The young Langston Hughes is different than he was at the beginning of the story because he now lacks this belief in God, Jesus, and religion. At the beginning of this short story, he is looking forward to accepting God and Jesus in his life. He trusted the grown-ups in his life. He trusted them whole heartily that Jesus would come and save him because he was told by his family and other adults that this would happen. He had no reason not to believe them at this point. Then he waits and waits to see this light, to see Jesus come to him, and he watches as all the other children leave him. It then gets to this point where he accepts the fact that Jesus isn’t going to come to him in this way. By the end, he no longer has this religious belief anymore. Also, by the end, the young Langston Hughes would sure doubt his family and other adults and not accept whatever they said as fact and truth because now he has trusted them and they have seemed to lie. I would also think that he would have doubt and shame in himself. Maybe there was something wrong and different with him and that’s why Jesus didn’t come to him.
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One thought on “Eoin Riley-Duffy, Discussion 3”
Hi Eoin,
I relate to your interpretation of the story. I like your choice of words as you describe narrator’s feelings in the beginning of the story: he did believe the grown ups wholeheartedly and was looking forward to accepting Jesus not expecting anything go wrong or not according the impression he had in his mind. Although the end of story where the narrator is crying and feeling ashamed of lying I didn’t detect any feeling of anger towards the adults and his aunt for painting this picture that didn’t come to reality for him.