The young narrator in the story “Salvation” by Langston Hughes changed from the beginning of the story to the end. One way that this was the case is that Langston at the beginning decided to get up and lie that he had seen Jesus only because it was getting late. Later in the story, he faces guilt and penitence, even sobbing at the fact that he had lied to his aunt, that he had deceived everyone in the church. In the short story, he states that “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, that I hadn’t seen Jesus, and that now I didn’t believe there was a Jesus anymore, since he didn’t come to help me”. This quote proves that Langston was deeply affected by the guilt and penitence he held from deceiving everyone.
Daily Archives: February 13, 2022
The short story “Salvation” from The Big Sea by Langston Hughes is a reminiscence of Langston’s childhood, and an example of how social groups or individuals are able to work their way through coercion and intimidation to make them act in a way they might think is valuable, or to think in a certain way that pertains to the collective. In the beginning of the story, Langston shows himself as a hopeful and faithful thirteen year old boy, waiting to be saved by Jesus in the revival at the Reed’s church through rhythmical preachers and sermons. He was placed on the bench with all the other children his age, while seeing one by one being able to accept Jesus and to be saved. Further, Langston testified Westley, one of his friends, lying and turning over to be saved as an attempt to get out of the bench and not deal with the embarrassment of having his faith questioned. Langston himself also could not deal with the pressure from his aunt and the church which at that point were all thriving and praying for his salvation. He felt coerced, so he lied and stood up, claiming to have found Jesus. At the end of the story, we can notice that the faith and excitement are not there anymore. Langston then proceeds to cry throughout the night over the shame of lying to his aunt, and for feeling that Jesus was not there to show himself, and to save him from his sins.
At the beginning of “Salvation” by Langston Hughes, Langston was a child that listens to his Aunt and follows her words about Jesus, but as the story goes on you can see the belief really ruined him in a bad way because the trust from the heart to his Aunt result in him of suffering from believing Jesus didn’t save him. As a way that he realizes that lying can be the only way to get out of this situation, just like what Westley did ““God damn! I’m tired o’ sitting here. Let’s get up and be saved.” So he got up and was saved.” Sometimes being too serious of thing can hurt you because like Langston his in pain from the lying, as well from those pressure from”deacons and old women on their knees praying” and his the last one sitting there parsing for Jesus to show up, however, things didn’t go well. At this point, I think it is a little ironic between him and others because Langston was the last one to change but in a way of following Westley. But does it explain that God is not there? because you can’t see through inside of a person, which you can’t tell if these children saw Jesus or not.
After reading the story “The Most Handsome Drowned Man” I believe the reason why you assigned this as the first story in our course is probably because to set the tone for the rest of the stories that we will be reading in class which will most likely have some type of mystic feel to them. I thought it was interesting how the most interesting to happen in that village was a dead drowned man showing up out of the blue which means that town is one of those peaceful towns where nothing really happens. The mystic aura of some dead man showing up and yet cannot be identified adds to the mystery which is what I think the women were mostly attracted to. The women were mostly the ones imagining things up about him and were mostly why the town was influenced to be and do better, well that and the obvious fear of dying and being unidentified and forgotten. People mostly never talk ill of the dead and especially not when they are “handsome.”
In the short story “salvation” he is talking in the first-person point view. He wants to show how a huge event in his childhood has changed his life. He lied to the church, to Jesus, and to his aunt this created a feeling of guilt. He thought about being saved, but it ended up back finding him, guilt and fear started to take over him, he felt bad about what he did. He changed and showed us how the pressure an adult can have on a child can cause so much damage to the one who is not aware of what is exactly going on. This affected him because he realized what he had done, and it resulted in his belief that Jesus does not exist because he didn’t help him. HUges salvation was not what he was expecting to be as an adult he realizes that it is all up to the person and how they interpret the notion of salvation.
The narrator in this story is Langston and his perspective regarding “being saved” varies throughout his experience. Initially, Langston is very excited about the idea of becoming ‘saved’. It’s been described to him as joyous, internal awakening and his Aunt Reeds excitement becomes infectious, making Langston very excited about having said experience. During the revival, the narrator view shifts and gives us the perspective from the other youth on the bench, the congregation, his Aunt Reed and ultimately back to Langston. I believe this is done to give us an idea of how excited a moment this is for various people throughout the church, but to also give us the idea of how large an audience Langston is having this experience with. It’s a lot for any kid to take in, especially one who is confused and on the spot. By the end, Langston seemed embarrassed and just went along with things so he didn’t embarrass himself further. Later he was disappointed because he wasn’t truthful with the congregation. He went from being very excited to disappointed by the end.
While there was nothing specific about the story, that made me pause and wonder why the reading was assigned, nonetheless I’m glad it was. It was a very nice and easy, dreamy read and that could be reason enough, it’s just a pleasant story. but maybe if i had to chose a concrete idea, I noticed that the people of the village seemed a bit isolated and when they finally came across ‘someone’ new they were excited. Which is also a bit similar to today’s social interactions. Many of us have been isolated for over a year and are finally interacting with people outside of our “pods or villages”. Which I believe has made us more curious and empathetic towards one another. I think that’s also why in the story, the people of the village were so kind and doting, when it came to this unknown person. The villagers cleaned him, dressed and named him which humanized him more.
“Salvation” was written by Langston Hughes. The story of Hughes’ faith crisis is told in the article. Hughes, who is “going on thirteen” at the time, attends a church revival with his Auntie Reed. He expects to see Jesus at the revival because the adults in his life have told him that he will. Hughes goes through a variety of emotions, but he eventually lies and claims to have seen Jesus. The “waves of rejoicing” have a profound effect on him, and he sobs alone in his bed for the final time in his life that night. This encounter devastated Langston’s beliefs; he felt differently at the beginning of the story than he did at the end. He was perplexed as to why, if there was a God, he had not been saved. He cited Despite the chaos, Hughes responded, “And I kept waiting serenely for Jesus, waiting, waiting, but he didn’t come.”
The way that I see how the narrator has changed from the beginning of the story to the end is on how much more mature he has become. The narrator Langston Hughes starts off in the reading by not caring so much about the people around him and only really caring about himself and making sure what he did was good for him, but through out the reading you start to realize he is understanding more and more that what he is doing and the lies he is saying is not good for him and that it is not going to be good when his family finds out the truth. A quote that really stood out to me from the reading stated that “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, that I hadn’t seen Jesus, and that now I didn’t believe there was a Jesus anymore, since he didn’t come to help me.” this quote to me showed that he was being a little more understanding of what he was doing and that he was slowly ready to own up to what he did and just come out with the truth.
