In the short story, “Salvation,” The author introduces a naive little boy attempting to make his Aunt happy. In doing so, he loses trust in people and begins questioning what others tell him. As a child, everything you are told you believe, especially from your loved ones. When I was little, I had a similar experience with religion. My family are Jehovah’s Witnesses and I was raised to not celebrate any holidays. Although, In school, they would have birthday parties and holiday parties. I would always feel left out because I wouldn’t participate. My teacher was told by my Mom to have me sit out. One day at a birthday party during school, a boy came up to me and asked me why I never participated. I had no answer, I had no idea why I wasn’t allowed to celebrate holidays. After that day, I began to question my Mom about this and she gave me answers. Although the answers didn’t make sense to me. In fact, the next birthday in class, I participated. Unfortunately, guilt began to form and I felt the urge to tell my Mom. Instead of telling her, I continued to do the same at every party at school. In “Salvation,” At the end of the story, he feels guilty and feels as if he left everyone down which was exactly how I felt at that age. “Salvation,” is relatable because the way the boy thinks is exactly how I felt as a child, naive and gullible.
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2 thoughts on “Discussion 2”
Your reflection on “Salvation” is thought-provoking. The way you draw parallels between the narrator’s experience and your own childhood experiences with religion is amazing.
I can empathize with the feelings of being left out because for most of my life, I spent my time growing up in foster care. When family holidays such as Thanksgiving or Christmas came up, I always felt this wave of depression and isolation.
Your story about feeling left out during school celebrations because of your family’s beliefs highlights the challenges of navigating different belief systems as a child. It’s fascinating how you eventually began to question and challenge those beliefs, much like the narrator in “Salvation.”
Hi Sanaya, I really enjoyed reading your post, as I can relate to feeling left out. As children we don’t understand everything going on around us. We follow the lead of our parents and our family. We think this must be right because my family is doing it, and it doesn’t seem to bother them. But once you see how other people are allowed to live with parties and celebrations, you want to know why I can’t celebrate my birthday like the rest of these kids. It’s a hard place to be in as a child. At our church we weren’t allowed to cut of hair, or wear big hoop earrings, or wear pants to church for girls. I didn’t listen to all of that, and I wasn’t allowed into some of the clubs that the church had, I felt so left out. So, I totally get it.