1. Sirimas Somboon
English 12
“The Negro Mother” Analysis
Langston’s Hughes’ “The Negro Mother” is a lyrical poem about a negro mother
addressing to her sons about her struggles in her past life. The poem displays a passionate
journey of a woman striving for the rights and equality of the African-American people as
she elaborates her emotions to show the hardship she has been through. In addition to her past
experience the narrator uses her struggle as a reminder for her son about the struggles herself
and their ancestors have gone through in order to encourage them to continue their fight. In
the poem, the poet uses of the narrator’s diction, oxymoron and metaphor to portray the
theme of how African Americans should always strive to fight for their rights and equality in
society.
Initially the poet’s use of diction creates a tone that urges African Americans to strive
for their equality in society. In the beginning of the poem, the poet emphasizes on the usage
of the words such as “dark”(5), “night”(5), “labored” (11), “slave”(11) and “mistreated”(12)
to express how oppressed and subjugated the Black People are, especially under the racism
and discrimination. The diction contributes to the hardship and the abusive situation that the
narrator must face throughout the course of her strive for freedom. On the contrary, as the
poem progresses, the poet uses a positive tone to counteract the miserable tone that was
depicted in the beginning of the poem. Diction such as “torch for tomorrow”(36), “road to the
light”(37) and “look ever upward at the sun and the stars” (46) creates a hopeful and relieving
tone that corresponds to the negative tone, giving a message that even if the future
generations of Black People have to face the hardship of being discriminated and mistreated,
there will always be hope for them as long as they fight like the narrator. The narrator claims
herself as “the seed for the coming Free”(28), the “Free”(28) is capitalize in order to
emphasize the important dreams as the narrator “nourished”(29) the dream “deep in my
[Negro mother] breast”(30). Moreover, the narrator claim that “God” (16) “put a dream like
steel in my [Negro mother’s] soul,”(17) in which the word “steel”(17) is a strong and stable
object, by comparing the “steel”(17) to the “dream” (17), the dream was settled. Furthermore,
the narrator “had only hope then,” but she wishes through the young generation, she used a
strong diction of “must” (32) to emphasize the needs to fulfil her dream by “stand[ing] like
free men supporting my [negro mother’s] trust” (40)
In addition, oxymoron is also used in the poem to show the contrast between the
harshness of reality that puts down the narrator and the narrator’s will and effort to find
equality. For example, when the narrator “couldn't read then. couldn't write./ [she] had
nothing, back there in the night” (21-22) and as “Sometimes, the valley was filled with
tears”/she would still “[keep] trudging on through the lonely years”(23-24). Furthermore,
there is a contrast between the darkness of the African-American’s treatment and their
optimistic encouragement towards their goals in achieving grand equality. The narrator used
her struggles as a reminder for the young African-American people as she reminded them of
her “sweat,” (34) “pain” (34), “despair” (34) and years, heavy with sorrow/ and make those
year a torch for tomorrow/make[s] of my pass a road to the light/Out of the darkness, the
ignorance, the night”(36-38). The contrast is shown as she struggles with the various
dramatic obstacles in life and as the negativity is put down on her, she would still keep
walking and moving forward to fight for a better place, both for her and her people. The
contrast between the negative force and the narrator’s will power shows the narrator’s intent
to inspire the black people to not give up their goals of being free.
Finally, the poet employs metaphors to further elaborate the message of how the
African American people should not give up their rights and equality. By taking the

2. figurative meaning of certain contexts from the poem, the revelation of the poet’s message
will be exposed, such as “Sometimes, the road was hot with the sun/But I had to keep on till
my work was done” (25-26). The metaphorical meaning of the road that was “hot with the
sun”(25) relates the obstacles that the narrator had to face. The sun’s connotation correlates to
the hardship and all the troublesome path that the narrator has been through. Likewise, the
narrator says “make those years a torch for tomorrow/Make of my pass a road to the light”
(36-37), which simply connotes the fact that the narrator’s struggle is worthwhile as her and
their ancestor’s effort become another step of “great stair” (48) to win the equality of the
African American will be a goal of this long effort. The use of this figurative language is to
create an elaboration of the feelings of the narrator and her intentions to show both of the
hardship that she’s been through, and the intent that will inspire the further generations.
As a result, through the use of diction, oxymoron and metaphors, the poet achieves in
expressing the message the narrator is trying to imply: the pursue for equality of the Black
People should not be given up, but should be in pursue regardless of the hardship until
absolute equality is achieved.