Week 2 Discussion

When reading the story “Araby” I see how this boy has a crush on this girl but doesn’t; feel enough for her to like a kid like him. I can sort of relate to this story because during my 9th grade year I always admired this guy who was In 10th grade. Everyday going to school when the bell would ring I would see him walking through the same hall as me going to my next class. I never had the courage to actually speak to him, I always had that mindset of no one ever wanting me and not feeling enough for someone. Everyday I tried to “impress” him with the way I dressed but noticed he never looked at me which I felt invisible. Later on I heard stories of the type of person he was which made me feel different, he was way different from what I expected. It was disillusionment, ever since that day I lost all interest in impressing a person because you never know how they really are.

After reading the article “Salvation” by Langston Hughes, I came to feel some kind of resemblance to the young man. It’s clear to me that the young man may have been much of a people pleaser since he had to lie for others to enjoy themselves. Growing up, I have classified myself as a people pleaser due to placing the wants and needs of other individuals before myself, not because I want to gain something out of it, but because of the big love that I have for those that I care for. In this world that we live in now, everyone is out for themselves, so it is extremely hard to find an individual that genuinely wears their heart on their sleeve and expects nothing in return. This young man in this article was aware that if he were to be truthful to himself, it would affect the perspective of how the church and others would view him.

I can relate to the young narrator in “Salvation” because I can understand the pressure and expectation to have a transformative religious experience. It’s tough when reality doesn’t align with what you were hoping for. As for “Araby”, the feeling of the excitement of going to a special event resonates with me. Its that mix of hope and disappointed that I can relate too.

In what way do you personally relate to the young narrator in “Salvation” Similar to the narrator in “Salvation” I grew up in a christian-centric household. I also remember feeling perplexed when I never “saw” the physical embodiment of God or the Holy Trinity. Why? Refer to specific scenes or language in the story. The reason I personally relate to the narrator in “Salvation” is specifically because I attended a parochial school for the majority of my academic career and experienced virtually the exact dilemma as the story’s protagonist.  Similar to the narrator’s church, there usually is a yearly ceremony in my protestant school, where we had to kneel in front of this railing of sorts and if my memory serves me, pray until we felt to lord come to us. Like the narrator, I did not see any embodiments of Christ coming down to greet me and was gravely concerned by it. During our English class discussion, I thought about that incident, and looking back on it, I too recall the memory with a sort of irony and humor because of how impressionable I was. Growing up, I tended to take things literally, so I was concerned about eternal damnation because I didn’t “see the Lord” during my ceremony. Thankfully for me, in spite of my guilt for not seeing God, I was able to talk to my mom about it and have her explain the concept of an omnipresent God.

I can surely relate to the young narrator in “Araby” as his experiences resonate with my memories of youth. When I reflect on my younger years, I remember the overpowering emotions that would often leave me thinking about someone a lot, similar to the narrator’s fixation with Mangan’s sister. The longing to catch a glimpse of that special someone and the intense emotions that get along such moments are imprinted in my memory. Thinking back to my youthful crushes brings to mind the rollercoaster of emotions the narrator describes. The rising hopes and dreams followed by the abrupt and heartbreaking disappointments hit a familiar chord. Like the narrator, I’ve struggled with the frustration and sense of disillusionment that arises when reality fails to meet our expectations. These emotions were specifically sensitive to life’s early limitations and challenges, which often felt impossible to my young mind. The narrator’s journey in “Araby” is a bitter but also amusing reminder of my youthful struggles and growth. Through his experiences, I see my journey toward self-awareness and understanding, making the story deeply relatable and intense.

