After reading Langston Hughes “Salvation” I believe Mr. Hughes purpose of writing this essay was to inform us about how social conformity can affect us in our decision making. Mr. Hughes describes about how his aunt has been talking about this day for days and how it will change his life. And how he will be one with god, as if he wasn’t already, but Mr. Hughes being the impressable child that he is, wanted the feeling that his aunt and fellow church goers were experiencing. I feel like the reason why this event is so special to Mr. Langston Hughes is because it was the day that he lost a piece of his self. The reasoning behind my thought is Mr. Hughes gets to the alter and waits silently for god to appear to him, but when everyone around him appear to experience the magic of god, Young Hughes starts to doubt his self and the faith of god. With all the noise and commotion going on from the preacher and fellow church goers, singing and preaching, to the older church members crying around young Hughes. The way Hughes gave us vivid descriptions of the church it almost feels like Mr. Hughes was in a twilight zone. …show more content…
its so easy to be wrapped into social conformity when it comes to religion, because growing up you are taught you have to believe in god because that’s what the bible tells us. I believe young Westly felt the same way he didn’t want to let the church nor his family down. So, he got up because he didn’t want to be the little black sheep, but it was more difficult for Mr. Hughes due to the fact his aunt and fellow members expressed to him how he should feel when god gets introduced to him, so he waited and waited until he lost faith. This was saddest day of his life due to him not being wanted by god in his
Salvation by Langston Hughes is a short story that explains dealings with religion and basic beliefs. In the story, Hughes attends a revival at his church with his aunt. Prior conversations with his aunt had given Hughes the impression that when you are saved you see a light and you feel something inside of you. Aware that a time of the service would be dedicate to bringing youth to Jesus, Hughs heads down to the designated row and listens to the pastor, sang when necessary and awaited the time that "the light of Jesus would be shown to him". One by one children handed their lives over to Jesus, still awaiting the feeling Hughes sat and searched for anything that could match the description that he had been given. As time goes on church goers
In "Salvaiton", the main point that Hughes is trying to get across is that he "believed" in something only because it was what he was told was right. There is evidence of where he mentions "I'd better lie, too, and say that Jesus had come, and get up and be saved." Hughes also mentions that one of his fellow peers at one point had said how "He was tired of sitting, so let's get up and get saved." It is clear that throughout the essay, Hughes delivers an image of confusion and seeing people as hypocrites and it really gives an understanding of what Hughes was going through. The structure of the essay also allows the reader to understand and follow the confusion and these experiences as they unfold on young Langston.
Langston was a twelve year old who majority of his time in the church with his aunt. As he grew up he saw the many changes of people and faces the church. Langston was starting to lose faith. He did not know if he should believe there was a Jesus. Langston gave up hope on Jesus when he was lost and confused, and he felt there was no one there to help him in his time of need. Hughes' faced some challenging experiences and this demonstrated to him how adults may confuse children, especially when adults don't take the time to explain the religious metaphors children are trying to understand. Langston’s, Auntie Reed is primarily responsible for his loss of faith at an early age. Langston’s aunt should of taken the time explaining to Langston that Jesus' words were as they appear in The Sermon on the Mount serve as a useful guide for living one's life, she told him that "when you were saved you saw a light, and something happened to your insides!" At that point when Langston heard those words he was more confused than before. Langston wanted to make sense of the information his Auntie Reed was sharing with him but he
The details provided in the book explain the story moderately well. In the book, Langston writes about how much pressure he felt from the altar to be saved by Christ. The book paints a good visual picture on how crowded and hot the church was. In the book , Langston explains how devoted
In most people's lives, there comes a point in time where their perception changes abruptly; a single moment in their life when they come to a sudden realization. In Langston Hughes' 'Salvation', contrary to all expectations, a young Hughes is not saved by Jesus, but is saved from his own innocence.
In most people's lives, there comes a point in time where their perception changes abruptly; a single moment in their life when they come to a sudden realization. In Langston Hughes' "Salvation", contrary to all expectations, a young Hughes is not saved by Jesus, but is saved from his own innocence.
