Langston Hughes starts the setting with a very bold statement. “I was saved from sin when I was going on thirteen” (203) but then quickly follows it up with, “But not really saved” (203). That makes the reader question what he means by that. It is a good hook. He then sets the setting, and starts off with a time span of a couple weeks, but then later on narrows it down to minutes. This helps the tension build up throughout the piece, and keep the reader’s attention. When Hughes heard that he was going to be saved by Jesus from his aunt he took it quite literally. He thought that Jesus was going to welcome him with open arms, and that he would be able to meet him face to face to be able to be saved. Hughes is able to convey imagery very well. When Langston lied about being able to see Jesus, he creates a picture in our minds with detail, “Suddenly the whole room broke into a sea of shouting. Waves of rejoicing swept the place” (205). That gives the reader a sense of also being in that exact spot. The title “Salvation” was just setting up for the rest of the essay to be filled with irony. The whole time the reader is on edge waiting for Langston to be saved by Jesus, but unfortunately he does not get saved. He ends up having to lie in order to make the people around him satisfied. …show more content…
Throughout the piece of writing, the author keeps going back on how long it felt, and being in the church with the heat and people praying. “Now it was really getting late. I began to be ashamed of myself, holding everything up so long” (204). The author stretches the time period of him waiting to see Jesus, but once he admits he “sees” him - time suddenly speeds
Few religions outline the exact steps towards salvation. They follow this practice with the belief that no mortal can truly know whether they will see heaven’s pearly gates, even if he or she spends years knocking on doors with tracts and Bibles in hand. In Langston Hughes’ “Salvation,” however, a church in the midst of a revival pleads and shouts that a young Hughes simply needs to see Jesus to be saved. But when Hughes can’t see Jesus, he loses faith in both salvation and himself. To help his readers understand his younger self’s reasoning for his loss of faith, Hughes manipulates his syntax to immerse the audience in his naive 13-year-old mind.
The song briefly captures the remorse John Newton felt for his role in the slave trade. John Newton was a former slave ship captain. After his conversion to Catholicism, he realized the injustice that slavery was and joined the abolitionist movement. His internal thoughts are reflected in the song. Newton felt that it was “Amazing Grace” that saved him.
Nothing! I wanted something to happen to me, but nothing happened” (Hughes) In what is described as “mob psychology” (https://www.iwebfolio.com/Salvation) Langston finally gives in to the insurmountable pressure placed on him and pretends to “go to Jesus” even though he is not convinced anymore that there is a real Jesus. He deceives his aunt, the preacher and church people as a way to save face.
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.
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.
James Mercer Langston Hughes was the first African American to achieve national prominence, and the figure of such stature in the black community. His influence and ideas were inescapable, as he saw himself as a poet for an entire nation. Hughes role model, Walt Whitman helped to give him the ideas of the optimistic vision of America and how to achieve and accomplish some of the things he did in his life. Langston Hughes inspired many people and expressed the African American spirt and soul in his works.
In “Salvation,” Langston Hughes presents his momentous coming-of-age story as a dark and saddening ending to his childhood that provides the reader with understanding of the loss of innocence; and faith he faced and how it impacted who he came to be. Hughes makes a strong implication that children become less and less innocent over time. Hughes himself proves that through the tone of his entire essay. It begins with a light toned; yet still ironic introduction, but ends with a dark, depressing final line. Hughes supplies his reader with multiple literary devices such as imagery, flashbacks, and irony to present this comparison of his younger self and his older self.
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.
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.
There are many talented poets, but there is something special about Langston Hughes that makes him unique. He has many eye-opening poems. Langston Hughes is definitely one of a kind. The poems Cross and Mother to Son by Langston Hughes, use figurative languages such as imagery and syntax to provide more climax. Imagery.
Hughes getting up and lying shows the reader Hughes has lost faith and no longer believes in religion, as he resorted to lying. From these experiences, Hughes goes on to tell the reader “That night, for the first time in my life but one for I was a big boy twelve years old - I cried. I cried, in bed alone, and couldn 't stop.” (Hughes 187) Here, we can see how the events that occured that night impacted Hughes in a negative way that same night.
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.
In this novel called Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin, we start to learned that John wants to be saved by God. He feels like he’s being held down from rising to reach the rest of his family who are angels of God. James Baldwin uses symbolism in the final section of this novel to drive towards the idea that dedication and perseverance through challenges can lead to a positive outcome. James Baldwin uses symbolism during John’s journey to be “saved” by God to reveal the idea that dedication and perseverance through challenges can lead to a positive outcome. Johnny felt as if he was being pulled downward to hell instead of upward to heaven, “Only the ironic voice insisted yet once more that he rise from that filthy floor if he did not want to become like all the other niggers” (Baldwin 228).
Langston Hughes was an American poem born in the early nineteen hundreds, who became known as the leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He published many poems that brought light to the life of people of color in the twentieth century. There are three poems that the speakers are used to portray three major themes of each poem. Racism, the American Dream, and Hopes are all the major themes that Hughes uses to highlight the average life of a person of color. Theme for English B,” “Harlem,” and “Let America Be America Again” were three of Hughes’s poems that was selected to underline the themes.
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.