I relate to the narrator in “Salvation” by Langston Hughes, due to the reason that as a child my family was extremely religious and they wanted me to follow in the same footsteps. They fed me so many ideas of how good is our savior our hope and the important part that he would help us in times of need you just have to pray. As I grew older I started to question religion but my family went through a rough patch and we needed help so I prayed asking for help from god but nothing happened noting worked and I was left disappointed and all my faith was gone. For example the character in Salvation Westley where he did the following “Finally Westley said to me in a whisper: “God damn! I’m tired o’ sitting here. Let’s get up and be saved” (Hughes). Westley actions shows that he too questioned the entire ceremony but due to the pressure of everyone in the church he gave in and just got up to get it over with.

“Salvation” by Langston Hughes is a coming of age story about a boy having an experience in church that changed his whole perspective on faith. Young Langston and his family go to church and his aunt tells him he would be saved when he saw the light and Jesus comes into your life. After Langston sits in church waiting for this miracle to happen he realizes it won’t “And I kept waiting serenely for Jesus, waiting, waiting – but he didn’t come. I wanted to see him, but nothing happened to me. Nothing! I wanted something to happen to me, but nothing happened” (Hughes). I personally relate to this because growing up my parents were not heavily religious but we still were involved in some practices. We were Catholic so we went to church on Easter, Communion, and we were baptized. As I got older and I started learning about history and how Christianity was used against Black people it caused a lot of questions about religion, how I view it and where I stand in having a relationship with God. I am still discovering that relationship and defining it everyday.

I personally relate to the young narrator in salvation in the sense that he was willing to lie in order for people to have a great time. In my life i’ve been put in situations where I had to lie in order for people to enjoy themselves and not to worry about other things that may be going on. Although the young narrator is a people pleaser, I don’t necessarily think thats a bad thing at all it just shows that he cares and has a heart. It’s very hard to find someone who actually cares about others in a way that they would put aside what they believe in order to help others. The young narrator could have easily disregarded everything going on in the church and not stand up, but he didn’t because of the fact that he cares about how his actions may affect others not just his.

One way I personally relate to the young narrator in “Salvation” is with his love for honesty and truth. That is a personality trait I can say I’ve carried on with me since childhood into my adulthood. If we look at the last paragraph of the story “Salvation”, we see the narrator crying and feels totally distraught because he lied to his aunt and “deceived everybody in the church” that he had seen Jesus. I feel I can relate to how he must have felt. There has been times when I’ve told lies that felt so wrong, I just couldn’t bear caring on the lie, I wanted to tell the truth. All the day long I’d just be thinking about the lie I told and think about how much better I’d feel, how much a load would feel lifted off my chest if I just admitted the truth. Also I can see how much he values when other people speak the truth to him. For instance his aunt had told him “that when you were saved you saw a light, and something happened to you inside! And Jesus came into your life! And God was with you from then on!” He felt it was all a lie because at the night of the big revival when the children were going to the altar “and were saved” he knew the kid Westley had lied; he knew he didn’t see Jesus but lied just to get over with the ceremony. The narrator wondered why God didn’t struck Westley right there and then for lying. In that moment the narrator felt like everything he had been told about Jesus by his aunt and all the old people had told were lies and that dwindled his faith in Jesus. I’ve had similar experiences where […]

In the narration of “Salvation” by Langston Hughes, I personally relate to the young narrator because, I decided as a young adult that I wanted to convert to Christianity (Born again Christian) in a Pentecostal church. This church was very lively. It had a live band, the words to the songs were on a large screen so that everyone could sing along. Everyone would raise their hands and shout to the Lord, Praise you, Lord! I had never experienced this kind 0f church. It was very different. At the end of the sermon, the Pastor would say, won’t you come? won’t you come to Jesus?  This is where I really relate to that 12-year-old boy, because I felt the same way he did. Everyone was going up to the alter and I just sat there. Not knowing how I was feeling about coming to Jesus in this way. I think new things and different things make us have questions and make us scared, even as young adults..

