The mother compares her life to a staircase filled with nails, broken boards, and missing boards. For her, life has not been easy. She sees her life as a struggle upwards, fighting against injustice, discrimination, and despair. In the poem, she states "I'se been a-climbin' on, / And reachin' landin's, / And turnin' corners, / And sometimes goin' in the dark / Where there ain't been no light." She has been met with dead-ends, anxiety,...
The mother compares her life to a staircase filled with nails, broken boards, and missing boards. For her, life has not been easy. She sees her life as a struggle upwards, fighting against injustice, discrimination, and despair. In the poem, she states "I'se been a-climbin' on, / And reachin' landin's, / And turnin' corners, / And sometimes goin' in the dark / Where there ain't been no light." She has been met with dead-ends, anxiety, and the unknown. However, even with all of this struggle and pain, she keeps going, because that's all she knows how to do. To keep going in the face of all of this shows her strength of character and her belief that if she just keeps climbing, life will be better for her and her son. She tells him, "So, boy, don't you turn back. / Don't you set down on the steps. / 'Cause you finds / it's kinder hard. / Don't you fall now— / For I'se still goin', honey, / I'se still climbin'" and extends the metaphor of the stair and her life to show her son that she can still keep going and he can, too.
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