In the short story, “Salvation” written by Lancaster Hughes, young 12-year-old boy Hughes recalls a time in which he was “saved” from sin. As his aunt Reed had described to him when one was saved by Jesus, one would see a “light” and would “feel” Jesus in their soul. As young and innocent Hughes was, he expected this magical thing to happen.. literally. When the day came, Hughes witness how one by one people got up and claimed to be saved. Eventually, two boys were left sitting a young fellow named Westley, and Hughes. Westley in an urge to get it over with gets up and acts like he has been saved. To Hughes’s deception, he later noticed that he had been lied to and felt betrayed by the people he trusted most. He notices that Jesus in fact isn’t coming to save him and to satisfy everyone, he commits a “sin” and gets up and goes on to lie that he had been “saved”. The verbal irony read throughout this story is how young Hughes was supposed to be “saved” but wasn’t saved at all. Instead, he lost faith in the one thing he truly wanted to believe in more.

In the short story, “Salvation” written by Lancaster Hughes, young 12-year-old boy Hughes recalls a time in which he was “saved” from sin. As his aunt Reed had described to him when one was saved by Jesus, one would see a “light” and would “feel” Jesus in their soul. As young and innocent Hughes was, he expected this magical thing to happen.. literally. When the day came, Hughes witness how one by one people got up and claimed to be saved. Eventually, two boys were left sitting a young fellow named Westley, and Hughes. Westley in an urge to get it over with gets up and acts like he has been saved. To Hughes’s deception, he later noticed that he had been lied to and felt betrayed by the people he trusted most. He notices that Jesus in fact isn’t coming to save him and to satisfy everyone, he commits a “sin” and gets up and goes on to lie that he had been “saved”. The verbal irony read throughout this story is how young Hughes was supposed to be “saved” but wasn’t saved at all. Instead, he lost faith in the one thing he truly wanted to believe in more.