Rhetorical Analysis On Salvation

The Itching Pressure to Conform It is no secret that humans want to feel accepted. Growing up and reaching adolescence, feelings start to change and the way people see you suddenly becomes a priority. In the essay, “Salvation”, Langston Hughes narrates his vivid memory of a religious revival with his Auntie Reed, a committed Christian. Hughes successfully demonstrates how emotionally straining it is to be expected to conform. Hughes fell into peer pressure at a church revival, resulting in him feeling ashamed and disappointed, thus illustrating the constant battle teenagers face everyday.
Hughes story reveals how he was forced into accepting Christ into his life by his Aunt Reed, his friends, and the church community. The pressure begins to be evident when his Aunt Reed creates a false stigma of what it is to be saved. “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!” (Hughes 369). Aunt Reed paints a picture in Hughes head of what it will feel like to be saved, creating false expectations for him. Creating it of great importance not only to
Even though Hughes knew that lying was bad, he felt the need to fake his religious revival just like every other adolescent that day. Sitting directly beside him was a boy named Westley who also sparked pressure on him to be saved. Westley said to Hughes, “God damn! I’m tired o’ sitting here. Let’s get up and be saved” (Hughes 369). Hughes then became the last one in the entire church to be saved. Pressure from the church congregation made Hughes begins to feel doubtful and guilty. “I began to feel ashamed of myself” (Hughes 369). The narrator did not want to disappoint his peers especially Aunt Reed, who was a role model to him, so he chose to lie to please everyone but himself. Hughes chose his peers beliefs over his own, resulting in lack of sincerity to