The excerpt provided thematically discuses struggles and hardships that have been undergone to get to a certain point in life. It is contextually based on a mother who is speaking to her son. The mother states that ‘Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair’ (Hughes, 1922). This statement alone reveals a lot. First, the theme of struggle and hardships or rather perseverance can easily be deduced. It also implies that life has not been easy for the mother. As the mother continues to speak to her son, she states that there were splinters, boards that are torn up, and bare surfaces with no carpet. From both a literal and metaphoric perspective, the mother’s narration shows how hard it was to make progress. Surfaces with no carpet, for instance, are pretty cold and this is symbolic of the poor living conditions that the blacks were going through.
Multicultural literature majors in looking at the social and cultural experiences of the minority cultures or rather underrepresented people. This work is considered foundational to the development of multicultural literature because it reveals the struggles and hardships of marginalized groups of people. In the past, the minority groups did not get a lot of attention (Smolen & Oswald, 2011). In fact, their cultural beliefs, practices, and fundamentals did not receive recognition and consideration. This element of being undermined cut through almost all the spheres of the society including representation, justice, resource-allocation, opportunity, and literature. For these inequalities to be minimized and even scraped off, there was a long journey that was laced with various hardships and challenges. Therefore, this work is foundational to the development of multicultural literature because it describes the journey and what it entailed to achieve multicultural literature.
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Social justice is something that minority communities, ethnicities, and cultures have always been deprived of. For a long time, underrepresented demographic-settings have always sought equality and fairness. One of the elements of fairness and equality that has always been on the agenda is social justice. The journey to achieving this principle right is full of obstacles. From this work, the theme of social justice is symbolically revealed in two ways. One is the journey to social justice, which as stipulated, is not easy and has very many challenges. From this work, therefore, the hardships that the mother describes to her son reveals a theme of Social justice. Again, when the mother says ‘So boy, don’t you turn back. Don’t you set down on the steps’ (Hughes, 1922), she means that there should be no retrogression. This refers to the social justice that has been achieved in their demographic set-up. The mother insists to his boy that they should not let any form of inequality (social injustice) to be imposed on them again.
References
Hughes, (1922). Mother to Son. Norton Anthology of American Literature Volume 2.
Smolen, L. A. & Oswald, R. A. (2011). Multicultural Literature and Response : Affirming Diverse Voices. ABC-CLIO.
