The short story Salvation is written by Langston Hughes, and the answer to the question what the difference between the narrator at the beginning of the story and the end of the story is is that he loses his faith and gains a bit of wisdom on the way. At first, he truly believed in Jesus, and he was told about all the wonderful things that would happen if he just accepted Jesus into his heart. He was told by his aunt that salvation would mean he would see and hear Jesus in his soul.
This was repeated by many people who were older than him and that reinforced his belief as these many people couldn’t possibly be lying to him.
Unfortunately for him, later in the story, after a lengthy attempt by the preacher and the church to bring him to Jesus, Jesus never came. Most of the children had already stood up and were saved except for him and Westley. Westley decided that enough was enough and stood up and was saved even though Langston knew that Westley didn’t see Jesus. This left him alone at the end and under great pressure, he decided to stand up even though he never saw Jesus just to get it over with. This is the point where he changes from being a believer to losing his faith. He is also wiser as he learns that adults lie and that something that is often repeated does not make it any more true.
