In our textbook, Real Essays with readings the fourth edition by Susan Anker, there is a narration essay called Salvation by Langston Hughes. Hughes was born, in Joplin, Missouri, he studied engineering at Columbia University but he dropped out and became a central figure in the Harlem renaissance. He was primarily known as a poet, and he was also a prolific writer of stories, plays, and essays. The narration essay is from his autobiography, The Big Sea (1940), and tells about his childhood struggle to fulfill others’ expectations while remaining true to his own ideas about being “saved.”
Hughes was a child that wanted to fulfill his Aunty expectations. He says in the first paragraph, “I was saved from sin when I was going on thirteen. But not really saved. There was a big revival at my Auntie Reed’s church.” He describes how according to his Auntie a saved person looks or fills, “My Aunt told me that when you are 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.”Hughes describe the salvation process in paragraph four, “A great many old people came and knelt around us and prayed, old women with jet-black faces and braided hair, old men with work-gnarled hands. And the church sang a song about the lower lights are burning, some poor sinners to be saved.” He says in paragraph five, “Still I kept waiting to see Jesus.” He continues in to talk about to salvation process in paragraph six, “Finally all the young people had gone to the altar and were saved, but on boy and me. He was a rounder’s son named Westley. Westley and I were surrounded by sisters and deacons praying. It was very hot in the church, and getting late now.
The Essay on African American Hughes Sargeant Church
Nick Park 11/15/03 English 3/Intro to Lit On the Road Langston Hughes is a writer who had a very unique method of putting his thoughts into words. Undoubtedly, Hughes must have experienced a large amount of racism aimed at him during his time. On the Road is a story of an African-American man who tries to find a little humanity in the world, with Langston Hughes' voice one amongst the many others ...
Finally Westley said to me in a whisper “God damn! I am tired o’ sitting here. Let’s get up and saved.” So he got up and was saved.” He says in paragraph seven, “Then I was left all alone on the mourners’ bench. My aunt came and knelt at my knees and cried, while prayers and songs swirled all around me in the little church.” Hughes continues to wait for Jesus but the pressure of the congregation is on him and he says in paragraph eleven “Now it was really getting late. I began to be ashamed of myself, holding everything up so long.” In the same paragraph, he says, “So I decided that may be to save further trouble, I’d better lie, too, and say that Jesus had come, and get up and be saved.” The salvation point is close, he says in paragraph twelve, “So I got up.” He is not the same after what happened and he says in paragraph fifteen, “That night, for the last 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. I buried my head under the quits, but my aunt heard me. She woke up and told my uncle I was crying because the Holy Ghost had come into my life, and because I had seen Jesus. But I was really crying because I couldn’t bear to tell her that I had lied, that I had deceived everybody in the churh, and I hadn’t seen Jesus, and that now I didn’t believe there was a Jesus any more, since he didn’t come to help me.”
Hughes was a young boy that was just asking to be perfect in anything he was called to do. He lived with his aunt. The aunt was always talking to him about the way you fill when you are saved; you meet face to face with Jesus. As a child, he believed his aunt. The day of salvation reached and Hughes was among those who were going to be saved. In Hughes’ mind, he was going to meet face to face with Jesus according to what his aunt told him, but unfortunately nothing happened the way he planned it. He waited to see Jesus, but nothing. Surrounding by his aunt and the congregation that was expecting him to believe no matter what he was passing through. To fulfill his aunt expectation, he told lied, just to free himself and later he was very sad. In today, in our daily life many people are still passing through the same challenge, but the question you should asked yourself is this: must you do things because you want to fulfill people‘s expectation? or are you do it because you believe it is good for you?
The Essay on "Salvation" By Langston Hughes
... belief in God: he will be saved and received by Jesus. His aunt had told him what to expect ... when I read “Salvation” written by Langston Hughes because I run into my feeling five years ... was a Jesus any more, since he didn’t come to help me”. That final paragraph in Salvation ... Langston’s action that night- I did not cry, just a little disappointed. Langston maybe lose his ...
