). The shift from metaphors to real situations and back to metaphors allows the audience and the son to understand that the mother’s life was both psychologically taxing and physical. As children have a distorted view of events, such a technique effectively communicates how challenging life can be.
My own life has also been shaped by seemingly vague instructions that had value. As a child, I have been warned against incautious decisions and inconsiderate spending. One phrase I specifically recall is “end up living on friends’ couches.” Meanwhile, I had a friend who had not been taught essential life lessons. I liked spending time with him precisely because our activities had no restrictions. Unfortunately, he was an unorganized person with no specific focus in life. Some of his few interests were movies and video games, which he could play all day long. Nevertheless, I appreciated my friendship with him because of his ease of communication style.
At some point, his careless attitude caught up with him. Facing some college problems, he decided that the best solution was to drop out. However, as he left college, he suddenly realized that he had no place to live. The only way I could help him was to share my room with him. It was an exciting perspective; after all, I liked his lifestyle. Yet, soon it became apparent that occasionally spending time with a carefree person is significantly different from living with them. The challenges became more difficult with each passing day as cohabitation continued. Being used to the lack of restrictions, my friend could not adapt to a new, more moderate life. Instead, he occupied most of our room’s space at my expense. Meanwhile, I had to study and, on many occasions, could not focus due to his distractions. The most worrying part was that he did not see anything wrong. He did not work, nor did he try to return to college. One day, I finally realized that this situation would remain this way unless we changed it.
When our co-living became especially unbearable, I approached my friend. I saw he was doing what he always did – having idle time. I was straight with him as I told him we could no longer live this way. I told him that he either tried to return to college or find a job; otherwise, he would be forced to leave. I would help him find another place to live on the condition that he would also do it. Unfortunately, my friend was not ready to make changes to his life. So, I ended our friendship and made him leave my room. I later found out that he continued asking his acquaintances for help, essentially living on their couches until they would make him leave. Later, he became broke, after which he returned to me, which was the second instance when I decided to help him. This time, he was resolved to change his life and ask for help. I tried to consult him as much as I could about organizational practices for his life, finding goals and achieving them, and applying for a job. Later my friend returned to college while being mindful of his behavior and life habits. He changed his attitude toward education entirely, and I realized that the usefulness of my help to him was primarily in motivation, which he had lacked before. I comprehended that motivation represents everything distinctive in each of us and enables us to achieve valuable results such as higher success, improved wellness, self-development, or a purpose in life. Motivation is a means of altering our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
This experience taught me some lessons, the first of which is that improving life is complicated. In the same way as life is a challenging climb for the mother in Hughes’ poem, moving forward requires making sacrifices in real life. Moreover, I understood that being inert is not our natural state as humans. It is our instinct to aspire, desire, and follow the path of what we seek and value. Finding strategies to improve motivation is critical since it helps us modify our behavior, build skills, be innovative, create objectives, grow our passions, plan, get professional skills, and drive engagement.
Reference List
Poetry Foundation. (2002). Mother to Son by Langston Hughes. Web.