Langston Hughes Salvation Summary

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.

There are two reasons why Hughes cries at the conclusion of his story. The first reason is that he felt horrible for lying to his aunt and the church congregation earlier in the day. The second reason he was crying is a result of him had lost his faith in Jesus. He also felt let down by Jesus for not appearing in the manner in which his aunt had described to him. My opinion is that he did desire to receive salvation, his story says that “he was waiting to see Jesus” not once, yet twice in the story. However, due to his aunt’s story about what one perceives and how one feels after being saved it left doubt in his mind if he had found salvation. He doubted and decided to tell a lie, to find release from the mourner’s bench. His aunt described

From the beginning of time, human beings have formed complex groups, these groups may be formed to solve a multistep problem, engage in rituals, fight enemies or develop traditions. We also of form groups because of conformity, the assimilation to behave like others. In the chapter “Salvation” from The Big Sea by Langston Hughes, Hughes reveals the motif of conformity by the peer pressure of his friend Westley and the church congregation based on his personality and relationship with him by following his behavior during salvation. Similarly, to Hughes, I almost conformed to theft when I was in high school, it was the time I was then walking from school in downtown Newark.

Save me Please! The hearts cry of a young boy who is in desperate need. Referring to Langston Hughes article “Salvation”. A lesson this article teaches about group pressure, even with good intentions, getting what the group wants, does not always meet the individual needs.

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.

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.

Childhood is a fundamentally important period of development in a human life. It is the time when people can discover many new things and learn new things. During the period, children establish identity, self-esteem, and good attitudes. This essay “Salvation” by Langston Hughes is about a particular moment in his childhood. He vividly describes a past experience as a twelve-years-old child in his aunt’s church. The essay is great examples of facing peer pressure and religious forces. Many young people are forced to be saved by Jesus. They feel peer pressure when they behave differently than the masses. His childhood experience gives us an opportunity to contemplate the meaning of religious forces and peer pressure.

This short story by Langston Hughes left me confused. I still wonder if he was saved or not; whether “salvation” should be the title of the story or not. “I was saved from sin when I was going on thirteen. But not really saved.” (Salvation, 351). This is how the story begins, with a contradiction. I suppose this some what grabbed me in interest for a while, but I do have to admit that I never truly understood if Hughes was “saved” or not. It almost seemed to me that there were missing components, that this short story was maybe an excerpt from a larger story. I did not take the time to confirm this or not because I think if I knew for sure, it may take away from my true interpretation of this piece.

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.

“Seeing is believing.” This idiom is a common saying in the Western culture, and known by people of all ages. However, this is more than just a saying for some but a philosophy of life. Specifically, children tend to resonate with this idiom. Adults do not seem to understand just how hard it is for youth to believe in something that is not a part of the visible world. “Salvation” by Langston Hughes is a prime example of how some children receive the unseen world, specifically a higher power. Hughes at a young age is forced by his aunt to go to her church for a revival. The then twelve-year-old is told that he will see a light and feel Jesus’ presence from there on out. At the revival, the young girls in the group of children claim to be saved immediately. Only young Langston and another boy are left waiting to experience a sign from Christ. Westley, the other boy, decides he is going to lie and say he is saved. Hughes is left on the alter by himself, which leaves him pressured to lie. This event causes the young boy not to believe in a higher being because he has no physical evidence of one. Physical evidence meaning what adults told him he would experience during salvation. Making children conform to religious ideas pushes them away from faith, loses the message that religion tries to spread, all while neglecting others’ experiences of spirituality.

In Langston Hughes short story Salvation A growing 12 year old boy from Joplin, Missouri, experiences the hardship of facing religious expectations that his family holds. A saddening story that not only emotionally tore him down but in the process strengthened his religious beliefs Hughes finds clarity as a result of a lie. In one of the last lines of Salvation Hughes expresses his feeling of being alone crying the words “I cried, I cried, in bed alone, and couldn't stop.” Which comes as a result of him lying to his aunt and the rest of the congregation. The overwhelming pressure and his expectation to come to Jesus and the light as every other child had done before him had taken a toll on Hughes. Hughes taking every word literally as most

Hughes’ thoughts and feelings play a big part in this essay. While this might not be the main reason as to why he wrote this essay, he definitely wanted his readers to relate with him if they’re going through something similar. Hughes felt a great deal of disappointment in the process of being saved and trying to see Jesus. His disappointment was towards his aunt because she had told him how he would feel while getting saved but he didn’t experience the same thing, “My aunt told me that when you were saved you saw a light, and something happened to you inside!” (547). After his aunt, and other members of the church, had told him this, Hughes expected to be able to physically see Jesus standing before him. At first, Hughes felt as if his time hadn’t come yet, so he tried to wait and keep his faith in Jesus. Hughes was disappointed in all the other children for being able to see Jesus, he was wondering what could he have done wrong? Correlations that are drawn to the essay and audience would be that sometimes you might think something will go one way because you’ve been told so. When in reality, it might work out a different way for you. In religion, you can possibly have a different relationship with the higher power that you serve than what another person might have. This doesn’t make one person any better than the other, there is just a different connection with you and Jesus.

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’

The Harlem Renaissance mounted an early 20th Century movement in which authors and artists of color discovered what it means to be an artist, what it means to be black, and what it means to be American, and what it means to be all of these things at the same time. The Harlem Renaissance began just after the first World War and lasted into the early years of the Great Depression. Like the European Renaissance, the Harlem Renaissance was a social and political movement, but also an artistic one. Artistic movements such literature, music, ethnography, drama, poetry, and publishing were all avenues of expression amongst African-Americans risen from the Harlem Renaissance. Langston Hughes wrote about this time, stating “the

The main point of Salvation is that many people will go with what others say and not really question it. However, if people do not challenge what they see or hear, then they are also following the crowd. They are not creating change, but they are watching wrong doing. The adults pressure all the children to “come to Jesus”, without really explaining what that means. Hughes is disappointed and doubtful in himself for lying to the whole church and his Aunt Reed. This results in the loss of his faith in Jesus Christ. He is saved in the eyes of the church, but his mind and heart, never really