Yearly Archives: 2022

The short story ‘’The Lesson’’ by Toni Cade Bambara brought me many reflections of my childhood, as I also grew up very financially limited, and in an emerging country. Therefore, as a child I’d usually get upset for not understanding why I could not have the toys I’d seen on the TV advertisements, or at my trips to the mall with my mom. However, as time passed and I started to enter my teenager years, my family started to grow financially and we could finally afford the things we wanted. Based on that, from all the eight kids that Miss Moore had taken on the toy store, the ones that called my attention and that I was able to emphasize the most were Mercedes and Sugar.  Mercedes presented herself as someone who had a different lifestyle from the other teenagers. She was the only one who had a studying space with a desk, and stationary itens on a box. Also, Mercedes didn’t seem surprised by the price tag on the toys, instead she seemed hopeful that she would have money enough to come back and pick something for herself as a birthday gift. In addition, Mercedes seemed to be the only one who did not understand the purpose that Miss Moore was trying to reach by taking them to the store, and the reason for that is because she was financially privileged enough to not need to.  Meanwhile, Sugar seemed to be the most upset about the prices, or on the fact that her family was not financially able to provide such things for her. Sugar manifested her incomprehension about wealth and social inequality as rage towards Mercedes, the system and Miss Moore. Moreover, one could argue that the reason why Sugar resented Miss Moore so much was a way […]

After visiting the FAO Schwarz toy store, Mercedes loved it. She stated that she had a desk at home for doing her homework compared to other students. So, she felt at home in the FAO toy store. Mercedes is different from the others because she wants to be like the rich, the price tags meant nothing to her or what they represented about America. All she wants is to come back with her birthday money to buy herself a new toy. Miss Moore on the other hand is a college-educated woman who came to live in a poor neighborhood of New York. She took the children to the FAO store to expose them to various issues and way of life. She is teaching the children about the larger community and the problems that African Americans and poor people face in the world. When going to the FAO store she challenged the children to think about what they saw like the prices on the toys and to question the status quo. She shows the children that wealth and race are linked, and that white people and African American people are different. She discusses with the students how much things cost, what their parents earn and the unequal division of wealth. Both characters understand what things cost and how people are treated unequal. Mercedes knows that she wants to live the rich life, to be like the white people and Miss Moore is an educated woman that knows what this other life consists of.  Miss Moore is encouraging the children to question the inequality in the world around them.  

Silvia and Mercedes are strong contrasts in Toni Cade Bambara’s short story “The Lesson.” They are children in the temporary care of Miss Moore, a college-educated black woman with proper speech who desires to impart a lesson on the injustices of the economic system by taking them and four other children to FAO Schwartz, which is an expensive toy store. Silvia hates Miss Moore since she forces her into these lessons instead of enjoying her summer vacation. In contrast, Mercedes doesn’t seem to be very bothered by these lessons and seems to enjoy the outing. When they arrive at the toy store, they see all sorts of expensive toys in the window, from a 35 dollar clown to a 1,195 dollar sailboat. Silvia’s reaction to what she sees ranges from disbelief to disgust at the prices. It is all very alien to her upbringing since she is used to being poor, and she wondered what kind of people could afford to spend that much on toys. Even the least expensive item would be far beyond what is expected and could buy many things like bunk beds and a visit to family in the country along with the money for rent and some change for piano fees. She also feels jealousy and anger when she sees her friend Sugar run her fingers along with the very expensive sailboat, although she doesn’t know who to direct these feelings. When Miss Moore asks everyone what they learned from the visit, Silvia is defiant and doesn’t say anything. She also tries to silence her friend Sugar when she says that it costs less to feed everyone in their group for a year than what it costs for the sailboat. In the end, despite her resistance to Miss Moore’s teachings, her emotions are disquieted by […]

The two characters from “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara would be Sugar and Sylvia. These two characters response to the experience they had at the FAO Schwarz store were very different. Sugar’s first response at the FAO toy store was whether or not stealing was a viable option at the location. But before long she came to a realization that the price tags set up in the store for a toy was able to feed an entire family of 6-7 for a year, and this struck her hard as not everyone had the opportunity to get a cut out of the promised “equal opportunity” that democracy has offered. Sylvia on the other hand, was still hung up on the idea of the four dollars she was able to get and still didn’t seem to pick up the unfairness of society and was content with what she had in her little town.

The Lesson, by Toni Cade Bambara, depicts a scene of a group of kids from Harlem who are taken to f F.A.O Schwarz by Miss Moore, an educated woman who teaches kids in Harlem. Sylvia is a rebellious girl who has resentment for Miss Moore. Sylvia also seems to know more about inequality than the rest of the group. When they arrived at the toyshop, Sylvia is shocked at how expensive the toys are. Sylvia talks about how there are better ways to spend money and she cannot justify spending the amount of money on toys. Immediately after entering the toy store, she hesitates to enter because she feels out of place. By the way Mercedes comments on the toys, it is clear that she comes from a wealthier family. She also mentioned how she has a desk, something the other kids in the group don’t have, and how she is much more comfortable with the prices at the shop. Whenever Mercedes talked about her family’s money, she would be mocked by the kids in the group. Sylvia comes from a lower class family while Mercedes comes from an upper family, and they both have opposing views on the price tags.

In the article “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, There are two characters that have different personalities and experiences when it comes to the F.O.A store. One character is Mercedes and the other is Sylvia. These two characters have both visited the F.A.O schwarz store and different ideas on how it was. The F.O.A is an expensive store that sell high priced toys. Sylvia was close to the poverty bracket and only one was surprised that there are toys that are this expensive. Sylvia was thinking about the toys and how  one toy clown was $35 and she was saying that she can do so much with that for her family like visit her grand daddy Nelson in the country. But with Mercedes she couldn’t wait to get into the store and come back to buy something with her birthday money. These 2 characters have different morals because Sylvia would want to use the money for her family when Mercedes would just want to buy toys. Mercedes was interested and asked the employees of the shop questions about the toys. As you can tell Mercedes has more money than Sylvia or Mercedes is just not responsible with money.

Sylvia was the child who had the strongest notion of money from the fact that when they were on the taxi, only she was “trying to figure out how to spend this money” that Miss Moore gave her as taxi fare. She wanted to save that money as much as possible even though her idea was not legitimate. Obviously, after they left the toy store, she was also the one who got the most angry about money being distributed to people so unfairly. It is unacceptable for her the first time in Miss Moore’s class learning a meaningful life lesson by knowing the distance between rich and poor. From $300 microscope to $1195 hand-crafted sailboat, she gradually realized she was actually at the very bottom of social economic hierarchy, to the extent where she started to doubt whether the toy store was real to them. When they finally grouped near the mailbox, unlike Sugar speaking out of the truth, she decided to carry out a more practical way to eliminate this inequality. Mercedes, on the other hand,  seemingly was the only one who learned the least from the trip. To her, it was common to visit toy stores such as FAO Schwarz. Different from other kids, she was not scared away by the outrageous toy price. Instead, the only thing she cared about was whether she liked that sailboat or not because “My father’d buy it for me if I wanted it.” The action of buying a luxury toy can be done in the moment to ask parents, which all other kids can never imagine in their childhood. The meaning of this trip for her was nothing more than knowing another toy shore where she can pick up one toy on her next birthday. However, I am curious about what […]

I think Sugar’s reaction to being in the Toy Store was very interesting. She understood why Miss Moore brought them there, to show them the difference between their lives, and the people who could spend money like that on these luxury toys for their children. And then .Q.T., who seems to probably be the youngest out of the group, has this innocence about him. He seems excited about the toy boat, and asks if it’s for children to play with. Not really seeming to catch on to the price until the older kids start talking about it.

