Deidre James Discussion 2

The story of “Salvation” by Langston Hughes has always resonated with me. After my first read, bothe me and the speaker seemed to overlap which only made me enjoy the story more. “Salvation” is ment to be a story on a kid finding some sort of salivation through the church his aunt forces him to attend. The story is ment to play apon the irony that despite the title, our speaker was never truly able to find this “salvation” everyone wanted to receive. As someone with a religious family I understand the speakers feelings so well. My church would often talk about receiving this “salvatuon” from God, how this will change your life and you will receive blessings. Yet despite this, just like I speaker I never felt anything. I never understood how those around me could cry and shout about being saved, yet I have never experienced such a feeling. It was upsetting, I want to experience the love of God. I wanted a reason for why my mom forces me and my brother to attend church every Sunday. It was experience like this that made my faith waver as I aged.

The short story of “Araby” by James Joyce did connect with me, but not as much as “Salvation”. The story was a commentary on growing up and no longer very things through rise tinted glasses. The speaker describes idolizing other’s but when faced with the truth he is heavily disappointed. I can understand the speaker within this story, to believe in something or someone only to be faced with the horrible truth of them not living up to expectations. Tying this back to religion, you hear nothing but how God saves you or how he is wonderful and merciful. People praise him wholeheartedly due to their love and they think he is great. You want to belive these things so you do everything like they say. But after meeting, you begin to see how wrong everyone was and how he could not be viewed the same way other’s view him. It a disappointing realization. I felt the same way, as if my innocents were stripped away from me. It was upsetting, to know I could never feel how other’s felt when praising him.