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Langston Hughes Salvation

531 Words3 Pages

Being a Victim in “ Salvation”
In “Salvation” a young boy describes going to church for a religious revival in which the children were given a chance at salvation. Hughes describes his confusion on Christianity and his disappointment when he doesn't physically “see” God. While Langston Hughes refrains from explicitly criticizing the church and it’s members. He tends to use active words repeatedly to show how the church is commanding him to be saved rather than inviting him. In Hughes’s essay he persuades the reader to believe that he is the victim and the church act as an offender. By not having an actual choice in the church Hughes loses his full agency to make his own decision and becomes passive. The beginning of the essay starts off with the narrator explaining that he was saved from sin when he was going on thirteen. He then refutes this statement by saying “but not really saved.” As Langston goes on to recalls his experience, he begins by expressing his initial eagerness to physically see God. Hughes religious Aunt, Aunt Reed constantly spoke …show more content…

During the revival the pressure placed on Hughes by the church intensifies. The revival shifts from being a welcoming ceremony to a forceful and aggressive attempt for Hughes to conform. Hughes mentions that once the once the preacher finished his sermon and sang a song he then said, “Wont you come? Wont you come to Jesus? Young lambs, wont you come.” The preacher is telling the children to come rather than asking him to. The preachers words also don't appear to not be completely sincere. When he notices that Langston is the only child that has not been saved he targets him in front of the congregation by asking him, “ Why don't you come to ” The preacher phases the question to Langston as if he has an actual choice. The preacher understand that Langston is young and uses both his authority and pressure to force Langston to listen to his

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Langston came to the conclusion he was not going to see Jesus, and

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Langston Hughes 's shifting attitude toward salvation in his essay was disappointing and at the same time upsetting. He 's disappointed and upset because he was forced to believe in the situation that something will happen to him inside before he accept Jesus but instead it did not happen. Most of the time we are pressured to accept an idea of what others belief, not because we agree to it but instead we intentionally do it for them to stop asking. Some felt the guilt after, and do something about it but most of the time we just let it go and move on.

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Jonathan Edwards’s sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and Anne Bradstreet’s “Upon the Burning of Our House” seem at first glance quite similar to one another regarding context, however, after taking a closer look, it becomes apparent that there are some substantial differences. These differences cannot be understood without the knowledge of cultural context concerning the Puritan belief system and their lifestyle. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” was written with the sole purpose of scaring and intimidating the people that purtinans believed to be sinners. Edwards’s work contributed to a movement called “The Great Awakening”. It’s objective was to make the so-called ‘sinners’ aware of their wrongdoings and compel them to repent.

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He would make a short prayer in the morning, and a long prayer at night; and, strange as it may seem, few men would at times appear more devotional than he” (Douglass 54). Douglass, who is a Christian, sees through Mr. Covey’s deception and hates that he is using prayer as a form of making himself righteous in front of God. Mr. Covey is not the only slave owner who practices this deception, when Douglass is in St. Michael’s he is teaching a Sunday school that ends up being dismissed by slave owners who beat them with sticks and stones.

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we need to go back to earlier revivals and the current social environment of the 1800 's. During the first half of the 1800 's, the population of the United States grew from five to thirty million, and the boundary of the nation moved ever westward. Revivals became the primary means of Christianizing the growing and expanding population. These revivals at the beginning of the nineteenth century became known as the Second Great Awakening. The Second Great Awakening was very democratic anyone could be saved, personal study of the Bible was as good as or better than being taught by someone with formal training, regular people could be called by God to become preachers, and God expected everyone not just a special few to do His work on

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He later goes on to say he could hear the cries of chained slaves passing through the docks in the dead of night and it having a profound affect on his psyche. He also points out that the church is not doing its job because it has the power to condemn slavery and their choosing to remain silent on the issue. He brings to light the Fugitive Slave Law, which gives blacks no due process and civil rights. Under this act freed blacks could very well be accused of being a fugitive slave and have to be transported back to the south.

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In “Salvation” by Langston Hughes, he recalls a time from his childhood when he was at church. All the children of the church were being “saved” until he was eventually the last one who wasn’t. Feeling tired and pressured, Langston stood, declaring he had been saved. He felt horrible for lying, but the pressure placed upon him by the entire church outweighed the feeling of guilt. Similarly, people of all types experience a feeling similar to Langston’s; something called peer pressure.

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Writing about controversial subjects can often be difficult; however Hughes executed his story, Salvation, in an intriguing manner that is suitable to all audiences and religions. In this story, the writer retells an experience from his childhood describing his journey to Jesus Christ. Discussing the complications, the main character, Hughes, faced while trying to come to Jesus is what makes the story interesting to read. On many occasions, you will read a story or watch a movie that shows the main character coming to Jesus and having an immediate and obvious realization of their Savior. For this reason, I found this story to be unique and relatable in the way that it shows a journey that countless Christians face, but you are not often granted the opportunity to read about this type of experience.

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Douglass questions the existence of any God because of religious slaveholders, beginning to have a lack of a belief in God due to the slavery system as a whole, as many other slaves had too. This subtle break in of humanism due to slavery properly illustrates just how beliefs start to fall apart, and focus more on attaining freedom before heavenly affinity. This theme of humanism continues into their childhood, whereas Douglass is taught by white boys how to read. This shows the original intent of children, “The plan which I adopted, and the one by which I was most successful, was that of making friends of all the little white boys whom I met in the street. As many of these as I could, I converted into teachers.

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He states, "...now I didn't believe there was a Jesus anymore, since he didn't come to help me." The pain that the burn victim and Langston feel are equally strong, but the stories behind their pain are

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Langston Hughes used rhetoric words in his story “Salvation,” to provide foreshadows, and emotional appeals to his struggles in becoming religiously saved. Hughes began his story by stating “I was saved from sin when I was going on thirteen (179).” The irony in this opening is that Hughes initially believed in the presence of Jesus, but unexpected pressures pushed him to betray and deceive his faith. The setting of Hughes struggles took place in a religious ceremony in his Auntie Reed’s church. In this service, many young children like Hughes were gathered to be spiritually cleansed by the light of Jesus.

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He employs tactics of a child to make sure that the readers feel as if the child was telling the story. For instance, he writes that ‘I felt confused that Jesus could not come, I wanted something to happen, but nothing yet happened ‘also he put across the theme of sadness in the story through his language. This is evident when e said I cried because I could not bear the pain of not seeing Jesus yet I lied I had seen him (Emanuel 268). Hughes incorporates the sense of humour in his story to catch the attention of the readers.

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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.”

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In the short story “Cora Unashamed” by Langston Hughes, he explores the theme of free will by using plot, stereotypes, climax, and protagonist. In this short story, Cora works for the Studevants and she is the only black family in the town. Cora and her family are below everyone else and Cora takes care of her family. As she’s working for the Studevants, she develops a close relationship with the daughter of the Studevants, Jessie, and shows that everyone has free will by Cora’s actions in the story.

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In the poem “I, Too”, the author Langston Hughes illustrates the key aspect of racial discrimination faces against the African Americans to further appeals the people to challenge white supremacy. He conveys the idea that black Americans are as important in the society. Frist, Hughes utilizes the shift of tones to indicate the thrive of African American power. In the first stanza, the speaker shows the sense of nation pride through the use of patriotic tone. The first line of the poem, “I, too, sing America” states the speaker’s state of mind.

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