Essay on Langston Hughes

Submitted By Sebastian-Canola
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Langston Hughes “Salvation” assignment title 1
Sebastian Canola
Langston Hughes main purpose in the narrative “Salvation,” is to define how his involvement of being “saved” only resulted in him being upset with himself. This also disappointed him because he had lied to the church and felt remorse for doing so. The “saving” of Langston also resulted in him losing faith in Christ. “I was really crying because I couldn't bear to tell her that I had lied, that I had deceived everybody in the church, that I hadn't seen Jesus, and that now I didn't believe there was a Jesus anymore, since he didn't come to help me” (page 352). This event was really important in Langston’s life because he was always told to believe something but the opposite happened and changed him. It changed the way he viewed himself in the eyes of society, the way he thought, acted and lived. When he was going to the church he was told that he would see Jesus and God and that they would be with him from then on, but he did not feel the presence of Christ. He was told from the other family members of the light that they saw something he did not, “My aunt told me that when you were saved you saw a light, and something happened to you inside! And Jesus came into your life! And God was with you from then on! She said you could see and hear and feel Jesus in your soul. I believed her.” (page 351) Westley tested God’s existence by lying in a sacred place waiting to be struck by him. Hughes lost trust in God when he saw that nothing happened to Westley and he elaborates on this by stating, “God had not struck Westley dead for taking his name in vain or for lying in the temple”(page 352). Langston Hugh’s is 12 years old turning thirteen, a time when becoming a teen is a milestone, and events in life impact you greatly. Now with all of this commotion going on in his life his mind set towards God altered and is in question now. In a person’s life this would have been the case, people loose faith when they are told one thing and the opposite happens. Explanations are not translated the way they should be, or they are just impossible to happen. If you re-read
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