Question

What's the meaning of crystal stair

Answer 1

 The poem literally expands on the image of life as a staircase. She tells her son that “life for me ain’t me no crystal stair” literally meaning that life is not like a smooth , clear crystal. Instead she says the staircase has “tacks in it”, “splinters” , “boards torn up” , “places with no carpet on the floor” and is “bare”. The description is more rough and dangerous, not smooth and beautiful like a “crystal stair”. Therefore the literal meaning is that life is an old, worn-down, rough staircase

Answer 2

Answer:

• Hughes introduces the image at the start of the poem, writing, "Life for me ain't been no crystal stair."
• The vivid imagery, the mental image of a crystal stair formed in the reader's mind, is the polar opposite of what the speaker has experienced.
• A house having a staircase is desirable, but a crystal staircase demonstrates distinction and wealth.
• Hughes is honest about his socioeconomic position and that of other black males when he says his life is not a crystal stair.

Explanation:

What Is the Staircase?

Hughes explains his life after stressing that it was not glamorous, stating, "It's had tacks in it, and splinters and boards are broken off." The working-class description of the stairway he has encountered is reflected by the staircase and the act of ascending. He also labels it as "naked" later in the poem. This signifies that there have been trials and terrible times in life. According to critic Aidan Wasley, "the speaker connects the past of African-Americans with an infinite flight of broken-down steps, such as would be seen in the tight and decaying tenements in which many impoverished blacks found themselves compelled to dwell in the ghetto regions of the northern cities."