Answer:
The answer is indeed letter c) He uses an extended metaphor to compare lifeās hardships and successes to a staircase.
Explanation:
As we know, a metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things in order to attribute some quality of one of them to the other. Metaphors do not employ support words such as "like" or "as". An extended metaphor happens when such comparison continues throughout a series of lines in a poem (or even paragraphs in other genres). That is precisely what we have in Langston Hughes' "Mother to Son". The speaker of the poem is a mother who's telling her son life has been really hard on her, but she has kept on going, and so should he. She says life hasn't been a crystal stair, but a rough one. It hurt her feet, but did not prevent her from climbing. This metaphor goes on for the whole poem.
The poem is as follows:
Well, son, Iāll tell you:
Life for me aināt been no crystal stair.
Itās had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floorā
Bare.
But all the time
Iāse been a-climbinā on,
And reachinā landinās,
And turninā corners,
And sometimes goinā in the dark
Where there aināt been no light.
So boy, donāt you turn back.
Donāt you set down on the steps
āCause you finds itās kinder hard.
Donāt you fall nowā
For Iāse still goinā, honey,
Iāse still climbinā,
And life for me aināt been no crystal stair.
