"Salvation" by Langston Hughes

Most people have expectations of how something is going to turn out. When things do not turn out the way, we want them to turn out; the feeling of disappointment takes over. That is a coincidence when I read "Salvation" written by Langston Hughes because I run into my feeling five years ago, not in the same situation with him, but not so many differences to be his partner.

"Salvation" is a short story, but inside it is a long anxiety and unforgettable experience for the boy. Only he knows what he is doing, and he is the one. The feeling that he has to lie to people and himself is very uncomfortable for the narrator, but that is also what I did a long time ago-the day I lied to my friend's Mom and Dad about him. (His name is Tin) He did not pass the final examination to high school (in Viet Nam, students have to take a test to study in high school. If you fail, you have to wait a year to take another test), but I could not tell his parents that he had failed. They worked so hard, they would do whatever they could to earn money for him and put all of their expectations on him, and so did I. We both expected, but only I felt guilty because if I told them the trust, they would have died.

"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". That final paragraph in Salvation does show the truth that- nobody in the church knows the boy's secret because he did not see God. What people had told him before and what he saw were opposites. Disappointment is certain. It is the feeling we all get when something or someone fails to live up to our expectations. Everybody, at least one time in their lives, has this feeling. That is why I understand the boy's feeling, especially in his belief in God: he will be saved and received by Jesus. His aunt had told him what to expect when he is saved: "You saw a light, and something happened to you inside." But what came to inside his mind is just a hoax. Nothing happens and