These two characters Sylvia and Sugar from “The Lesson” stood out the most to me because of their differences. When Miss Moore asked the kids what did they learn today, both of their attitudes were different after the visit to the FAO Schwarz toy store. Sugar actually learned something like equality, when she says ” equal chance to pursue happiness means an equal crack at the dough” (6). Sugar for me is saying that there’s no equality, that the system is broken and needs fixing to become a fair system, and Sylvia didn’t nor did she want to learn and for that Sylvia is the government for me, they hear people like Sugar and find it annoying, heard it and won’t make a change. This was just a toy store visit but you can tell that Miss Moore was trying to teach the kids more about how money is being spent when it could feed families and Sugar was one of the kids that learned and a realization of rich versus poor.

In the article “the lesson” is teaching these kids a lifelong lesson if they want to do better for themselves in the future. Ms.Moore comes into these kids’ lives and tries to show them to make a difference in the future if you want to live a life like this you have to work for it. Sylvia is one of the characters in the story, she feels some type of way when Ms. Moore brings them into the Fao Schwartz store because she feels like it is way out of what they can afford or league as I should say. At the end of the story, Sylvia slowly starts to see why Ms. Moore brought them into the store she realizes that she has a choice the choices were either she can stay be unsatisfied with what ms more did for them or she can do something to make a change in the future so they won’t have to keep living the way they are living. Sugar is another young lady from the story she learns from Ms.Moore right away unlike Sylvia, Sugar basically learned that they can also be successful and experience happiness just like these people in any way.

“The Lesson” consists of a story of when a group of youngsters is brought to an expensive toy store by Miss Moore in an attempt to start them thinking about the inequalities of the world. Sylvia, the young narrator, responds to Miss Moore’s lesson with derision. She is a stubborn one, who is angered by both the audacity of this woman, to bring them to a store so clearly out of their league, and by her own response to it. One can clearly see that the lesson that Miss Moore was trying to instill was right at her fingertips, with how she said that the price of that sailboat “pisses [her] off,” and how she didn’t dare to touch it. By the end of the trip, she is upset at how she’s beginning to realize the lesson that Miss Moore was trying to teach, with how resistant she was in the beginning and how much she dislikes Miss Moore. Sugar initially was a cohesive unit with Sylvia. The majority of her mentions in the story up until the very end are always with Sylvia saying “me and Sugar,” as if they were two peas in a pod. When Sylvia hesitates to open the door to the store, she steps aside for Sugar to do it, but Sugar hesitates as well. When looking at the sailboat, Sylvia is angered by the opulence, and the fact that Sugar is able to touch it when she can’t. However, at the end it takes a competitive note after Sugar betrays Sylvia in a sense by “pushing [her] off her feet like she never done before” and replying to Miss Moore’s question by telling her what she wanted to hear. Sugar seems to reject Miss Moore’s teachings to pander to upset Sylvia, though.

Miss Moore takes the children to the F.A.O. Schwarz toy store in Toni Cade Bambara’s “The Lesson.” This was a high-end toy store, and she was curious to see how the kids felt about it. Sylvia and Mercedes are the two characters I’m going to compare in this narrative, which takes place in Harlem, New York. Mercedes differs from the other characters in that she appears to be mature than the other children in the narrative. Mercedes appears to have the financial means to purchase such pricey items, and she even claims that her parents would buy her anything if she asked for it. Mercedes also seems to have more comprehension than the other kids due to her social status even though she still lives in a poor neighborhood. Meanwhile, Sylvia recognizes and is irritated that individuals can buy these toys for the sheer joy of them, but her parents can do several things for the same cash. Miss More had given them a crucial lesson about social status and where they were in society in comparison to people who could buy those expensive toys, but Sylvia refused to accept it. This reading also emphasizes that miss Moore is attempting to persuade the kids too take action that will have a positive impact on society. This would necessitate they’re standing out and speaking up, to be unique.          

It seems that Sugar and Sylvia are having an almost identical experience discovering F.A.O. Schwartz. At first, when looking in the storefront window, they are loud and silly and excited about the fancy toys. Then, when it is time to enter the store, they both became shy and insecure. Once they are inside, they are still unsure of themselves and clumsily bump into each other. The author notes that the girls would have usually found this funny, but they are too stunned by the prices of the toys in the store. At this point, Sugar and Sylvia start to respond differently. Sugar, fascinated with an incredibly expensive sailboat, begins touching it, which makes Sylvia very upset. The author shows anger building steadily inside Sylvia, and she tries not to acknowledge it. Sylvia seems as though she is somewhat aware of the inequality that exists and resents it being brought to her attention. Sugar, on the other hand, seems as though she is just starting to see it for the first time. When Sugar finally speaks about the unfairness out loud, Sylvia Is “disgusted with Sugar’s treachery” and walks off. When Sugar catches up to Sylvia, she is excited about going on a little spree with the four dollars they have, whereas Sylvia finally decides to think about what she learned and resolves to face the challenges ahead.

In the short story “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, the narrator gives the reader insight into children who grew up in poverty and how their perspective changes when traveling to an expensive toy store.  In the beginning, the narrator Sylvia is a smart, rebellious child who doesn’t like Miss Moore because of her proper speech. Sylvia refuses to listen to anyone but herself because she’s big on independence.When Miss Moore brings Sylvia to the toy store she hesitates to walk in .“So I and Sugar turn the corner where the entrance is, but when we got there I kinda hung back”. Sylvia and Sugar were uncomfortable being in a new environment. Sylvia started questioning the prices of the toys and realized that amount of money could buy her family more things. Sylvia tried to make the other children misbehave but they were more interested in the $1000 toys which made her mad. When Sylvia arrives home she reflects on her day after learning about economic inequality. Sylvia refused to accept that Miss More had taught them an important lesson about social class and where they stand in society from other who could afford those expensive toys. Miss Moore was described as this serious educated woman, who teaches children in Harlem. She and a group of students went on a trip to Fifth Ave. Most of the students did not like Ms.Moore in the beginning. One student that popped out to her was Sylvia and they both did not get along. When they arrive at the toy store Miss More questions the students on “What things cost and what their parents make and how money ain’t divided right in this country”. The students believed she was doing this in a way to be funny. Ms Moore uses this method to […]

In Toni Cade Bambara’s short story “The Lesson,” the narrator provides insight into a child’s knowledge of his or her own poverty through several people.  Mercedes, who comes from a somewhat more fortunate family, symbolizes a socioeconomic stratum in whom hope is not a luxury. For her, the situation is less vexing because, as revealed by her reactions, her financial circumstances are marginally better than those of the other characters. It is insufficient to evict her from their neighborhood, but it has a significant effect on how she views her own poverty and her chances of receiving a toy from FAO Schwarz.  Sylvia, the narrator, is less positive. She is a bright young lady who is quick on her feet and appears to have a very realistic view on life. That said, the happiness of not having the most painful aspects of reality thrust in one’s face is always sweet, which is why she is somewhat fed up with the forced reality check that visiting the toy store represents for her. She is enraged at everything and everyone because, more than any of her pals, she understands the unfairness of it all. Being confronted with such disadvantages in life is a tremendous burden to bear at the age of 12.

