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? To submit your Week 3 post, follow the steps below. 1. Scroll up to the black strip at the top of the screen and click the black “plus” sign inside the white circle. It is located to the right of the course title. 2. In the box that reads “Add title,” type in a title that includes your first name, last name, and the words “Discussion 3” (example: John Hart Discussion 3). 3. Type your response in the text box. Remember that your first post must be at least 150 words in order to receive full credit. 4. Navigate to the right side of the screen and choose the Post Category “Week 3 Discussion” (or whichever week is current). Never choose anything in the box that reads “Category Sticky.” Click for screenshot. 5. To add media (optional), click the “add media“ button in between the title box and the text box. Do not add the image directly to the media library. To get the image to show in the tile preview, go to “featured image > add featured image, in the lower right-hand side.” Click for screenshot. 6. Publish the post by clicking the blue button on the right. 7. Please leave a thoughtful reply to the post of one other classmate. Remember that your comments to others should be at least 75 words in order to receive full credit.
Week 3 Discussion
In the excerpt “Salvation” by Langston Hughes, Langston was a boy who was being put up on the mourners bench along with other kids who had sinned. This was sort of a test for Langston because while sitting on the bench, Langston is seeing every other kid leave the bench ready to see Jesus but Langston was the last one still sitting on the mourners bench. In the story it says “Let’s get up and be saved.” So he got up and was saved. Then I was left all alone on the mourners’ bench. My aunt came and knelt at my knees and cried, while prayers and song swirled all around me in the little church. The whole congregation prayed for me alone, in a mighty wail of moans and voices. And I kept waiting serenely for Jesus, waiting, waiting – but he didn’t come. I wanted to see him, but nothing happened to me”. This shows that Langston wanted to be saved by Jesus but due to the sins he committed it was taking longer than expected.
In the short story “Salvation” by Langston Hughes, a twelve-year-old Langston is having a discussion with his aunt about what it is like to be rescued by Jesus. She talks to him about the innate feeling inside your body that you experience when you are saved. Hearing all of this from his aunt excited Langston and further drove his belief in the church and being saved. This strong and seemingly unwavering belief in the church made him wait patiently for his turn at being rescued by Jesus, however, after waiting a very long time and seeing all of the other children being saved, he felt ashamed that he was the only one not being saved and he eventually lost hope in his belief. This even caused him to lie to the church and to his aunt about being saved by Jesus. At the end of it all, Langston went from being extremely overjoyed and eager to be saved by Jesus, to wondering whether or not Jesus even existed and if he could ever be saved.
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.
“Salvation” by Langston Hughes left a bitter taste in my mouth after realizing that his family putting him on the spot and forcing him to lie on the stand indirectly caused him to fall away from religion later on in life. I’m not religious but it’s kind of sad to hear and I’m sure these kinds of situations happen a lot more often than people want to admit, I really enjoyed reading this one because it reminds me of when I got baptized, I was waiting for something cool to happen then as well.
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.
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.
“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.
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 story “Salvation” the author begins open minded and hopeful to the possibility of being truly saved. There seems to be some curiosity and optimism behind the white light coming and lifting the spirits of everyone around him. While watching his peers become these great beings from the love of god he patiently waits for his turn but it never comes. By the end of the story, the older self / version of the author has completely lost hope. He let go of the idea that one day he would be saved and is shamed into lying and pretending that he believes in a higher spirit who helps him realize that he is actually all alone. How could Jesus come for everyone but him? How could the one person he shared this lingering suspense with lie to the world just to fit in? Compared to the beginning the author slowly and surely comes to terms with the fact that he has lost hope and feels abandoned by everyone around him including God. Realizing the hard truths about life itself.
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.
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.
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.
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.
