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 solely him as he was now the lamb left in the cold. As it got later into the night he heard is Aunt cry out his name “Langston why don’t you come and be saved”. As it got later in the night and the pressure to be saved by Jesus from his Aunt grew and curiosity for why Westly was not immediately punished in a house of God for lying. He came to the realization that is was better to lie than to sit and continue to wait for Jesus. As everyone erupted in praise for him finally being “saved” once he got home Langston finally cried that night. When his Aunt came to him he lied and stated that the holy ghost has visited him when in reality he was upset for lying to everyone. I believe that these series of events made him lose faith in Jesus and turned him into a liar. As he saw first hand that even in the house of God that liars will not be punished and no one will know the truth of if you have been truly saved or not, The realization that one could simply lie when things got to uncomfortable and that no matter how long he waited and how much he wished to be saved that Jesus never came to him. Thus the pressure to be saved put on him by his Aunt and the Preacher caused him to lose his faith in Jesus.
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