“The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara is about Miss Moore taking children on a trip to the F.A.O. Schwarz toy store.  The children live in poverty. This was an expensive toy store and she wanted to see the outcome of the children’s view on it. Mercedes had a different approach and view on the store. When asked what she thought about it, she said she would want to return with her birthday money (Bambara). From the text, I can tell that she enjoyed it because when the other kids were not ready to go in, she squeezed in between them to go first. She had a few smart remarks like asking if the other child’s boat runs with water and that she has a stationary desk from her godmother. The readers can tell that she does not suffer from poverty like the other kids since she is able to return to the store and has things that the other children do not. On the other hand, Sylvia is the complete opposite. When seeing the clown toy that goes for $35, she thought of the things that her family can do with that much. “Thirty-five dollars and the whole household could go visit Grand-daddy Nelson in the country. Thirty-five dollars would pay for the rent and the piano bill to” (Bambara). She was stunned that people can spend so much money on toys when there are people in poverty that would use that money for more helpful things. She feels like it is not right that people are able to do that when her family and the others are struggling.

In “The Lesson” the children are all being taught by MS. Moore. Ms. Moore especially likes to make sure Sylvia is taught because she can tell that she is the leader of her little group and can influence the others. Sugar ends up being the one to answer Ms. Moore’s question about the F.A.O Schwarz store. Sylvia ends up trying to shut her up twice to make sure she don’t answer Ms. Moore because Sylvia cannot bare to give Ms. Moore the satisfaction of winning. Sylvia is too stubborn to admit what they all already know which is the economic inequity they all face. Sugar and Sylvia differ in the way that Sugar doesn’t see Ms. Moore as someone that she should defy while Sylvia will take any chance to defy her because Sylvia is prideful and won’t let no one “win” against her. Sugar on the other hand doesn’t mind and tries to at least think for herself. The girls are the same in the way that they both might think the same on some level and actually are smart enough to learn the lessons being taught by Ms. Moore.

After I read the short story “The Most Handsomest Drown Man” I think that you assigned this reading as the first story in this course to establish the tone of this course. I feel like now that we have been exposed to this new type of literature known as magical realism, there will be more readings that have a very similar feel to this one. While reading the short story, I noticed the sudden impact on the village made by the appearance of the drowned man. This impact was even more prevalent among the women of the village, as to the men of the village, the women seemed to be making the entire ordeal much more than it actually was. They even went as far as to tell them to move to the side as they prepared his body to be put back into the ocean. However, in the end, the men of the village also succumb to the impact of the drowned man as they were suddenly also overcome with a wave of compassion for him.

Toni Cade Bambara’s novel, “The Lesson,” addresses the themes of poverty and wealth. The novel’s plot revolves around   Miss Moore  (a teacher who takes her kids) to a toy store. The primary objective of the visit was to find out kids’ reactions to wealth and poverty. Even though the kid’s displayed different reactions, Sylvia and her best friend sugar had an almost similar experience. After completing their visit, the children take the subway home, where Sylvia thinks about her experiences at the store. Sylvia was taken away by the clown bearing a price tag of $35. The kid was amazed that a single person could purchase a  birthday clown worth too much. In her real world, Sylvia notes that $35 could afford her entire family a visit to Grandpa, pay rent and the piano bill (p.6). The latter exposure leaves Sylvia wondering why some people have so much money while her family and friends have none. Sylvia’s experiences at the toy store are vibrant in connecting her childhood to the poor distribution of wealth and poverty. In addition to exposing her to unequal distribution of wealth, Sylvia is seen questioning Miss Moore’s ideology that poor people should not remain poor but rebel against their social status quo. Sylvia’s experience at the toy store is similar to Sugar’s. Despite having different opinions about items sold at the toy shop, the two girls agree that the prices indicate that their country is not democratic since some people earn too much. In contrast, others can hardly pay for their rent. For instance, Sylvia notes that the price of a clown can afford her family many things. Likewise, Sugar is surprised by Sylvia’s comment that the cost of a sailboat could feed all the children in a year (p.6-7).

The lesson by Toni Cade Bambara is a narrative about children who, with the help of their teacher, learn a lesson about the social problems of society. The reader can see that children live in a bubble, not comprehending the daily challenges they and their parents must endure. Nevertheless, even after the trip to the expensive toy store, the children have different responses to such experiences. Sylvia, the narrative’s main character and narrator, is a young Black girl. She is a defiant youngster who takes pleasure in her individuality. Sylvia also struggles with rage, and it is first aimed towards the teacher, Miss Moore. However, as the story continues, she starts to better comprehend the teacher’s lessons on economic injustice and discrimination. The girl recognizes that specific individuals are prosperous while others, such as her own relatives, struggle. The last phrase of Sylvia can be quite meaningful: “But ain’t nobody gonna beat me at nuthin” (Bambara 96). It could mean that after the trip to the toy store, Sylvia will fight for her comfort and well-being in the future. Thus, the excursion was mind-changing, and Sylvia started to divert her rage away from Miss Moore and against the affluent toy store consumers. Sugar is Sylvia’s companion, and she is almost the complete opposite of her friend in the end. She and Sylvia appear to share the same interests and opinions at first, even their dislike for Miss Moore. However, Sugar begins to drift away from Sylvia as the novel progresses. It is initially seen when she touches the plastic sailboat at FAO Schwarz and subsequently when she speaks up on what she learned on the excursion to the toyshop. However, while Sylvia’s anger prevents her from successfully understanding and vocalizing her concerns, Sugar is ready to comprehend Miss Moore’s teaching […]

In ”The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, the themes that the story develops are appearance, fairness, social class, embarrassment, and education. The story unfolds through a young African-American woman named Sylvia. Sylvia is a restless and very stubborn young woman who wants to take her life into her own hands. Although Sylvia has a very special character, despite stealing Miss Moore’s money, she has a good analytical mind and a strong sense of justice. This is reflected in her anger at the unequal treatment of the toy store and her comments about her mother taking advantage of Aunt Gretchen. The worst thing about her is that she’s always quick to criticize other people’s faults, but she seems to be particularly concerned with gullibility and hypocrisy. In ”The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, Mercedes’ character is one of the children of the Harlem community that Miss Moore decides to accept as her protection. This role shows that she has more understanding and maturity than other children. Also, she behaves differently than others. According to Mercedes’ comments, her situation is somewhat encouraging because, unlike the other characters, her financial situation is a bit better.  

In the short story “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, the narrator allows insight into the realization of a child’s own poverty through various characters. One character, Mercedes, who has a somewhat more fortunate background represents a social class where hope is not a luxury. For her, the situation is less angering because, as we can learn through her reactions, her financial situation is slightly more fortunate than the rest of the characters’. It is not enough to get her out of their neighborhood but it still sufficiently affects the way she views her own poverty and her possibilities of getting a toy from FAO Schwarz. The narrator, Sylvia, however, is less optimistic. She is a smart girl, quick on her feet and seems to have a rather realistic understanding of life itself. That being said, the bliss of not having the most sorrowful parts of reality rubbed in one’s face is always sweet, therefore she is rather fed up with the forced reality check that having to visit the toy store is for her. She is angry at everything and everyone because, odds are, she understand the unfairness of it all more than any of her friends. Facing such disadvantage at life itself is a beyond heavy weight to have to carry around at 12.

