In his poem “Mother to Son”, Langston Hughes puts forth both a moving inspirational speech from a mother to her progeny as well as an overall set of advice from an older generation of blacks to that of a younger generation.
The poem the Mother tells her son, that life for her has not been effortless like ascending a beautiful crystal staircase. "Life for me ain't been no crystal stair" the steps of her staircase had "tacks," "splinters," and the "boards were all torn up" This journey of hers to overcome the pains of racism was uncomfortable, and she tells her son that there was "no carpet on the floor" under her feet was "Bare" When she explains to him not to “set you down on the steps / ‘Cause your find it’s kinder hard. / Don’t you fall down now,” the tone in her words in compassionate. The mother is simply trying to tell her son that she knows what he is going through because she has been in rough times herself.