Attina Zhao Discussion 10

My essay is about Langston Hughes’ “Salvation” and how the adult narrative voice serves to highlight the youth of the narrator and the significance of his lie. Though I had not considered it before, looking at secondary sources will help to bring a new aspect into my essay: how the author’s actual life and own identities may have influenced their writings. For example, from “Salvation” one can infer that Hughes was not a religious man, due to the ending in which he professes a lack of belief in Jesus, for He had not come at a time of need. However, looking through the Gale in Context site, I was able to find a biography, and an essay on a conference about Langston Hughes and his works. Through connecting the biography of his life and the time-frame that “Salvation” was written, one can deduce more through what the author had experienced in their life to influence their works. Similarly, the conference essay has information about what historians were able to piece together from Hughes’ life, or rather, the pieces that they were able to glean, as evasive as he proved to be.