Sylvia, the narrator, is hesitant to walk into the FAO toy store just from taking a glance at the prices of certain toys. “I could see me asking my mother for a $35 birthday clown…you wanna who that costs what? she’d say”. This quotes demonstrates the fact that Sylvia’s mother wouldn’t even think about buying a toy for that much money. Sylvia continues to lists things that could be bought for the price of $35, things that are more important than a toy such as bunk beds, rent, and bills. She is shocked that people would buy toys that cost so much money. On the other hand, Mercedes seemed to enjoy the trip to the toy store and even states she would like to revisit when she gets her birthday money. Unlike Sylvia, Mercedes seems to have the privilege to be able to afford such expensive toys and even states that her parents would by her anything if she asks for it. Which is why Sylvia and Mercedes had different experiences while in the toy store.

The story takes place in what some people might call the projects or the gusto but, in this case, it’s called the Slum by Miss Moore. Miss. Moore starts and finishes by telling them “What things cost and what their parents make and how money ain’t divided right in this country” which is already part of the lesson Miss. Moore is trying to come across. I feel that Miss. Moore kept an eye on Sylvia the most than Sugar, Junebug, Flyboy, Rosie and Mercedes because Miss. Moore wants to get the message through to Sylvia, plus Sylvia is the one who influences Sugar and the other kids. When they arrived on Fifth Avenue that was when Sylvia and Sugar realized that the society, they are surrounded by is nothing like the one they live in. To me, Sylvia might have been kind of intimidated by her surroundings on Fifth Avenue that’s why she hesitated to go into F.A.O Schwarz. “So I and Sugar turn the corner where the entrance is, but when we got there I kinda hung back” that was the line that gave me the impression. Sylvia Sugar and the rest of the kids get a taste of society on Fifth Avenue, but it was missed. Moore gives them the chance to experience it for themselves. Society is often perceived as a rich and fashionable social class depending on how you want to put it, but to the characters in the story of “The Lesson” They are naive, they are experiencing something new, and it would be understandable if they didn’t get Miss. 

Langston Hughes story of “Salvation” takes place during his early childhood. This story starts when he is teenager, and he is questioning his belief in religion.  He portrays to his aunt that he is faithful and believer and desiring to be saved.  His aunt is a believer in these revivals held by the church.  He decides to attend the revival at Reed’s church by listening and taking part in all sermons and listening to the preachers taking part in the revivals. When he arrives there, he takes his place on the bench with all the other kids his age.  As he is sitting there, he sees all the other’s testifying that the been saved.  After feeling all the pressure from his aunt and the church members he stood up and declared I Have Found Jesus!  He knows he lied to his aunt and church members, but he could not handle it anymore.  In the end by forcing him to do this he fell farther away from religion and becoming an atheist.

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.

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.

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.

Langston Hughes tells how he was freed from sin for the first time but didn’t experience Jesus presence. On the last day when the children were meant to obtain salvation, he went to revival with his aunt Reed. His aunt said that if he was rescued, he would see a light that represented Jesus. The story states that “My aunt told me that when you were saved you saw a light, and something happened to you inside…” Even thought the preacher’s lecture and that others were bowing and praying for all the children to rise and be saved, Langston failed to see the light. That same night he sobbed in humility. In what ways is the young narrator different from the way he was at the beginning of the story? Because Langston’s views were disturbed by this encounter, Langston felt different how he felt at the beginning of the narrative to how he felt at the end of the story. He questioned why he hadn’t been saved if there was a God.

“Salvation” by Langston Hughes shows how the way religion is introduced can be negative or even volatile to children. While religion itself might not be harmful however, how it is introduced can define a child’s view on said religion. The way his aunt continuously reinforced how Jesus would change his life, it gave him a hope that he would actually be able to meet him instead of having faith. This causes Hughes to believe himself to be a liar and permanently gave him a negative attitude towards said religion. He was also forced to act as if he saw Jesus due to him not wanting to keep the people waiting. It also acted as a sort of coming-of-age ceremony for him as it allowed him to truthfully express his feelings. Overall, that experience allowed him to be able to be more honest with himself and also allowed him to gain his own ideas about religion.

In the beginning of the story “Salvation” by Langston Hughes. He was a young boy that trusted his aunt’s words she stated that he would be saved by Jesus she was telling him everything that he wanted to hear and he liked the sound of it, so that’s when he started to have faith in Jesus. When he entered the church his mood and also his belief changed as the night went on. He saw that everyone was getting saved besides him and the young boy named Westly. He thought lying about being saved was going to benefit him, but it ended up backfiring him. guilt and fear started to take over him he felt bad about what he did and he was scared to mention what he did because he was going to be viewed as the bad guy in the church so all he can do is cry.

In the beginning of “Salvation”, 12-year-old Langston attends a special meeting for the youth at his church and he is looking forward to being saved by Jesus, as promised by his aunt and the elders of his community. Young Langston seems to be eager to have this experience and doesn’t doubt the event will happen just as they have described it to him, as he expresses having trust in them for being wise due to their age. It then becomes apparent to young Langston, after he is the last child waiting to see Jesus, that it is not going to happen for him. He expresses feeling shame and guilt that everyone in the church is waiting and praying hard for his salvation, in vain, and eventually decides to lie that Jesus had come to him. The irony is that he was anxious for Jesus to be with him always and to join everyone else in the church who had all been saved, but he ended up feeling all alone. He describes the loneliness of spending what was supposed to be such a powerful, happy night crying alone in bed and not even being able to share the truth with his aunt.

After reading the story “The handsomest Drowned Man in the world.” I noticed that he made a big change for these vilagers after they seen him get washed up to shore. When the people realized what kind of person he was they decided to make a big change for themselves. They noticed that the man was different he had different features from the vilagers they noticed how tall he was they noticed how attractive he was and also his strength. Esteban brung positive energy to the village. I feel like the professor chose this story for the class to read is because one it is a very interesting story, and two I feel like she showing us how having power and being a great person can make a dramatic change in the world. Esteban was on of those people. he was able to make the community change their lives for the better.

