Langston Hughes Essay On Salvation

Salvation In Langston Hughes’ autobiography, “Salvation,” he shares his childhood experience of his Auntie Reed’s Christian church. Going into the revival, Hughes’ expectantly waited for Jesus to come save him; “to see Jesus.” What was supposed to be a religiously enlightening moment of his life transpired to be a disheartening realization that Jesus’s existence could have very well resulted from mass hysteria. He revolves his experience around the confusion resulted from miscommunication between the young sinners and adults, which will set a message over the effects of the pressures of social conformity that make up the events of the revival.
Auntie Reed and other old Christians exaggerated the sermon as a moment when “you could see and hear and feel Jesus in your soul.” It was in their belief that Jesus was to appear to even sinners bathed in light and save them. Hughes took their stories literally, expecting Jesus to physically appear at his aunt’s church. Based on the experiences with other, older Christians who have previously experienced Jesus, he was excited to see for himself what salvation ought to be. He elaborates the amount of emotion that surrounded him, highlighting with descriptions of how “the whole building rocked with
He was distraught over the fact that appeasing the congregation meant “[deceiving] everybody in the church.” The story’s tone shifts from urgent to elated when “[waves] of rejoicing swept the place,” all the more for a good kid, such as himself, to feel guilty. With the combined reactions from the adults and how no harm came to the children, it was too easy to lie and join the bandwagon, leaving the question of what’s reality. Hughes expertly recounts, in detail, of the revival through his eyes, allowing readers to understand his point of view. Children often misread what they’re told, and in their confusion, subjecting them to the side with the