Daily Archives: September 11, 2022

The narrator felt joy was expecting to experience and see Jesus for the first time because of his aunt. His aunt described to him how he was going to feel when Jesus will save him from his sins with the rest of the teenage kids. At church when he was sitting with the group he was waiting for the moment to see Jesus, but all he saw was all the kids being saved by Jesus except for him. So, in the end he had to lie to his aunt that had been saved by Jesus. He felt sad, hopeless and disappointed because he was never saved by Jesus  and had lied to his aunt. At the end he did not believed in Jesus.

In “Salvation” by Langston Hughes the narrator is different than he was at the beginning of the story. In the beginning he was told by his aunt about how she was saved by Jesus coming into her life and he believed Jesus would also come into his life, but he thought Jesus would come physically. While he waits for Jesus everyone ends up on the altar and he is left alone. Even though he doesn’t see Jesus he is starting to feel pressured by everyone around him and guilty for taking up their time. He ends up lying about being saved and everyone celebrates. The narrator who once was a young innocent child had changed for the worse. He once had faith in Jesus but he ends up losing that faith and is doubtful that Jesus is even real and also feels guilt for lying to everyone about seeing Jesus.

The young narrator is different from when the story first started because he was a lot more naive and gullible. He wanted to be saved and thought that this was going to happen, as this is what the people in the church have discussed with him. He was waiting to be saved. and was upset that there was no symbol of light that he could see, he was very doubtful of what is going on. When his aunt convened him to come and sing he decided to because he wanted what was best for him. Towards the end of the story, the setting was very happy and you can truly feel everyone’s joy and relief. They wanted to be free of sin and wanted to know that God was going to forgive them, it was very important to them. However because Langston did not see the light he had to pretend with them as well, He was very disappointed to know that he did not revive help and that help was not coming for him.

The young narrator was different in the beginning because he seemed hopeful and trusting of his elders all describing what one can feel and see when you get saved. They all described seeing a light and something happening inside of them, they expressed how they heard and felt Jesus and so Langston believed them. He believed that he was going to feel the same things everyone felt.   Langston took the “Measures” to be saved, after not feeling Jesus, he thought it was all a facade which led to completely losing his faith. He felt guilt for lying to everyone and losing his Faith to Jesus.

I just wanted to pop in here to give some general feedback about your posts for the first two weeks. Week 2: Your responses to  “The Most Handsome Drowned Man”  were sensitive and intelligent. Some of you mentioned the compassion that is seen in the story. Others focused on the idea of keeping an open mind and having a willingness to change. Others wrote about the importance of imagination and inspiration. All of these observations were wonderfully expressed, and many directly addressed the prompt about why I might have assigned this story as the first. All were valid and part of the reason. One answer by Alex Barrios hit particularly close. He wrote, “Maybe some of us are the village, and this course is our Esteban.” For me, this story is about the power of stories to change lives. In the story, a community comes together to create a story from their imagination about a man who has no story when he washes onto  the store. In their made-up story, they imagine a life for him that is greater than their own. Then they set out to change their own lives to live up to the myth they have created. My hope is that the stories we read in this class will expand your perspectives in a similar way. I hope that at least one of the works of literature we read in this course will stay with you forever. Yes, I mean it. Forever. Week 3: What I noticed and appreciated about most of the Week 3 responses was the clear response to the prompt about the change in the narrator. Sometimes students who are new to studying literature end up retelling the story rather than analyzing it. In ENG 201, we are not writing book reports like the […]

I think that Professor Conway might have assigned “The Handsomest Drowned Man In The World”  by Gabriel Garcia Marquez to us as our first read so we can think outside the box and play with our imagination and ideas in order to create something meaningful in preparation for our upcoming weekly assignments.  In this story, we see how the villagers are introduced to this drowned man that showed up on the beach out of nowhere.  They didn’t know who he was or where he was from.  All they knew is that he didn’t look like them.  They named him “Esteban” to give him an identity and by doing so, they created an elaborated story to bring forth life to Esteban, who was actually a dead man.  I see the similarities between the villagers and us trying to write an essay.  We have an idea, a focus point and then we gather all the supporting details to construct it.  Just like the villagers did with Esteban, when they cleaned, dressed and brought everyone together.

