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A Critical Analysis Of Salvation By Langston Hughes

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We can define the word salvation as deliverance from sin and its consequences, believed by Christians to be brought about by faith in Christ. One can be saved by accepting Jesus Christ into your life, but this wasn’t the case for Langston Hughes when he wrote “Salvation”. Having portrayed himself as a young teenage boy when this piece was written and using the first person perspective, the pressure he felt wanting to actually see and feel Jesus is the main reason why he ruined it for himself, and he was not “saved”. The first two lines even say “I was saved from sin when I was going on thirteen. But not really saved.” (Hughes, 299). Adults gain a spiritual experience as they become older, but with that experience, they also lose a sense of wonder and innocence that a child still has. Hughes thought he was going to actually see Jesus, and after a while when he didn’t see him, he lied about it just so he could be “saved”. He didn’t even believe in Jesus anymore. “So I decided that maybe to save further trouble, I’d better lie too, and say that Jesus had come, and get up and be saved. So I got up.” (Hughes, 300). The only reason he had gotten up because he had waited and waited to see Jesus and the other little boy had also lied about seeing Jesus. Hughes was the last person in the church that was …show more content…

That’s the beautiful thing about irony. You expect one thing to happen and then the complete opposite ends up taking place instead. Hughes went into church that day with the expectation that he was going to see Jesus because that’s what everybody told him was going to happen. Instead, he left disappointed, guilty and even disbelieving in Jesus all together. It’s because he was a child and still had this sense of wonder that he was going to actually see Jesus which ultimately disappointed him. While everybody had encouraged this, they meant this in a different manner, a more spiritual

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