Question

c) persevere and keep moving forward
d) wait for someone else to help

1. what is the primary theme of \mother to son\?

a) wealth and power
b) the importance of education
c) overcoming adversity through perseverance
d) the beauty of nature

1. which of the following best describes the structure of the poem?

a) it has a strict rhyme scheme
b) it is written as a single, continuous speech
c) it alternates between two speakers
d) it is a series of unrelated images

1. what does the \dark\ represent in the lines \and sometimes goin’ in the dark / where there ain’t been no light\?

a) the night time
b) fun and adventure
c) uncertainty and difficult times
d) a literal dark room

Explanation:

1. Langston Hughes' Mother to Son uses a staircase metaphor to depict a mother's life of hardship, emphasizing that she kept going despite struggles, so the core theme is pushing through hardship via persistence.
2. The poem is a direct, uninterrupted address from a mother to her son, with no breaks or shifts to another speaker, strict formal rhyme, or disconnected images.
3. In the poem's extended metaphor, "dark" is not literal; it symbolizes the unknown, hard, and hopeless periods the mother faced in life.

Answer:

1. C) Overcoming adversity through perseverance
2. B) It is written as a single, continuous speech
3. C) Uncertainty and difficult times