In “Salvation” by Langston Hughes, the young boy seems to be very curious. I also feel as if he’s very pressured into the religion. He was just turning 13. He didn’t seem to have too much knowledge of what was going on. I think his expectations were based off what he had heard about Jesus coming to save him, and in his head, he pictured something completely different. At the end, he got nervous and felt like he had no choice but to lie, which in a way, makes sense because he was so young, he didn’t know any better. Also, because of everything he had heard about Jesus coming to save him, at the end he was disappointed and did not believe in Jesus anymore. In my personal opinion, I feel like adults should be more mindful of how they explain things like this to young children, because it really sticks with them throughout their childhood.
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5 thoughts on “Fatima Butt Discussion 3”
Hi Fatima,
I completely agree with your analysis of “Salvation” by Langston Hughes. The young boy was indeed caught between his natural curiosity and the pressure of his religion. His lack of knowledge about the situation made him imagine something different about Jesus coming to save him. This resulted in him feeling nervous and lying, which is understandable given his age. I also share your opinion that adults should be more mindful of how they explain things to young children, as it can have a lasting impact on their beliefs and perspectives. Well done on your insightful interpretation!
I agree with you saying he was pressured into the religion. Also they never clarified anything to him and it seemed like a huge mess to him. He probably expected a physical being to come “save” him and he wanted to see what everyone else was seeing so he could believe it too. I feel like he was disappointed because nothing happened to him while everybody was in tears and full of emotion. I especially agree with your last statement about adults needing to be more mindful about how they explain things to young children because kids are more likely to take certain things literally and also not understand.
Hi Christina, I also agree with the fact that the boy had know idea about religion and was only believing on what his aunt and other people were telling him, and he took his aunts word so seriously that he was waiting to meet Jesus and seeing what miracle would happen, and was on the other hand curious why everyone was thinking that he was special, even though at the end nothing like that happened and he ended up lying to everyone in the church.
Hi Fatima, I totally agree with you specially with the part when you said he was pressured into the religion because from the story he wasn’t sure what was supposed to happen he was expecting something but it never happened. You described the boy very well by describing him as curious because he was curious to learn about the concept of being saved from sin. The boy also could be described as confused because at the end of the story he started questioning things and beliefs. well said Fatima.
I agree that Hughes feels pressured into the religion. He was waiting for something to come to him that was not a physicality which caused a lot of confusion to him. I felt like he was pressured as a boy to believe in Jesus and his expectations exceeded reality when he did not actually end up seeing him. I strongly agree with your opinion. This story proves how vague certain things can be to kids, as an adult you may understand that Jesus coming to save you isn’t actually a physicality, but to a child they actually except exactly what you say to them. For example, like in the story, if you were to tell a kid “Jesus is going to come and save you” they would understand it as Jesus physically presenting himself to them and saying “I am here to save you”.