Salvation Analysis
Deen Kamara
Professor
English 101
10/21/2012
Analysis of Salvation
Irony is one of the things that keep our daily lives a lot more interesting than expected. Having the exact opposite of your expectation happen. In Langston Hughes essay “Salvation” that’s exactly what took place. Hughes went to church with the intention of believing and being “Saved” and ended up being disappointed. At the age of 12 Hughes attended church with his aunt Reed. Before going to church he was continuously told he would “see Jesus”, Hughes at the time took it literally and expected to “see Jesus” at the church revival. Hughes and Westley were the only two left on the mourners bench. Westley got tired of waiting to “see Jesus”, so he lied and was saved, leaving Hughes alone on the bench. After seeing that, Hughes lost belief and decided to go up to be saved even if he didn’t feel saved or saw Jesus. Everybody was ecstatic and “rejoicing” but all that affected Hughes and made him feel guilty for lying. The main point of Langston Hughes essay is to tell us how is experience of being “saved” made him lose belief and disappointed in himself. With him lying about being “saved” when in reality he was just lying so he won’t bring shame on his family lead to him losing faith in Jesus Christ. Hughes used this to illustrate to the reader the effect an adult can have on a child who is not know what’s going on around them, and in this case Hughes didn’t know Jesus was going to literally appear in front of him. He felt that the whole church was waiting on him to be saved, so since he was the last one on the mourner’s bench he got up and everybody was cheering and “rejoicing”. In the last paragraph Hughes tell us the pain and guilt he felt for lying in church and deceiving everyone about seeing Jesus. Hughes states “I was crying because I couldn’t bear to tell her that I had lied, that I had deceived everybody in the church” (Hughes, 181). In
Professor
English 101
10/21/2012
Analysis of Salvation
Irony is one of the things that keep our daily lives a lot more interesting than expected. Having the exact opposite of your expectation happen. In Langston Hughes essay “Salvation” that’s exactly what took place. Hughes went to church with the intention of believing and being “Saved” and ended up being disappointed. At the age of 12 Hughes attended church with his aunt Reed. Before going to church he was continuously told he would “see Jesus”, Hughes at the time took it literally and expected to “see Jesus” at the church revival. Hughes and Westley were the only two left on the mourners bench. Westley got tired of waiting to “see Jesus”, so he lied and was saved, leaving Hughes alone on the bench. After seeing that, Hughes lost belief and decided to go up to be saved even if he didn’t feel saved or saw Jesus. Everybody was ecstatic and “rejoicing” but all that affected Hughes and made him feel guilty for lying. The main point of Langston Hughes essay is to tell us how is experience of being “saved” made him lose belief and disappointed in himself. With him lying about being “saved” when in reality he was just lying so he won’t bring shame on his family lead to him losing faith in Jesus Christ. Hughes used this to illustrate to the reader the effect an adult can have on a child who is not know what’s going on around them, and in this case Hughes didn’t know Jesus was going to literally appear in front of him. He felt that the whole church was waiting on him to be saved, so since he was the last one on the mourner’s bench he got up and everybody was cheering and “rejoicing”. In the last paragraph Hughes tell us the pain and guilt he felt for lying in church and deceiving everyone about seeing Jesus. Hughes states “I was crying because I couldn’t bear to tell her that I had lied, that I had deceived everybody in the church” (Hughes, 181). In
Cited: Hughes, Langston, “Salvation”, 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology. Third Edition. Samuel Cohen.