Saraelle Lafleur Discussion 3

In ” Salvation” by Langston Hughes, the young narrator changes from being hopeful, naive and excited at the beginning of the story to feeling turmoil and grief at the end of it. At the beginning of the story Hughes is shown to have trust in what the adults around him say and believe, this trust fed into his excitement at attending the church meeting. This trust fueled his belief in God, and it was put to the test during his church’s prayer night. During that night, Hughes was forced to lie about his belief in God by the pressures of the people in his church, he followed another who also lied about seeing Jesus. This traumatic event caused him grief and turmoil since he lied to the congregation and, more specifically, his aunt. This turmoil grew further when his aunt recognized his crying as being happy for having found God and not for having lied about it. This shows a further disconnect between him and his aunt, and also with himself from the beginning of the story.