In the beginning of the story the narrator sounds excited, enthusiastic and full of faith. He believed that Jesus is going to save him and was calm and confident in his faith. He listens to the stories of his aunt and other adults and anticipates the same experience of a light shining down on him and having a transformative experience. But none of that happened to him. And as the story goes on we witness how the narrator’s outlook changes. He starts getting worried as nothing is happening and Jesus didn’t appear to save him. After his fellow friend Westley got up and was saved, the narrator starts feeling ashamed for holding up the ceremony and falls under the pressure of lying just to get it all over with. And in the closing paragraph we see the narrator going through the struggle of feeling ashamed for lying as well as loosing his faith in Jesus.
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One thought on “Victoria Chen Discussion 3”
Hi Victoria,
I completely agree with your answer to the question. I find it funny how he followed Westley to be “saved” after Westley completely lied about it. It also shows how a person Langston Hughes was even as a child to lie about and feel ashamed about something that shouldn’t be joked about.
I also find it a bit sad as well because Hughes was really trying and trying to be saved and it sucks how it resorted to him lying about it toward the end of the story.