This work “Salvation” is very interesting to me. It gives you a glimpse of a young Langston being pressured into accepting Jesus Christ into his life. From a 12 year old perspective, he’s describing all the behaviors of the adults in at the revival. The moaning, wailing, and also the coercion. I can imagine the intense pressure he felt to go up to the alter. The last hold out before him, Westley gave in to the pressure. He felt like he had no choice at that point. I do find a bit of comedy in the writing, as I remember being in similar situations growing up. In the end he gave in just to end the whole ordeal.
I believe from the adults perspective, they had good intentions. They were extremely concerned with the salvation of these children. Interestingly enough, even though they had good intent, the way they went about it got the opposite reaction. Young Langston ended crying and lying about accepting salvation.
I would like to believe that as a society we have moved past this. I see so many examples of ideas being forced on people through media. The only difference is we’re not at a revival.
2 thoughts on “James Terry Discussion 3”
Terry, thanks for jumping in so early and getting the conversation started. I’m so glad you mention the humor in this story. It’s a very subtle humor that comes from the irony in the story. Even the title is ironical. It’s something some readers overlook. I’d like this discussion to focus on the character of the boy. He, of course, doesn’t see anything funny in the situation at the time. Because the narrator is now an adult, he can find the humor and convey it through verbal and other forms of irony. The boy is a sweet, innocent, trusting, honest child at the beginning of the story, but by the end, he is in many ways a totally different person.
That’s a great point! The story does touch on those defining moments we have, where we end up questioning things we are told as a child. Drawing from my own experiences I have had many of these moments, and sometimes they can change you from the innocent child you may have been. As a child many times your only references may be your family, unfortunately the things they tell you are sometimes inaccurate. As we grow, we continue to discover these truths. I guess that’s why people call it “growing pains”. This work was titled “Salvation”, however it was also a revelation.