“Salvation” by Langston Hughes
- What is the selection’s Thesis?
In the story of ‘Salvation,’ Hughes tells a story when the town had a church revival, and the author applies the personal observations to support his thesis that Jesus does not exist. That night Langston cried in bed, and his Aunt thought he had seen Jesus and Holy Ghost was upon him, but he was crying because he had lied in the church. The sentence with the main idea is; “I hadn’t seen Jesus, and now I didn’t believe there was Jesus anymore since he didn’t come to help me” (Nadell, Judith, & Langan, 2015).
- Pressures on young Langston during Revival Meeting
There were several pressures put on Langston, which led him to be saved. There was a social pressure as portrayed by the preacher and the Aunt who was looking upon him to be saved. Langston gets guilty by taking too long to a point where he decides to get saved. Another pressure on Langston was when he was alone on the bench, and he resolves to get saved when he realized that he was not going to see Christ. The pressure was still building up when he sees it was getting late, and the entire congregation was looking upon him (Nadell, Judith, & Langan, 2015).
- Difference between Wesley and Hughes’ attitudes
Hughes attitude is confusion and shame for keeping everyone at the meeting so late. Also, Hughes believes that Westley attitude took the Lord’s name in vain by pretending to have received Christ. As opposed to Westley, Hughes is confused since he was expecting to see the light and feel something inside which did not happen.
- Auntie Reed’s Understanding
The Aunt does not understand him since on the night of revival he was crying, and Aunt Reed thought he had received Jesus and Holy Ghost. However, the narrator laments because he had not seen Jesus. The narrator cannot tell his Aunt the truth since she is a religious person, and he could not tell her the experience at the church and that he no longer believes in existence if Christ.