Hello professor. I have always considered myself to be a hopeless romantic. I can see my self personally relating to the young narrator in “Araby” as opposed to the young narrator in Salvation. My reasoning for this is because of two reasons. One is because my mother always made it very clear to me that god is not someone you can psychically see or touch . She explained to me that it has to do with faith and that the presence of god comes from within the soul. The boy in this text however took his aunts words literally, therefore breaking his trust and faith. I can not relate to this simply because I have never gone through this experience. I can relate more to the      “Araby” story because although I didn’t stalk anyone like he did or have never went to the lengths he did to pursue the thought of being with this woman, but I understand the feeling of wanting/craving someone the way he craved for her. That feeling can be bliss , if the crave is reciprocated. But If it is not . . . your story will most likely end up like his.

I personally relate to the young narrator in “Araby” because some people at some point would feel the same way the narrator was feeling when he had a crush on this girl and wanted her to notice him. The girl ended up approaching him and started talking about him going to a bazaar . This young narrator was capable of doing anything for this girl that he realized that at the end of the day it was all just child’s play. I can relate to this because it proves that if you truly love someone you’re capable of doing anything for that person. The young narrator still chose to go to the bazaar even though it was already late, he was impatiently waiting for his uncle and still went even though his uncle forgot. Love will make you do things you thought you were incapable of doing. This young narrator didn’t hesitate and took off to the bazaar.

In the narration of “Salvation” by Langston Hughes, I related to him since I remember my childhood when I didn’t truly believe in religion, but my family did. There was a time when at least one day a week, it was church morning with my aunts and cousins. I liked going only because there were snacks for the children, and they separated us into like grades to teach us religious things the cool thing about is that i was able to play with those kids. But my favorite part was the juice with the sandwich.

I think I personally relate to the narrator in “Salvation”. I relate to him on the fact of realizing reality and the effects that, that can have on you as a child. Langston Hughes was very naive, as so was I and many children his age in his story was. He was naive because he took the adults in the story word for what will happen to him when he is saved. He expected like a magical feeling and see “God” which as adults, we know this not to be true, but telling this to a child he took it very literal. This reminded me of a time when I was younger and my cousin told me my mother was not coming back home after work because, she ran away. Now as a child I did not know that they were joking but just like the narrator, I was naive and took them very literal. I was very sad and confused. So I was able to relate to him on this through this.

I can personally relate to the narrator in Araby as I too, was once desperately in love with someone who much likely saw nothing else but a 10 year-old young girl. He was a maybe 16 or 17 year old boy working at the nearby supermarket that I regularly visited. I remember the feeling of excitement when my mom would tell me to go buy an item missing from her pantry for dinner. The questions running through my head: would he be working? Should I change what I was wearing? What could I do to catch his attention, without being too obvious? My visit at the store, although mundane, was sort of meticulously planned – just like the narrator in Araby who purposely left his home as he saw Mangan’s sister leave hers. The calculated speeding to pass her – a seemingly innocent act that ensured that he was noticed – seems to have been taken out of my playbook. Despite the thrill, the planning and the anxiety, the reality was that I would go to the store, get what was needed, pay at the register and leave. A rather underwhelming conclusion. A disappointment. While in the story, the narrator’s dismay is initially caused by his uncle’s tardiness, which in turn led him to be late to the bazaar and unable to fulfill his objective, he and I both end up with the same result: not in any way closer to the object of our affection.

Some ways that I relate to the young narrator in “Salvation” is because I also journal my experiences as they happen, and when I write, the language I use is informal and the tone is direct. In “Salvation,” the narrator is conversational and informal, and I feel that it enhances the authenticity of the narrative and allows readers to empathize. An example of this is when the young narrator starts off the story with “I was saved from sin when I was going on thirteen. But not really saved. It happened like this.” (Hughes). This portrays the writer’s innocence and the sincerity of a child while maintaining straightforward sentence structures to show us that informal and direct tone. Another way I relate to the young narrator is that he is a people pleaser. The definition of a people pleaser is the want/need to please others even at their own expense. This can be seen twice when the narrator is at church and says “I began to be ashamed of myself, holding everything up so long… I decided that maybe to save further trouble, I’d better lie.” (Hughes). Another example of this can be viewed toward the end of the story when Jesus did not come to the narrator, and he states “But I was really crying because I couldn’t bear to tell her that I had lied, that I had deceived everybody in the church.” (Hughes). I feel like these two quotes give some insight into a people pleaser’s mind  and how complex it is because he went from pleasing everybody by pretending to be saved to crying about lying to everybody that he got saved and let his aunt push the narrative that he was crying because he saw Jesus, which was ironic. While reading this story, it really […]

