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Langston HughesA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
The crystal stair—rather, its absence, “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair” (Line 2)—is the primary symbol of the poem, and all subsequent metaphors are extensions of it. Such a sparkly, fancy staircase would be clean and smooth, in direct opposition to the stair the speaker climbs with “[…] tacks in it, / And splinters, / And boards torn up” (Lines 3-5). The crystal stair also describes something bright and clear as glass. For the speaker, her stair has been opaque and dark, “And sometimes goin’ in the dark / Where there ain’t been no light” (Lines12-13). Ultimately, taking the poem’s historical and political context into consideration, the crystal stair symbolizes all those privileges denied to the poem’s contemporary Black Americans. However, a crystal stair, while an impressive spectacle and symbol of wealth, might also suggest something illusory. While crystal is stronger than glass, it can still be shattered if hit hard enough. The idea that privileged people walk on a crystal stair could indicate a kind of fragility in their position.
Part of what gives power to the central metaphor of the staircase is that the image is inherently linked to human action—and that action is climbing (or, upon mishap, falling).
By Langston Hughes
Children’s Rhymes
Langston Hughes
Cora Unashamed
Langston Hughes
Dreams
Langston Hughes
Harlem
Langston Hughes
I look at the world
Langston Hughes
I, Too
Langston Hughes
Let America Be America Again
Langston Hughes
Me and the Mule
Langston Hughes
Mulatto
Langston Hughes
Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life
Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston
Not Without Laughter
Langston Hughes
Slave on the Block
Langston Hughes
Thank You, M'am
Langston Hughes
The Big Sea
Langston Hughes
Theme for English B
Langston Hughes
The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain
Langston Hughes
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Langston Hughes
The Ways of White Folks
Langston Hughes
The Weary Blues
Langston Hughes
Tired
Langston Hughes