Situational Ethics InSalvation, By Langston Hughes

"Salvation" by Langston Hughes is an Essay written about the pressures young adults can face in their lifetime. It represented the life of a young boy and the pressures he received to accept Christ into his life. The story reflected lies, sarcasm, and hypocrisy from his peers, his family, both immediate and church. This young boy was told that Jesus would come to him, he would “See” Jesus, he would know. He was faced with the misconception of “How” Jesus would come to him, he was misguided. The young boy went forward anyway, walking to the pulpit, and accepting Christ. Although he had never experienced Jesus coming to him, he had never seen Jesus, he goes anyway, pretending to be saved due to social pressures. Later he returns home and cries

In the poem, Blues at Dawn, Langston Hughes talks about how he does not think in the morning. He states, “I don’t dare start thing in the morning.” When he states this, he is talking about how he can’t think about what is going on in the world when he wakes up. In the fourth line of the poem, Hughes writes, “Them thoughts would bust my head.” In this line, it brings the reader into reality that the thoughts and world around are very chaotic.

I believe that when people are developing morals you have to have enough emotional development to feel guilty when you do something wrong, enough social development to accept our responsibility for behaving good or bad towards our group, and enough cognitive development to be able to place ourselves in someone else’s shoes. My parent taught me early in life the differences between right and wrong and to treat people the way I would want to be treated. I understood these lessons at a young age because that was the way my parent taught my brother and sister.

My people is one of Langston Hughes’ poems which is about working class black African American people. In this poem, he compared the beauty of nature to the beauty of his people. My people is a very short poem, built in three stanzas which consist of two lines in each stanza. This poem was written in simple language, therefore, the readers can easily understand what he is trying to convey. I believe, beneath its simple words, this poem depicts the beauty of working class black African American people that go beyond the beauty of physical appearance.

As time has passed humanity still tends to separate each other based on our racial being rather than seeing each other as one human race. Langston Hughes’s, “A New Song,” published in 1938 introduces the idea of a new vision of social relations in American society. Hughes’s original version of this poem written in 1933, does not encompass his growing anger on this subject that is dwelled upon in his published version. However, with Hughes’s powerful tone and word choice throughout his 1938 rendition, his reader is able to understand his urge to transform America into an interracial culture. (Central Idea) His poem voices the importance of transforming society into a multiethnic unity and working-class established through cultural ties between whites and blacks. (Thesis) Hughes voices this crucial need to change through his emphasis on African American’s past struggles as opposed to the new dream, his militant tone, and through expressing the role that the establishment of cultural ties plays in society.

Langston Hughes was one of the first black men to express the spirit of blues and jazz

     People always listen to music, watch movies or plays, and even read poetry without once even thinking what is could be that helps and artist eventually create a masterpiece. Often times, it is assumed that artists just have a “gift”, and people just do not consider the circumstances and situations that gradually mold a dormant idea into a polished reality. This seems to be the case with nearly every famous actor, writer, painter, or musician; including the ever-famous Langston Hughes.

In “Salvation” (1940), Langston Hughes makes it clear that when he deceived everyone at Church by having them believe he was saved, it took a toll on his mental well-being. “I cried, in bed alone, and couldn’t stop. I buried my head under the quilts, but my aunt heard me” (Hughes, 1940, para. 15). It is not normal for a twelve year old to cry excessively and loudly. His extreme crying after the deception proves that when his words did not match his actions guilt ensued. Hughes mentions he primarily felt guilty for lying. “But I was really crying because I couldn’t bear to tell her that I lied, that I had deceived everybody in the church” (Hughes, 1940, para.

Stephanie Ericsson and Langston Hughes both confront dishonesty in The Ways We Lie and Salvation respectively. These authors present the deviation from the truth as a main theme and maintain that it produces negative impacts on life. However, The Ways We Lie more effectively supported its purpose than Langston Hughes’s Salvation.

Langston Hughes is regarded as one of the most significant American authors of the twentieth century. Foremost a poet, he was the first African-American to earn a living solely from his writings after he became established. Over a forty-year career beginning in the 1920s until his death in 1967, Hughes produced poetry, plays, novels, and a variety of nonfiction. He is perhaps best known for his creation of the fictional character, Jesse B. Semple, which first appeared in a Chicago Defender newspaper column in 1943. Hughes’ writings focused mainly on the lives of plain black people and show their beauty, wisdom, and strength to overcome social and economic injustice.

I believe that each of us is born with a moral compass, something that regardless of the ebb and flow of life, directs us in a subconscious manner. An individual's belief system is intricately constructed over time, by many extraneous factors. We are all models of clay, waiting to be molded into whatever is thrown our way. We often come around people practicing 'situational ethics' that is resorting to only those principles that seem most favorable for a particular situation. In my point of view, ethics ought to be derived from stability. There should be some unyielding values inside each person that should steer him or her in a certain direction, regardless of what a situation demands. If one condemns lying but lies to get out of a particularly sticky situation, one may actually succeed in averting trouble, but this reveals more about one's character than originally considered. Forestalling the scenario once may be a petty triumph, but it surely would not cushion a person's sense of dignity, and that would be too big a price to pay for momentary comfort.

For centuries, many people in the world come to the United States for looking for a dream, which they will have a better life. The “American Dream” is a standard phrase that people know what it is. And, the States give them a promise of freedom, and opportunities to get their dreams. Therefore, I think about the perspectives of a dream, and I ask myself: why do people work hard to get to a destination that they want? Before working hard, they have to have a real purpose, so they must have a dream.

Not all poems fall into the category of epic poetry or ballads. Some pieces are short and concise rather than lengthy and elegant. A shorter poem may focus more thoroughly on diction, or the author’s specific choice of words, rather than things such as rhyme scheme or meter. Langston Hughes poem “Suicide’s Note” is a perfect example of this. Because it is only twelve words long, every single word is important and chosen carefully. This poem uses many literary techniques, none more than diction, to achieve its purpose. which is to focus on the split-second decision that is suicide.

     Langston Hughes’s writing showcases a variety of themes and moods, and his distinguished career led his biographer, Arnold Rampersad, to describe him as “perhaps the most representative black American writer.” Many of his poems illustrate his role as a spokesman for African American society and the working poor. In others, he relates his ideas on the importance of heritage and the past. Hughes accomplishes this with a straightforward, easily understandable writing style that clearly conveys his thoughts and opinions, although he has frequently been criticized for the slightly negative tone to his works.

According to Biography, James Mercer Langston Hughes is considered to be an African American poet who is college educated and comes from a middle-class family (Langston Hughes Biography). He attended college in New York City and became influential during the Harlem Renaissance (Langston Hughes Biography). Although Hughes was a talented writer, he faced some challenges early on and it was stated that his “early work was roundly criticized by many black intellectuals for portraying what they thought to be an unattractive view of black life” (Langston Hughes. American Poet). They believed that his work helps the spread the stereotypes of African Americans. “Hughes, more than any other black poet or writer, recorded faithfully the nuances of black life and its frustrations” (Langston Hughes. American Poet). Langston Hughes’s poems “The Negro Mother”, “Let America be America Again” and “The Weary Blues” were influenced by his life during the Harlem Renaissance and the racial inequality experienced in the late 1920s through the 1960s.