We know by the language and perspective of the narrator that “Salvation” is a coming-of-age story told by an adult looking back on a painful childhood experience, which results in an epiphany. In what ways is the young narrator different from the way he was at the beginning of the story? In the short story “Salvation,” it is told from a first-person point of view as if it is taking place the same moment. Hughes wants to show how a huge event in his childhood has changed his life forever. He wanted to show what and who changed his life. His experience of being saved only caused him to be disappointed in himself. He lied to the church, to Jesus, and to his aunt and this created a feeling of guilt. He pretended to be saved and that led him to lose his faith in Jesus because he felt nothing as the others felt saved. He is different now because he learns and shows 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. As a child Hughes only got up because he became impatient for waiting on Jesus to come to him and save him. He felt that since he was the last one left, the whole church was waiting on him to be saved. He lied also because he saw God did not punish Westley for lying. This affected him after when he realizes what he had done, and it resulted in his belief that Jesus does not exist because he did not help him. Hughes salvation was not what he was expecting to be and as an adult he realizes that it is all up to the person […]

The young narrator of “Salvation” has gone through an epiphany and matured by the end of the story. He started off expectant, having been told by his aunt and elders about how Jesus coming into one’s life felt, and he was anticipating the rapturous picture that these trusted, wise adults had painted for him. However, by the end he is jaded with how his expectations were dashed, and ashamed of his lies. He is guilty for lying, exacerbated by the joy that came upon the room when “the last lamb was bought into the fold.” There is some dramatic irony involved, in which the room’s exuberance directly contrasts the fact that the narrator lied about seeing Jesus. The boy felt pressured by the congregation, and lied to please them, lest he keep “holding everything up so long.” It is a lesson on what can happen when trying to induce children into organized religion at such young ages.

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.

In the short story, Salvation, by Langston Hughes, the narrator introduces his readers to a painful and life-altering memory about religion. The story begins with young Langston being promised a new beginning, a closer relationship to God, Jesus and his faith. He mirrors the excitement of the adults around him as he looks forward to stepping into this new, pure and enlightened stage of his life along his peers and friends. However, during the actual ceremony where Jesus was supposed to come to him, Langston is left confused and disappointed. He suddenly questions his faith and starts wondering if everyone around him is only faking their piety as well. He feels ashamed of having to lie in order to bring relief to his community and to be accepted and praised by his people. His disappointment pains him to the core. Langston was allowed to gain a new understanding of the world around him through this experience, therefore his coming-of-age was successful, however it is far from what he hoped for. He is now doubtful, confused and, by growing unsure of his faith, lost.

In Salvation, Langston Hughes recounts the story of how he lost his fate, which changed him by the end of the story. In the story, 13-year-old Hughes attends a church revival with his Auntie Reed. Hughes’ Aunt told him that he will see Jesus during the revival, and he literally expected to see Jesus. You can also tell how optimistic Hughes was at the beginning by the way he adds exclamation points in his writing. Hughes was sitting there at the church with a group of people, and one by one they would go up to the altar until it was just him and a boy named Westley. Eventually, Westley gives up and lies about being saved, leaving Hughes alone. Hughes by that point starts to feel ashamed of himself for holding everyone up, so he ultimately decides to lie about seeing Jesus. You can clearly see how disappointed he was. The amount of guilt he was feeling was too much for him that he cried alone in bed that night. Hughes does not only feel betrayed by Jesus, but also by his elders who lied to him. 

In Langston Hughes’ story Salvation, the author was a 12 to 13-year-old boy who was inspired by his aunt’s remarks. His aunt was always bragging about how Jesus rescues everyone and how inspirational her remarks about Jesus were. Langston wished to be saved by Jesus himself after hearing these words of magnificence. Langston was a devout follower of Jesus at the time, but after a period of attempting to persuade Jesus to save him, he developed a profound hatred for him since he couldn’t understand why Jesus didn’t save him while saving everyone else. As a result, the behavior change in the beginning of the story vs. the end of the story was that he was excited to see what Jesus would do and was happy, but in the end of the story, when he lied to everyone by saying that Jesus saved him when he wasn’t saved, he became a lier and felt bad about himself deep down. When Langston didn’t receive salvation from Jesus, he began to doubt his faith.

Langston Hughes explained that he was first saved from sin without actually feeling the presence of Jesus. On the last day, the children were supposed to receive salvation, he went to the revival with his aunt Reed. His aunt told him that if he was saved, she would see the light that symbolized Jesus. Having said that, she sat there waiting to look at the lights. While the preacher was preaching very well and everyone else was crying, kneeling, and praying for all the children to rise and receive salvation, Langston did not see the light of day. Most of the kids got up and were saved, except him and his friend Westley, who finally got up because he was tired of sitting there, not because he felt Jesus. After Westley woke up, Langston was the last child not to be redeemed, though his aunt continued to pray for him. That made him feel ashamed, he thought that he could do the same as Westley since he didn’t get scolded for lying. That night, he wept with shame. His aunt thought his tears were the Holy Spirit coming into his life, but he wept because he had not only deceived himself but his aunt and the congregation. He felt that if there was a God, why not come and save him, which made Langston question his beliefs.

In the story Salvation by Langston Hughes the author was a 12 year old kid going on to 13 who was inspired by the words of his aunt. His aunt was always talking about how Jesus saves everyone and how her words about Jesus were so great. When Langston was hearing these words of greatness, Langston wanted to be saved by Jesus himself. During this time Langston believed in Jesus so much but after a while trying to get Jesus to save him he felt that deep hateness because he was confused on why Jesus didn’t save him but is saving everyone else. Therefore the behavior change in the beginning of the story vs the end of the story was that he was excited to see what Jesus would do and was happy but in the end of the story when he lied to everyone by saying that Jesus saved him but in reality he didn’t get saved, so when he told that lie he become a lier and felt bad about himself deep down. When Langston didn’t get saved by Jesus he questioned his beliefs.

At the beginning of “Salvation” by Langston Hughes, he uses imagery to make readers picture a young boy named Lanston attending a church revival to be saved by Jesus. His aunt told him to be saved, you must see light. Lanston couldn’t wait to get saved like all the young people in the church. As time passed he got anxious about seeing Jesus. He lied about being saved to avoid embarrassment. The irony is Lanston begins crying and his aunt believes it’s the “holy spirit”. When in reality it’s guilt from sinning. Lanston lies about being saved to his aunt to avoid feeling shame from those who had been saved. In the end, Lanston questioned his belief on if Jesus is real and why he hadn’t been saved by Jesus. Hughes’ message is we shouldn’t force religion on children; the pressure can affect a child. Causing them to lose faith in Jesus. 

Religion in the Poetry of Langston Hughes,” Mary Beth Culp addresses several long-running themes that she asserts are a significant and typical feature of the way Hughes views and presents religion. Religion was an inherent part of the black experience in Hughes’ perspective, yet Hughes himself was a seemingly a-religious man, who led to a complex and multifaceted understanding of religion as both a means of indoctrinating and anesthetizing the masses of African Americans, and a means of providing security, community, and hope to this population. in “Salvation,” this mixed quality of religion is quite clearly seen, with the young Hughes at the center of the story happily waiting for Jesus and at the same time bitterly disillusioned by his absence. Religion does provide hope, and for the characters around Hughes such as his aunt it provides an avenue for fulfilling hopes and providing connection, but ultimately Hughes sees this as a false hope built by a people willing to fool themselves if it means not facing the truth. By reading this story I realize that the black culture and social experience, have a great connection to Africa because as a Haitian I experienced religious manipulation when I was in Haiti.

“Salvation” by Langston Hughes shows how 12-year-old Langston changes from the beginning of the story to the end. In the beginning, he believed his aunt that when you are saved, many great things happen to you. The author included many exclamation points when describing what his aunt was saying. I feel like this enhanced how positive she was about Jesus saving you. You are able to see a light and you would feel Jesus with you after that (Sharpe). He believed this so much that when he was waiting to get called, he expected all these great things to happen. Langston saw everyone get saved and was the only one who hadn’t. He saw someone he was sitting next to get up, but Langston knew that the boy hadn’t gotten saved either.  He eventually got up to pretend to be saved by Jesus. Langston lied and pretended because he felt ashamed and didn’t wanna get in more trouble. This made Langston feel guilt and brought him to tears that night. He stopped believing in Jesus because he didn’t come to help him. At the end of the story, you can see that he definitely doesn’t feel positive about getting saved, he feels sad and betrayed.