The story “Araby” by James Joyce is about a little boy who has a crush on this girl, he decides to buy something for her but it didn’t go as what he expected. The meaning of the story overall is everything that you want may not be what you intended to be. In my perspective, I had always had situations in which the outcome wasn’t planned to happen.

In the story of ” Araby” by James Joyce it was around the young boy and his friend’s sister. Like how he promised that his friend’s sister whom he was attracted that he will bring gift for her from Araby bazaar. Firstly, he was just thinking about Mangan’s sister but now he started thinking about the Araby bazaar.He was so excited to go there and see because according to his thinking he thought that bazaar would be big and fancy. But one day when he went there he get disappointed by looking at the bazaar because that place normal. So, his feelings got hurt. I personally linked to this story. I ordered one dress from India. In the picture the dress looks so beautiful and pretty. SO, I ordered without even thinking of a second. When that dress arrived. Then I got disappointed because in the picture it looks good but not in real. It means when things are not upto are expectations we always get hurt,

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.

James Joyce’s story “Araby” tells a story of a boy who goes to a Bazaar named Araby hoping to buy a girl he likes a gift. Though he paints a picture of the Bazaar as a magnificent place, his actual experience there is unimpressive. The story illustrates how growing up can be frustrating and demoralizing, and how occasionally the things we truly want don’t live up to our expectations. It’s about knowing that our dreams and realities differ at times and yet yearning for something greater. I personally can relate to this because it’s similar to recalling an occasion when you had a strong need for something and, when it arrived, it didn’t meet your expectations. It’s about realizing that our expectations need to be adjusted because life doesn’t always turn out the way we had hoped.

Going through young life in a daze, consumed by a love that doesn’t make sense and making unsound decisions that are regretted later… it sounds a great deal like my years in high school! For that reason — and because I’ve been a rather insular person for as long as I can remember, unlike little Langston in “Salvation”‘s scenario — I personally relate to the speaker of “Araby”. Besides the obvious justification that is “lack of a name making projection easier”, I remember having an obsession with a particular piece of fiction (too particular to elaborate on, my Internet history is semi-public and fully embarrassing) that rewrote my pubescent brain in precisely the wrong place at the wrong time. It led me to choose a Media Arts major at *Brooklyn Technical H.S.*, a choice that I only refrain from mentally hitting myself for today because I was book-smart, but street-dumb. Truly, every course that I took and didn’t do well in, as “I wished to annihilate the tedious intervening days” that stood between me and maladaptive daydreaming that bordered on idolatry, “converged in a single sensation of life for me”. My own chalice brimmed with misguided, derivative creative expression in a world of starving artists. Not to say that it was wrong of me to talk that talk, it’s an admirable hill to try to conquer — I just couldn’t walk the walk of the actual “work put into art besides the ideas” and died on it, unfortunately. This all links back strongly to what I wrote about myself in Week 1, really; I suppose without very much time alive, this can happen. I can’t say that I don’t enjoy recalling my life as a well-pared short story, though.

In the narration of “Salvation” by Langston Hughes, I related to him also as a kid in church expecting a miracle or Jesus to arrive. During my childhood to teen years my mother had me attend church most Sundays. So I’m familiar with the atmosphere within a church. To point out Langston Hughes gave a good description of what happens in church. “A great many old people came and knelt around us and prayed, old women with jet black faces and braided hair, old men with work-gnarled hands”(Hughes). A sight and experience that I have seen and felt many times. Being surrounded in church with hands placed on you, everyone praying asking Jesus to touch you. The feeling of waiting for something to happen, waiting to feel something different, waiting to see Jesus right in front of you. Its a feeling that I have also felt like the narrator. As a kid its hard to really feel or believe in what you can’t see or really understand.