Langston Hughes’s personal narrative “Salvation” is a recollection of Hughes’s experience with salvation at a religious revival at his aunt’s church. He recounts his experience in order to describe how it led to his enormous guilt over deceiving his aunt and the congregation and how it stemmed his disbelief in religion. His ironic tone and vivid imagery plays a key role in the development of the conflict and the complications that he faces. In order to dramatize suspenseful moments and magnify key points, he uses an array of rhetorical devices.
His aunt is really excited about him joining the church community: “my aunt spoke of it days ahead”. With his aunt at the church, young Hughes gets sat in the front of the church and with the entire congregation looking at him and the other kids that were getting ready to be saved. One by one they all experience God and His divine touch up to the point where only Hughes is left sitting on the bench. After some more time, he decides that he would rather loose his belief in God and lie about his presence than to keep everyone else waiting and looking at him. He lies and gets up and moves to the “saved” side. By lying and pleasing the society, we find out the effect that this has on the congregation: “the whole room broke in a sea of shouting, as they saw me rise”[pg. 181].
Hughes wrote two poems that generated a lot of discussion about religion and African-Americans. One was “Drama for Winter Night (Fifth Avenue),” the other was “Goodbye Christ.” Once when Hughes was asked about
Hughes wrote "Salvation" just at the beginning of World War II, as racial tensions began to dissipate for a short period of time. During this time, all of the energy of the nation was put towards the war effort, and African-Americans found themselves in many occupations that had previously been forbidden to them. As Hughes saw prejudices begin to break down as people started
He goes into depth about hoping for something to happen, anything. He expresses himself of what was going through him excitedly for example the author says, “So I sat there calmly in the hot, crowded church, waiting for Jesus to come to me.” (182) He describes his situation attempting to make some sort of relationship with God. He creates an anxious tone in order to demonstrate just how important having a connection was valuable to him. Why having a connection to God was important at that time is because before the big revival was over they called the kids to convert them. When it was time to bring his spiritual needs, he was told by his aunt “when you were saved you saw a light, and something happened to you inside! And Jesus came into your life! …I believed her.” (182) Hughes punctuation creates an ethos tone of voice by being persuaded by his aunt. The author may employ pathos through his emotional language. This rhetorical appeal is often used to emphasize his emotional response towards how he feels about being “saved.” The outpouring of his emotions towards getting “saved” was a big concern that he was trying to achieve. He implicated how not only was he expected to be touched by the presence of God, but every other kid his age. This is how the writer was discussing about him being open about the idea of being “saved.”
Langston Hughes was born on February 2, 1902 in Joplin Missouri, and died on May 22, 1967 in New York, New York. Hughes' African American themes helped to contribute to the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s, where he was a leader. He attended Columbia University and Lincoln University, published his first poem in 1921 and his first book in 1926. Hughes was a poet, playwright, novelist, and more.
The short essay by Langston Hughes takes place in Kansas during the year 1915. Langton’s mother had left and went north in search of a job. Meanwhile, his father abandoned the family and went to Mexico, with no plans on coming back. Leaving Langston to live with his grandmother. However, after his grandmother’s death, Mary and James Reed took Langston in and began to raise him as if he were their own. In “Salvation”, focusing on a specific traumatic event, Hughes describes the memory of his aunt and a revival held at her church, touching on topics such as family pressure and peer pressure alike, fear of disappointing or being a disappointment, right from wrong, and the guilt experienced during the aftermath.
'Salvation', by Langston Hughes is part of an autobiographical work written in 1940. The author narrates a story centering on a revival gathering that happened in his childhood. During the days leading up to the event, Hughes' aunt tells him repeatedly that he will be 'saved', stressing that he will see a light and Jesus will come into his life. He attends the meeting but when Jesus fails to appear, he is forced by peer pressure to lie and go up and be 'saved'. Hughes uses his story to illustrate how easy it is for children to misinterpret adults and subsequently become disillusioned.
Salvation is defined as the deliverance from sin and its consequences. In a Christianity sense, salvation is when a person accepts the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior, and they believe the fact that he died for the sins of Christians. The term of salvation is often referred to as being “saved”. Salvation is when one delivers not only their body in a physical to the church and God, but it is also a committee to Jesus mentally and spiritually. Getting saved can be a very pressuring and life changing decision. That is sometimes forced upon young adolescents. Ultimately it can cause one to question their spiritually sometimes even damaging their belief in Jesus. In Langston Hughes’