Every one of us has no difficulty realizing this point.

Obviously in the poem, Langston makes creative use of metaphors by describing LIFE through the image of a STAIRCASE with no crystal glamour. The excerpt above is from a famous poem named “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes. It’s had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floorBare ….”

Last month, my American Literature class discussed a poem that intensively employs metaphors: “Well, son, I’ll tell you: Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. Through comparison and by contrast, I hope to find out major similarities and significant differences in the way English and Vietnamese use this metaphorical concept in everyday language thus, have better understanding of English and Vietnamese language, culture, and patterns of thinking before being able to draw some practical conclusions in the field of English teaching. The rationale behind this is that LIFE is a basic but rather complicated concept for every man and every culture. The objective of this study is to compare the conceptual metaphor LIFE IS A JOURNEY in English and Vietnamese using the theory of conceptual metaphor as theoretical framework. As we think, we talk and we act, whether intentionally and unconsciously, we all rely on a large number of conceptual metaphors. The 1980 classic maintains that metaphorical expressions are not idiosyncratic but rather systematically reflect conceptual metaphors in our mental reasoning. Since its introduction in 1980, the publication “Metaphors We Live By” by Mark Johnson and George Lackoff has successfully persuaded the readers to see all metaphors in a new light.

Metaphors we live by