Langston Hughes Salvation Summary

Pressure from above

Langston Hughes wrights about a major event of his childhood in the moving story “Salvation.” The message of this story is that the pressure to conform to your families religious beliefs may have a negative affect the young. Hughes does not place a direct thesis in his story.

Hughes wants religious families to realize that pushing children into their faith will backfire if the children feel too pressured. He directs his story to the adults of religious communities and the parents of religious families to help to insure that what happened to him as a child does not happen to others.

The author’s aunt plays an influential roll in his life. He uses an exited tone to demonstrate how much Christianity means to his aunt;
After describing how much pressure he felt from his entire church to get up from the mourners’ bench and be saved at the alter, Hughes uses the simple sentence, “So I got up” (2). The simplicity of his words makes it clear that he, as a child, could not have understood the complexity of the situation. His aunt made him believe that Jesus would come, when he did not, he felt so much pressure from his church and his aunt that he had to act as if he was saved. It was a simple thing to do; getting up, but he could not have understood the meaning behind his actions as he was so young. He felt pressure to stand, so he did, but he did not stand because he believed in Jesus. The audience’s awareness of why he stood up comes from the authors use of a simple sentence, accordingly the audience begins to see the effects of pressure on the
Hughes depicts the scene again, this time using a metaphor. He describes a “sea of shouting” accompanied by “waves of rejoicing” (Hughes 2). Hughes compares the actions of the people in his church to the ocean. The author hints to his audience that the event was so immense and uncontrollable through relating it to the sea. This vivid metaphor shows the pressure placed on the author more than anything, it tells the audience how Hughes could not escape the waves that crushed over him. The waves he felt was the pressure of all the voices in the church, shouting at him to be one of them. Therefore It is no wonder that he did not feel Jesus in the end, he was under so much strain. Furthermore, In depicting the strain on him, Hughes warns his audience not to put so much strain on others, especially the young, because they will not react well to being under that much