In the narration “Salvation”, Langston Hughes experiences an epiphany that changes him. In the beginning, he believed in the possibility of God and hoped to get saved during the big revival at his aunt’s church. He expected to see a light when he received salvation (Sharpe). However, by the end of the narration, Hughes no longer believes in Jesus. He gets disillusioned because he waited for Christ until he could no longer wait, yet nothing happened. On the night of the revival, Hughes cries in bed because he did not experience salvation as he had expected and hoped he would at the beginning of the story. The epiphany leads Hughes to question the existence of God. In addition to the spiritual epiphany, the narrator also realizes that adults do not always know everything. At the beginning of the narration, Hughes believed in the idea of salvation because he had heard his aunt and many other old people speak about it. He trusted that he would experience the coming of Jesus exactly as the adults had narrated. By the end of the day, he realized that adults were not always right. For instance, when his aunt heard him crying, she thought it was because he had received the Holy Spirit. The young narrator became aware of his capacity to lie to people around him just as he had deceived the people in the church.

In the beginning, the character starts out with a sense of belief in faith and is truthful. He is totally hopeful that he will see what he believes everyone else will see. Throughout, when the other boy goes up even though he did not see anything and has no consequences, the protagonist still tries to hold out hope until he realizes that he is just holding everyone up by not going up. When he finally gives in and goes up even though he sees nothing, he basically just gives up this sense of hope he has in his faith. He later ends up crying out of guilt and shame. He ends up questioning his faith because of what is said was supposed to be seen and him not seeing anything and not enduring any punishment for lying even though his faith says otherwise. He basically ends up having a crisis of faith because of said thing not happening and is too embarrassed and ashamed to tell anyone.

At first Langston was nothing more than a normal child who was curious about everything in the world, especially to something abstract like God. He genuinely anticipated the result of being saved from what his aunt told him seeing the light. As the time went by, looking at his peers saved, he started to get upset and was confused whether Jesus existed and came to save him. Then there were two factors from the outside that intensified his change, to become a person that he didn’t want to be. The people who should take the most responsibility for this change were the adults. The minister kept saying “Why don’t you come?” and his aunt knelt down and cried. They unknowingly gave pressure to Langston as if he had to be saved today. I believe the ending would be totally different if they said to Langston that’s fine and try another day. Another reason was by Westley. “God had not struck Westley dead for taking his name in vain or for lying in the temple.” Langston finally gave in and stood up, just in order to not waste time and make everyone happy. Children’s belief is naive and easy to establish that they believe all what the elders tell them is true about God. However, all the same time, once their faith was destroyed, they probably would have trauma that never comes back again. At the end, Langston cried hard at night, and I believed that’s when real salvation happened because he felt guilty for blasphemy. Unfortunately, he didn’t believe in Jesus anymore. 

In the beginning of the story, Langston starts off his church experience with a sense of innocence,  and nervousness, or excitement. He sees everyone celebrating seeing Jesus, and him coming to them. He’s almost anticipating it happening for a moment. Until his friend is sick of just sitting there being watched as people waited for them to join, and decided to lie. I think in that moment, Langston lost all that innocence. Because Jesus wasn’t coming to him, and he’s sitting there alone, hoping that he will come, but his friend just started pretending and faced no consequences of that. That innocence, and hope and belief that there was a God left him.

I believe Professor Conway assigned “The Most Handsome Drowned Man,” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez as the first story for a few different reasons. One of the reasons would be due to the enthralling setting revolving around a dead man. This story was able to bring about a lot of discussion between the different analogies each student was able to come up with. Another reason would be the fact that this story was able to not only bring about imaginations to the villagers in the story, it also riled the entire class up with our own imaginations and stories. These are the reasons why I believed that Professor Conway assigned “The Most Handsome Drowned Man,” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez as the first story of our semester together.

The story’s beginning exposes readers to a young and innocent character Lanston. Langston’s aunt wants his nephew to be saved and tells him he will see Jesus once he is saved. With his aunt’s ideology, the young boy joined other young sinners who knelt in front of a congregation to be prayed for and get saved. However, to his dismay, Langston did not hear, see, or feel Jesus in his heart despite church members’ efforts to pray for him. He was convinced that the only way to be saved was by seeing Jesus. Langston ended up giving up his beliefs to save his aunt and other church members the trouble in praying for him. After getting up, the whole church cheered him, not knowing he had lied. That night Langston was furious that he had lied to his aunt and the congregation and cried a lot. His aunt believed that he was crying because the Holy Spirit had filled his heart. However, it is ironic because  Langstone was crying because he could not stomach that he had lied. Langston had also made up his mind that Jesus does not exist.

The narrator of “Salvation” is different from the way he was at the beginning of the story compared to now because he now realizes that he lied and does not know what to believe. He also realizes that the other young teenagers who went up may have been lying saying that they were saved by Jesus/ see Jesus. I guess you can say peer pressure got to him because he was the only person who did not see Jesus. The narrator also believes at the end of the story that there is no Jesus anymore since he did not come to help him. The narrator changed simply because he says in the beginning that he “was saved by sins but not really”. He thought he was actually going to see Jesus but ended up not seeing him and lying about it. That makes him think if everyone is lying about if there is a Jesus or not.

Langston Hughes’s “Salvation” begins with a twelve-year-old Langston delighted to be saved by Jesus. According to Langston’s aunt, when you were rescued, “you saw a light and something happened to you on the inside!” Langston believed his aunt and the stories he had heard from others about what happened to those who are saved. He waited peacefully in the church for Jesus to approach him. Langston waited a long time to see Jesus, and he stood there and watched as all the young people rose to their feet and were saved. He was the final person remaining who waited for Jesus to come and save him, but he eventually gave up hope. He recognized he would not be saved and was embarrassed, but he rose and lied. Langston was moved to tears by the revelation that he had lied to his aunt and misled the congregation about his salvation. Langston, twelve, went from being overjoyed to be saved by Jesus to questioning whether there was really a Jesus anymore.

In the beginning of “Salvation” by Langston Hughes, twelve year old Langston was excited to be saved by Jesus. Langston’s aunt told him that when you were saved, “you saw a light, and something happened to you inside!”. Langston believed his aunt and the stories other people had about what happens to you once your saved. He calmly waited in the church for Jesus to come to him. Langston waited for a long while to see Jesus and he watched as all the young people got up and were saved. He was the last person left still waiting for Jesus to come and save him but eventually he gave up waiting. He realized he wasn’t going to be saved and felt ashamed, but he got up and lied. By the end, Langston was brought to tears by the fact that he had lied to his aunt and deceived the church, about being saved. Twelve year old Langston went from being so excited to be saved by Jesus to questioning if there even was a Jesus anymore.