In what way do you personally relate to the young narrator in “Salvation” or “Araby?” I personally relate to “Salvation” , All the pressure come up for him, because he believed on his aunt and all the elder’s lie. He was embarrassed for the naive, he was mad on the traitor of god ‘Westely’,and he was sitting on the chair and acting like a man who was just meet with the god. In my hometown China, I was “saved” too. There is hundreds temple, every new year we will went in to the temple and blow the candle to try to having good luck for next year. My mother, she told me when i light up the candle, I will meet with gods, they will tell me how will the life go on correctly. Every child were exciting for the meet with god, that will represent them are the “Choice”,that mean god chose them to be the future. I didn’t meet with god, but I lied, like Langston, We have no choice but to accept the cruel reality.

In the story salvation I personally relate to Langston. I relate to Langston because in the story he has a very naive understanding of his religion. He takes everything literally and at face value. In the story the author mentions that Langston is around the age of 13 when the incident of him being saved took place. I also was “saved” around the same age and i also had the same view as Langston. I thought that being saved was a massive sacred holy event where i would really be meeting god. After the entire ceremony took place I was disappointed that I felt the same way as before the event took place. Growing up I also heard a lot about peoples experiences with being saved and i was confused on why i felt like i didn’t get the same experience similar to Langston.  As i grew older and now looking back I realized how silly it was taking everything I was hearing so literally.

One way I personally relate to the young narrator in “Salvation” or “Araby?” was when he was excited the whole week to go to the fair and was expecting it to be something super big and grand, and overall had high expectation just for all those expectations to be let down on the day he was supposed to go on the fair. It reminds me of when I was smaller and would ask my mom or dad to buy me like a toy or candy when they came back from work or the store, and they would say okay. So, the whole day I was super excited and made plans of what I was going to do with my new toy. But when they came home, they said they forgot to get it and then just like the narrator at the end of the story I was sad, angry and disappointed.

I  can relate to the young narrator’s journey through the intense pressure to conform to societal or familial expectations, the confusion of navigating one’s own beliefs amidst those pressures, and the profound sense of loss that comes with the realization that faith cannot be forced. The story captures a pivotal moment of innocence lost and the painful but necessary transition into personal understanding and skepticism. It’s a poignant reflection on the complexities of growing up, challenging authoritative narratives, and the quest for personal truth. This narrative can resonate with anyone who has faced the difficult passage from childhood innocence to the more nuanced understanding of adulthood, where beliefs and truths are often more complicated than they seem. Salvation serves as a poignant exploration of faith, the journey towards self-awareness, and the realization that personal beliefs and truths are complex and often diverge from those around us. It’s these universal themes of growth, disillusionment

Breaking beliefs is soul crushing, especially when it comes to people you love or thought you knew. In Langston Hues “Salvation”, this was Jesus and the holy spirit, whereas in my case, it is my mother. Growing up, I idolized her, thinking she can do no wrong and that she was the end all to be all. Even if it was a small part of the story, the boy In James Joyce’s “Araby” had to wonder what his caregiver would be like when they walked through the door due to a lack of sobriety. I relate to this strongly as my mother shares the same affliction as his uncle. In truth, I relate to the young boy in “Araby” in the same way that his perception of people and situations do not work out in his favor when he so badly hoped they would. I too would constantly put others on a pedestal and create perceptions of them when they never had my best interest in mind. When I finally defined what kind of emotional stress my mother was putting me through and decided to set real boundaries, I reacted similarly to Hues in “Salvation”. Surprisingly, it was more cathartic than I expected