The first sentence of the story, Langston Hughes describes the experience as being saved from sin, but not really saved which expressed little credence in the notion of salvation through Jesus. As an adult, It seems as though his beliefs had shifted. When describing the events from when he was a child, he followed along with the traditions taught to him. However, he also took a lot of it literally. His aunt described the encounter with Jesus as one that would involve all of his senses, seeing, hearing and feeling Jesus in your soul. For a young boy raised within a family of deep faith, so much so his aunt and the congregation at church all wept during the ceremony, there was no reason for him to doubt or question the description of the events that they were preparing him for. According to the video that we were assigned to watch, I believe this part of the story falls under dramatic irony. Where ‘we’ the readers know more about the events of the story than the character. Although it is being told through first person narration, he explains his expectations of actually seeing Jesus and as the reader we already know that is not what would happen. Otherwise, it would probably fall under crime/horror genre.
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5 thoughts on ““Salvation” by L.Hughes”
Melissa, thanks for the good and early comments. I like your last remark about how if Jesus actually appeared in the way the aunt describes is, the story would be a horror story. And yes, this is dramatic irony. We know Jesus isn’t going to appear in this majestic way. Please be sure to include your full name in the title of your posts: e.g. Melissa Cordero Week 3 Discussion. Thank you!
I liked how you compared the aunt’s description to a horror story it’s very fitting. Nuanced concepts such as religion can be hard for a child to truly understand because there are no definite answers to a lot of questions that may come up which was the ultimate factor in Hughes’s childhood guilt about religion. Concepts like faith in the unknown come easier as an adult but to watch the way a 12-year-old would think about religion is fascinating compared to us as the reader. I also agree that this story would fall under dramatic irony 🙂
The narrator being a young child, I can agree it’s difficult for him to fully understand what his aunt meant. She had a different experience than him, as you said he took it more literally. For a young child, if Jesus really did appear, he would be very afraid as he doesn’t understand it the way his aunt does. I agree it would fall under horror, also how the aunt is acting can be scary for a child.
Hey there Melissa, I completely agree with the point you made that Hughes took being saved a little too literally. Since he was still a child I think that when we are that young we really look up to the adults around us and since they say he was going to experience all his senses being activated during the experience he really believed it instead of knowing being saved is just a feeling within yourself. I also like that you say if it wasn’t dramatic irony it would be a horror story which gave me a good laugh. Great findings.
Hello Melissa I agree with how this falls under dramatic irony as we know that Jesus won’t show up physically to the narrator. That is not the only dramatic irony though as we the readers also know that the narrator had lied to everyone about being saved and no one else other than the narrator himself knows.