In this story two of the characters seemed to have had different experiences at the toy store.  Sylvia, the main character, was observant and put on a false bravado through most of the story.  Despite having a dislike or “hatred” for Miss Moore, she seemed to absorb all the information she was giving to the children.  Even reciting it back with a cynical tone. The story reminded me of myself as a child. I was bold and loud and aggressive. I remained in my comfort zone which were the borders of my neighborhood. Like Sylvia, I was confident when I was there. It was familiar and everyone lived similar to how I did; In poverty, in the street with friends misbehaving.  Going into the toy store she expressed a feeling of shame. She said she’s never felt shy before and she didn’t know why she was feeling funny about being there.  The experience for her friend Mercedes was very different.  Mercedes seemed comfortable and assured that she could even come back to this highly expensive toy store and possibly buy something for her birthday.  Immediately I could separate how Sylvia and Mercedes life experience was very different. Especially after all the children shared the lack of study space and furniture because they were too poor to afford a luxury like that even though Mercedes explained how she had a nice study desk with personalized stationary gifted to her by her god mother.  I believe the shame Sylvia felt was the feeling of not belonging. Not being part of that world where a toy clown that merely flips and does pull ups on a bar could be equal to the expense of a household bill.  Unlike Sylvia, Mercedes pushed her way passed everyone in the entrance to the store and did […]

The story “Salvation” tells the pivotal point in the narrators (Langston Hughes) life when he loses his belief in Jesus. In his youth the narrator is told that when he is “Saved” he would see a light and experience a change of sorts followed by an appearance from Jesus. Initially the narrator is optimistic about receiving salvation. Having a clear idea as to what he will experience in that moment he awaits his “salvation.” As the evening goes on, we see that his faith slowly begins to waver. As he watches the other children leave the bench and be saved, his naivety is on full display which is expressed by his genuine belief that there would be visual cues for his salvation. The narrator soon experiences fear and shame. Fearful that he would be the “only lamb left in the cold.” Thus, failing congregation. He becomes ashamed that he had not experienced the “change” alluded to by his aunt. His belief comes into question even more as he hears Westley use the lord’s name in vain and (in his outlook) feign salvation without consequence. Although he does not experience the phenomena he was informed of, he chooses to act as if he does to appease his aunt and the rest of the congregation. Due to his adolescent innocence, he finds himself stricken with grief due to his dishonesty. At the end of the story, it is clear to the reader that the experience has left the narrator crestfallen by the lie he told to the point that he no longer believes in Jesus. 

In the story “Salvation” by Langston Hughes we see how the affects of one’s personal strife and pressure from your peers and elders compelled a young boy into lying to his Auntie. Before even arriving to the church weeks in advance his Aunt was giving him ideas on how being “saved” would feel and look like that you will know that you were saved when you saw a bright light and felt a feeling inside that once that happened you knew that Jesus was in your life. This set an expectation on what to expect on the night of the mass that he would know he has saved if only these 2 things happened to him. On the night the preacher talked about a story one little lamb left out in the cold and it’s refusal to come and be welcomed by Jesus. This story stayed with the boy as he did not want to be the one lamb who was left out in the cold. As the mass progresses all the kids were brought to the front where they sat at the mourners’ bench as the sermon went on more and more kids left the bench to come to Jesus until all was left was westly and the young boy. After sometime the boy whispered into his ear stating “let’s get up and be saved”. This affected the boys beliefs as he was all alone and the boy who did not see the light and be touched be Jesus was able to walk to the alter and be saved an no one was able to tell that he was not truly saved. The young boy still holding onto his Aunt’s words waiting to see the light and be saved stayed alone as the preacher now focused his attention onto […]

I think the narrator was different by the way he was in the beginning was very excited about going through this “salvation”. When his aunt was explaining to him on how he was going to see this light and feel it in him, you can tell that this was something he was looking forward too. He was anxiously waiting and yet didn’t feel anything or see anything. He was waiting and nothing. He was really trying to wait and actually feel it.  Yet he still got up because he felt like he didn’t want to waste their time. At the end he was crying, and he said that he didn’t find it in him to tell his aunt that he lied. I feel like he was disappointed that he lied and really didn’t feel like he was actually saved. I think the narrator’s faith was broken because now he didn’t believe in Jesus.