In the story, the body of a drowning man turns up in a remote town by the sea. When the townspeople try to discover his identity and prepare to bury his body, they find that he is taller, stronger, and more handsome than any man they have ever met. At the end of the story, his presence influences them to make people and their own lives better than they ever imagined. I think Professor Conway chose it as something motivational since as the story tries to explain, a person has the great power to change others and give them extra inspiration. When the people of the town saw the body, at first they came to think that something so perfect, something so magnificent could not be real and they related it as something mythical, they realize that such magnificence can exist in the real world, the body drowned is proof of that. And, therefore, they aspire to that greatness themselves, and, at the same time, remain in reality.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s story “The Most Handsome Drowned Man” narrates the story of a drowned stranger who sweeps up on the shore of a tiny coastland society. The community members take good care of the dead man, with women washing mud from his hair while men embark on a journey to trace the stranger’s whereabouts. Even though the man did not deserve a ceremonial burial,  he ended up receiving a proper burial and transformed the community a great deal. The villagers decided to change their village’s name to honor the stranger. The story signifies a major theme: inspiration can come from the most unexpected sources. The primary reason the instructor assigned the story is to boost students’ morale. Regardless of the challenges they might be experiencing, they should not give up their efforts since anything and the most unexpected can make a difference in their lives. Even though  Estaban was a stranger, his unique beauty won him the villager’s attention. Likewise, the student should aim at having a distinct trait.

At the beginning the narrator felt excited to see God and be saved. At the end he got up and lie. The narrator stop to believe in God. The young narrator is different from the way he was at the beginning of the story by first feeling faith and anxious waiting and to see God to be saved but by the end felt disappointing. To the narrator childhood was painful because he was waiting to be saved by God. The narrator has accept the painful about what happened in his childhood because the narrator said that he was saved but not really. Therefore, the narrator had experienced disappointment from his childhood.He come to purpose that he finally came to terms with himself, his uncertainty, and his religion through all the doubt and pain from his childhood. His aunt thinks that Langston was crying because of the Holy Ghost. But Langston is really crying because he had to lied and deceived everyone in the church.

From the beginning of the story, Langston Hughes a young boy believed that he would see “the light” what his aunt described as “being saved” and as each of the kids goes up to the altar, he’s still waiting to see Jesus, until he was the only one left. The later it got the more anxious and devastated he got because he didn’t want to disappoint his aunt but he also wanted to be “saved”. After waiting and waiting, Hughes started thinking if nothing happened to Wesley and he didn’t see anything but walked up to the Altar anyways should he do the same? ultimately after a long wait of not seeing Jesus, he decided to give up and walk to the Altar, and say he believed. Hughes then goes on to question the existence of Jesus because he wasn’t saved by him. From the beginning, he believed in Jesus but towards the end of the story, he loses belief.    

In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s exquisite and disturbing story “The Most Handsome Drowned Man,” a significant transformation occurs in an isolated community on a seashore cape following the discovery of a beautiful drowned body. Professor Conway, I believe, chose this story as the course’s first reading because it is both inspirational and motivating. As students, we can learn to collaborate in order to improve our performance in school and on any given task. This story says that a great person possesses the ability to transform oneself and others, to inspire people to be better, and to motivate them to strive for excellence. Additionally, it demonstrates the influence such a person can have on those who admire him or her, manifesting as a drive for self-improvement. The Drowned Man, Esteban, serves as a metaphor for the villagers’ overwhelming experience. With his body washed up on the strand, the people gathered, and they collectively took on the obligation to effect change.

After reading “The Handsomemest Drownested Man in the World”, I came to the conclusion that the drowned man was a godlike figure, in size and beauty, that changed a small, mundane village to an open and rich world after the villagers gave the drowned man their own story and identity. The man arrived at the island dead, and by the end of the story, Esteban’s legends grew and had an effect on the people as well. The people vowed to transform their village someplace worthy of him, they would have to build “wider doors, higher ceilings, and stronger floors”. Esteban inspired the villagers to become better people. I think this reading was assigned to us because the class can be seen as the village in the story. And by the end of the semester, we would have grown and will have a better understanding of things we read. I enjoyed this story. In the beginning, I was immediately hooked, I wanted to know more about the drowned man and felt like I was giving more than a satisfying answer.

I believe that Marquez’s novel ”Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” is a truly captivating and curious story, which makes it easy to imagine and to build our own critiques about the magic event of Esteban, the giant drowned man. With that being said, this could be our first reading assignment because of the novel’s facility to engage and to provoke feelings on the readers. Personally, I have felt very touched by this novel and it has made me wonder a lot about how people perceive me, or why do we have the tendency to judge everything around us. It brought me to a place where I could almost feel the hurt from the women on the village, whom imagined Esteban’s whole life and emphasized with his sufferings. Moreover, it has made question so much that I started to create my own narratives to explain his life too: “What if he wasn’t handsome, would they have cared for him?”, “And if he wasn’t so big, would it still make sense? And if he was happy on the way he was?”. Well, I guess I will not have the answers and an end for my own narratives, but it was good while it lasted.

In the beautiful and haunting story “The Most Handsome Drowned Man” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a profound change takes place in a remote village on a seaside cape after a beautiful, drowned body washes to shore. I think Professor Conway has assigned this as the first story of the course because its inspiring and motivating. As students we can learn to work together to become better for ourselves and for any task at hand individually. This story argues that a great person has the power to change themselves and to change others, to inspire those to be better and to make them want to be exceptional. It also shows the effect such a person can have on those who admires him or her and manifests as a desire for self-betterment. In the story, the Drowned Man, Esteban, symbolizes an overwhelming experience for the villagers. With his body being washed away to shore, it brought the villagers to gather, and they took on the responsibility to make changes as a team.

“The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” was a great first story as introduces the idea that one singular object can change the entirety of a group of people. It also was somewhat more direct with its themes and ideas of the story, so it was easier to understand as a whole. The descriptive writing of the author really allows the reader tom take in the scenery of the village. However, the description of the body itself is in a whole league of its own. The author took his time with each individual line describing the man as to draw in the reader and actually help them visualize what the man could have looked like. I think this was chosen as a first story in order to help us as a class get a better feel for really focusing on the individual details of our work while not straying too far from the overall theme.

In the short story “The Handsomest Drowned Man” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez an entire village is impacted by the arrival of a stranger. At first sight, a floating being is nothing new or out of the ordinary, it is just another day for this town. Once discovered this being is a beautiful and sincere man who lost his life, the townsman are influenced and left with a new view on life. From the first introduction to the last moment, there is growth from both the women and the men of this community. The women did not see him as an actual person who lost their life until he was given a name, Esteban. They decided to fantasize and dream of what this man could’ve been for them opposed to the life lost and how he got to where he was. The men immediately grew a dislike due to the adoration of the townswomen and simply did not care enough about the man to even notice his sincerity and uniqueness. In the end, Esteban had his own town, a man with no words, just a face with mystery helped change the hearts of everyone. I believe the story was chosen to encourage and enlighten students to broaden their horizons. Help us learn not to judge a book by its cover too soon and try to understand the background of others before coming to conclusions. This short story demonstrates how one person can change and impact the lives of others simply with a face of sincerity and kindness.

