salvastion, Langston hughes

SALVATION BY
LANGSTON HUGHES

James Mercer Langston Hughes began his love of poetry in Cleveland, Ohio, where he attended High School and published several poems in the school literary magazine. Hughes attended Columbia University until 1921. He left before graduation to work and travel which would lead to the launch of his career with his first publication, The Weary Blues. After that he was awarded his Bachelor’s degree from Lincoln University. Hughes became a prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance; Hughes along with Billy Holliday and Duke Ellington were just a few of the scores of other African Americans who shaped the movement. Black artists such as Hughes, Ellington, and Holliday pushed art to its limits as a form of expression and representation during the nineteen twenties in what was to be known as the “New Negro Movement” or the Harlem Renaissance during which he wrote and published many other of his other works, he is best known for his innovative poetry that introduced the patterns of the African American dialect. In this excerpt from his first autobiography, The Big Sea Hughes uses his mastery of imagery and figurative language to describe this humorous first experience with peer pressure.
“My aunt told me that when you were saved you saw a light, and something happened inside you! And Jesus came into your and God was with you from then on! She said you could see and hear and feel Jesus in your soul!” From the start Hughes is expecting some sort of miracle and at thirteen years old was still very impressionable. He describes in very colorful detail every aspect of the church that day from the Preachers “wonderfully rhythmical sermon” to the “old women with jet black faces and braided hair” even vivid imagery of the buildings atmosphere at the time. “And the whole building rocked with prayer and song”, his choice of words and placement of them makes one feel as though he was actually in the church house with him feeling the pressure to” see the light” from the his aunt Reed, the other church goers with their “jet black faces work gnarled hands”, the preacher with his wonderfully rhythmical sermon that were all moans and shouts and lonely cries and dire pictures of hell and last not least the all the other children that knelt at the altar. All waiting for a thirteen year old Langston Hughes to literally feel figuratively see Jesus come into his life. Unfortunately for Hughes it never happens. He was the last one of the kids at the altar save for his friend “Wesley”. In a very hot church surrounded by family and friends waiting, waiting, waiting for him to come to Jesus. “Langston, why don’t you come“, cried his aunt Reed, who could not understand why he had not seen Jesus, “Why don’t you come and be saved, why don’t you come”
All that was going through his head was the last thing his friend Wesley had said before finding Jesus himself he said, “God damn! I’m tired O’ waiting here, let’s get up and be saved”, Hughes finally gave into the pressure of his family and peers, with no feeling of the spirit only peer pressure in his soul, he walked up to the preacher and was saved. Hughes was not saved in the Biblical sense he was saved from the immense peer pressure endured at thirteen years old.
Later that evening with his Aunt so very proud that her boy had found Jesus. Hughes was crying himself to sleep for he had not found Jesus that day. He did not hear, see or feel him. All he felt was peer pressure and as a result lied to his grandmother for the very first time. In this piece Hughes vividly recreates a past event in which he first encountered the strength of outside influences and used colorful detail to describe and recreate the source of it in a very unexpected place. His choice of words and detail helped paint the picture of the church that day and how he felt as a result of being pressured into something against his better judgment.