Salvation

Salvation is a story from The Big Sea, which was written by Langston Hughes, an African American poet, playwright and fiction writer. He was one was the earliest innovators of the then new literary art form, jazz poetry. This is a story that took place during the author’s childhood, when he was going on thirteen. This story is about how he lost his faith as a child when during a revival meeting he remained the lone “young lamb” that did not see Jesus. In the end, the young Langston decided to deceive the whole congregation by pretending that Jesus had come to him. Hughes shows us how the thoughts and actions of the people around us can affect our actions, and how complete trust and innocence can result in a complete lost of faith. Hughes uses vivid imagery and simple language to convey a believable child’s point of view. Hughes starts his essay with two contradicting statements: that he “was saved from sin…but not really saved” (1059). This is a signal to the reader that the title Salvation does not mean what one would think it means. Initially the author went to a revival meeting at his aunt’s church with the full intention of being saved. She told him “when you were saved you saw a light, and something happened to you inside! And Jesus came into your life! And God was with you from then on!” (1059). His use of exclamation marks punctuating these sentences portrays a picture of a child who was excited and enthused about this upcoming event. He completely believed his aunt and his belief in her was supported because other older people said the same, and he believed “they ought to know” (1059). However, nothing happened to him, but young Langston continued to sit and wait when all the other children had gone to the altar to be saved because he wanted to see Jesus. Finally he stood up anyways due to the pressure of his aunt, the preacher, and the whole congregation who he said “prayed for him alone, in a mighty wail of moans and voices” (1060). In the end, instead