How the speaker from the poem "Mother to Son" similar to Mama from the play "Raisin in the Sun"?

  • Job DurationLess than a month
  • Project LevelMedium Level
  • Project deadlineExpired

Project detail

“Mother to Son”
By Langston Hughes

1 Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
5 And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor —
Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
10 And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
15 Don’t you set down on the steps
‘Cause you finds it’s kinda hard.
Don’t you fall now —
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
20 And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair

Excerpt from A Raisin in the Sun
By Lorraine Hansberry

WALTER . . . You can just sit there and drink and listen to them three men play and you realize that don’t nothing matter worth a damn, but just being there—
MAMA: I’ve helped do it to you, haven’tI, son? Walter I been wrong.
WALTER: Naw—you ain’t never been wrong about nothing, Mama.
MAMA: Listen to me, now. I say I been wrong, son. That I been doing to you what the rest of the world been doing to you. (She turns off the radio.) Walter—(She stops and he looks up slowly at her and she meets his eyes pleadingly.) What you ain’t never understood is that I ain’t got nothing, don’t own nothing, ain’t never really wanted nothing that wasn’t for you. There ain’t nothing as precious to me . . .There ain’t nothing worth holding on to, money, dreams, nothing else — if it means– if it means it’s going to destroy my boy. (She takes an envelope out of her handbag and puts it infrontofhim and hewatchesher without speaking or moving.) I paid the thirty-five hundred dollars down on the house. That leaves sixty-five hundred dollars. Monday morning I want you to take this money and take three thousand dollars and put it in a savings account for Beneatha’s medical schooling. The rest you put in a checking account—with your name on it. And from now on any penny that come out of it or that go in it is for you to look after. For you to decide. (She drops her hands a little helplessly.) It ain’t much, but it’s all I got in the world and I’m putting it in your hands. I’m telling you to be the head of this family from now on like you supposed to be.
WALTER (stares at the money): You trust me like that, Mama?

MAMA: I ain’t never stop trusting you. Like I ain’t never stop loving you.

She goes out, and WALTER sits looking at the money on the table. Finally, indecisive gesture,he gets up,and, in mingled joy and desperation, picks up the money.
Essay Prompt:

Using “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes and the provided excerpt from “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, argue that the speaker in the poem and Mama are very similar.

Industry Categories

Freelancer type required for this project