Nonfiction Reaction Paper
Nonfiction Reaction Paper
ENG/125
February 8, 2012
Nonfiction Reaction Paper
The nonfiction stories I have decided to write about are; “Who Will Light the Incense When Mother’s Gone?” by Andrew Lam and “Salvation” by Langston Hughes. Both of these stories are about a significant event in the authors lives in which they choose to write about. “Salvation” is a story about the author trying to find his way into the church and finally see the light or Jesus so his soul will be saved and his sins forgiven. ; “Who Will Light the Incense When Mother’s Gone?” was a writing about his mother having a hard time with the American culture and how her son, the author Andrew Lam, will be when he leaves home and how the traditions she raised him on slowly will disappear along with her when she passes along. Both stories seem to send a message of events in the author’s lives where they wrote about them because of certain memories in their lives, and I will briefly go through each story in different ways.
Summary of Strategies by the Authors I think Langston Hughes in “Salvation” tries to get the reader to imagine a hot sweltering church on a balmy Sunday morning. This would be the setting for the young boy at 12 years of age trying to see Jesus in another aspect because he is becoming of age for the church. The authors strategy is not to confuse the reader but to make the reader understand that Langston was not lying about seeing Jesus but in fact did not believe in Jesus because he left the boy by himself and did not rescue him from all the people in the church getting impatient of him “and I hadn’t seen Jesus, and that now I didn’t believe there was a Jesus any more, since he didn’t come to help me” (Hughes 2003 p. 352). Also with his friend using the lord’s name in vain and lying in the church “God had not struck Westley dead for taking his name in vain or lying in the temple” (Hughes 2003 p. 352) and nothing happened to him when he lied just to be ‘saved’ because
ENG/125
February 8, 2012
Nonfiction Reaction Paper
The nonfiction stories I have decided to write about are; “Who Will Light the Incense When Mother’s Gone?” by Andrew Lam and “Salvation” by Langston Hughes. Both of these stories are about a significant event in the authors lives in which they choose to write about. “Salvation” is a story about the author trying to find his way into the church and finally see the light or Jesus so his soul will be saved and his sins forgiven. ; “Who Will Light the Incense When Mother’s Gone?” was a writing about his mother having a hard time with the American culture and how her son, the author Andrew Lam, will be when he leaves home and how the traditions she raised him on slowly will disappear along with her when she passes along. Both stories seem to send a message of events in the author’s lives where they wrote about them because of certain memories in their lives, and I will briefly go through each story in different ways.
Summary of Strategies by the Authors I think Langston Hughes in “Salvation” tries to get the reader to imagine a hot sweltering church on a balmy Sunday morning. This would be the setting for the young boy at 12 years of age trying to see Jesus in another aspect because he is becoming of age for the church. The authors strategy is not to confuse the reader but to make the reader understand that Langston was not lying about seeing Jesus but in fact did not believe in Jesus because he left the boy by himself and did not rescue him from all the people in the church getting impatient of him “and I hadn’t seen Jesus, and that now I didn’t believe there was a Jesus any more, since he didn’t come to help me” (Hughes 2003 p. 352). Also with his friend using the lord’s name in vain and lying in the church “God had not struck Westley dead for taking his name in vain or lying in the temple” (Hughes 2003 p. 352) and nothing happened to him when he lied just to be ‘saved’ because