I think professor assigned us this story “The Handsomest Drowned Man” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez as the first story because the story it seems to be a novel, and I believe this story will be similar to other assignments we will have. This story was like an imagination. When I first started to read from the beginning, I imagined a drowned man and seems to take on the shape. The children started to think that the drowned man was the enemy ship because they never have seen him. As the people of the town attempted to discover his identity and prepare his body for burial, they discover he taller, strong and more handsome than any man they ever have seen. When they thought he might be a whale, after they realize he is a drowned man, they treated him like he was from there and belongs there. By the end of the story, his presence has influenced them make their own village and their own lives better than they had previously imagined possible.

I think the professor assigned the story “The Most Handsomest Dead Man” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez as the first story to show the students that this course will teach a good lesson and a good read at the same time. This may also set the tone for the semester. During the first few paragraphs the story put an image in my mind of a dead guy that arrived on the beach shore with better features than all the men in their village. This story is big on imagination which is what I like. I liked how the story turned out because Esteban was just a good looking dead guy that arrived up on the shore of the beach and inspired the rest of the village to do and be better. When the village saw Esteban and his amazing features it put an idea in the men and women, and they wanted to make him Rest In Peace by changing the village in which they imagined he would like. They decide to create a life for the dead man in return the dead man gives life to the village.

The reason why I think this story(“The Handsomest Drowned Man”)  was chosen for us to read is that this is a very interesting short story, and with a lot of questions to ask about, it is also a nice way to start the course with a fantasy story because the drowned man seems like imagination or illusion for me in a way. Esteban The Handsomest Drowned Man changes to villages in a way people rethinking of themselves “They secretly compared him to their own…most useless creatures on earth”. Also, the details from the dead body, women in the village can imagine what kind of person Esteban is and the things he has been through, which is very incredible because the dead body can’t talk about what happened to him, but women in the village can from the smallest details to a story. Personally, for me, the story seems like the dead body entering a place where it is an isolated land.

While reading “The Handsomest Drowned Man” by Gabriel García Márquez it really makes me attracted to the story as it gives it truly makes you wonder how others see and contemplate you, all things considered like how the people in this story give life to death man and how it treated their village and also In the story, the body of a suffocated man cleans up in a little, distant town by the sea Before the finish of the story, his essence has impacted them to make their own town and their own lives better compared to what they had recently envisioned conceivable. The suffocated man appears to assume the state of anything the villagers have ever seen. Maybe this story was given to make us understand that it contends a genuinely incredible individual has the ability to transform others, to motivate them to be better, to make them need to be remarkable.

I think the professor assigned the story “The Most Handsomest Dead Man” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez as the first story to show the students that this course will teach a good lesson and a good read at the same time. This may also set the tone for the semester. During the first few paragraphs the story put an image in my mind of a dead guy that arrived on the beach shore with better features than all the men in their village. This story is big on imagination which is what I like. I liked how the story turned out because Esteban was just a good looking dead guy that arrived up on the shore of the beach and inspired the rest of the village to do and be better. When the village saw Esteban and his amazing features it put an idea in the men and women, and they wanted to make him Rest In Peace by changing the village in which they imagined he would like. They decide to create a life for the dead man in return the dead man gives life to the village.

While reading this story I believe that the reason we were assigned to read this is because you want us all to participate and to come together and work as one. This idea came to me because as it states in the second paragraph they say that they found a whale along the sea which came out the water but when they cleaned it a little better it instead was a man who drowned so the first thing they did with his body was take it to someone reliable to find out a little more about it and how it could have ended up on the sand. They then were trying to come to solutions that it could’ve been some one apart of the village so they wanted to go around and make sure it was not. This to me shows that they are working as a team to find out what really happened to the guy and who he really is.

After reading “The Most Handsome Drowned Man” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I’ve concluded that there are many similarities in how the villagers encounter the most handsome drowned man and how we students are encountering this story. The reading shows us the state of the villager’s pre and post-meeting of the drowned man and how they interpret and react to the new experience. By having this as the first story of the course, it forces us into a similar situation in which we reflect on the nature of the story and what our reactions are to it. In the story, the author makes a point of having both the villagers and the body have no identity. We are not given the name of the village nor is the body someone the villagers know. Through interacting with it, the villagers name it Estaban. Pre-Estaban we find the villagers as just some nameless village, lacking any distinctness to call their own. Afterward, the villagers decide to change their village to be as welcoming to Estaban as possible, enlarging doors, heightening roofs, and strengthening floors. Their whole village becomes devoted to Estaban and it gains the identity of Estaban’s village. We, students, are in a similar situation where before we start this assignment we are just names on a roster. After the story, we create an identity based on what we post on the discussion board and we decide how to react to this story and how this helps us grow as students. In conclusion, I think the reason why this was chosen as the first story for this class is because of the similarities of the story and our situation as students and what conclusions we draw from it.

The story “The Most Handsome Drowned Man” was assigned 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.”

“The Most Handsome Drowned Man” is a story based off of perceptions. The villagers perceive this larger than life, elegant looking man and immediately make all manner of assumptions about his poise and demeanor, even though they had absolutely nothing to go off of besides the actual dead body in front of them. They had nothing going for them before this man washed up on their shores, and so the sense of wonder that they felt was amplified. I feel that this sets up the atmosphere for the course ahead of us: we are to take the unmoving, lifeless words in front of us on our screens and build worlds and context around them. With each new reading we are to be the village Before and After Esteban, coming out with a new understanding and view of the world. This piece serves as an appetizer for the works to come, which will likely be even more intriguing.

In this story, the author used an overstatement to create a magical, mythical to capture our attention. He described the dead man as the main character in the story. By reading this story I can see that the small village was poor, before the dead man arrived the houses had stone courtyards with no flowers. Very little space on the island. When they found Esteban, his presence transformed them to think bigger and different. The beauty and the splendor of the dead man inspired them to change the village’s view. I do not personally think a dead could bring anything that could benefit a village, but the story makes me rethink, it ends with a great vision of the transformation of good looks. While I was reading this story, I thought they were going to keep his body or do a great burial ritual since they loved him so much. But no, they dropped him off like any dead body. However, in memory of Esteban, their houses would have wider doors higher ceilings, and stronger floors. This symbolizes the town rebuilding itself and starting new opportunities.

I think The Handsomest Drowned Man by Gabriel García Márquez was assigned as the first reading of the semester to serve as an encouragement for the participants of the course to tap into, explore and express our imagination. The short story introduces a realm where the environment and the people are realistic, except for Esteban’s character. By bringing a small piece of wonder into a world of normalcy, García Márquez prompts his readers to have an open mind for the occurrence of such miracles and to look for them in their lives and, perhaps, even their minds. Therefore, I believe that the objective of this assignment was to let us feel safe in freely expressing our truth in our writing during this course, even if it leads to the establishment of a world that might seem odd at first. I am looking forward to seeing what everyone’s imagination has in store for us.

I think this story was assigned as the first in this course because it is a story that invokes a sense of wonder and emotion which draws the reader in and can make the student excited about the class ahead. The story causes the reader to visualize everything in detail, from the characters to the scenery, as well as to reflect on the feelings and reactions of the villagers. I, myself, really enjoyed reading this story and I am eager to read more in the coming months. Also, being a short story, “The Most Handsome Drowned Man” provides the opportunity to briefly introduce the class to some of the topics we will potentially be discussing this semester, without be too overwhelming at the start. For instance, we are able to start considering how to write a thesis statement on a piece of literature without having to read an entire novel first.