Essay On Salvation - Grade: A+ PDF

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JOURNAL # 6: LANGSTON HUGHES: SALVATION

SECTION (A): SUMMARY "Salvation" begins with the narrator stating he was "saved from sin" when he was twelve. Then he announces he was not really saved, explaining what happened. A religious revival was in town and had proven quite popular. His Aunt Reed attended every night for a week. On the final evening, the churchgoers' children were invited to give them a chance at salvation. If he was saved, Aunt Reed had told him, he would see a light, meaning Jesus had come into his life. The boy believed her very literally; he had heard other adults mention the same light. So he sat in church, waiting to see this mysterious light and for a big change. The preacher's sermon was very powerful. His words made some young girls cry as they anxiously went to the preacher to be saved. Many youngsters, however, continued to sit, unmoved. Even after many adults prayed at the children's feet, the narrator refused to move until he saw Jesus. In the end, he and his friend Westley were the only ones left. Westley whispered that he was tired of sitting there, so he walked up as if he had seen the light, so he might be saved too. Though his aunt continued to pray for him, nothing happened. He could not understand this and felt ashamed. He wondered what God thought of Westley; God had not, after all, struck him dead for lying. So the narrator decided it might make less trouble if he, too, lied about seeing Jesus. So he stood up, and the whole congregation burst into shouts of joy. For the first time in his life, later that night, he cried. When his aunt heard, she believed the tears were caused by the Holy Ghost, but the boy was crying because he could not bear to tell her he had lied to her and the congregation. Not only had he not seen Jesus, the whole experience left his belief in shambles. If there were a God, why had Jesus not appeared to him to save him?

SECTION(B): WRITING POINT AND QUOTATIONS

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“Still I kept waiting to see jesus”

Because on his aunt’s explanation, he thought he had to see jesus in order to be saved. Therefore he did not know what it truly meant to be saved, let alone be able to commit to a religion.

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“And i kept waiting for jesus, waiting, waiting- but he didn’t come. I wanted to see him, but nothing happened to me Nothing!”

Despite his patience, he feels jesus never came to save him. The repetition for the words “waiting” and “nothing” showed how long he waited and felt that nothing could happen.

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“I began to feel ashamed of myself.”

The pressure that he felt made him feel ashamed of himself for not seeing jesus when really it is an individual’s choice to become saved.

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“I had lied, that i had deceived everybody in the church, and i hadn’t seen jesus, cand now I didn’t believe that there was a jesus anymore, since he didn’t come to help me.”

The author achieves his purpose, because he uses a specific story from his life to give an example of how pressure can affect one’s choice. The audience is moved since it appeals to their emotions, and they are hurt at the fact that a child will not be able to accept jesus and gain salvation, because of other people’s pressure.

SECTION(C) : Response opinion on Langston Hughes's Salvation Langston Hughes explains that when he was little his family took him to church. It seems as if the people who attended church were fanatics. They prayed, moan the name of jesus, singed, read the Bible, and what not...Langston Hughes feels guilty because everyone felt jesus in their hearts and he didn't. All of the children went to the altar except him and another boy. That boy said that he didn't feel jesus but nonetheless he is going to go to the altar because everyone wants them to be in the altar. Langston felt the pressure from everyone to go to the altar were jesus was waiting for him. Even though he waited for jesus to come and touch his heart he never genuinely felt it. He succumb to the group pressure and went to the altar. At night he cried because he lied to everyone and himself. Personally I had a very similar experience to Langston, when I was about 12 to 13 years old, my mother and especially my grandmother and my aunt were believers and they wanted me to believe as well. My grandmother is a person who reads the Bible every single day, at least one chapter. And my aunt overanalyzes what the word of good means. Naturally I wanted to be with god and be saved by jesus from all the horrors I might suffer if i didn't went with God. That is the thing; I went to God not because of mere pleasure and willingness. I felt obliged to join him because then I will get lost and suffer horrible consequences. There is actually more to this story but I will only tell you that I stopped believing in the solid figure of God that the Bible presented because what I felt was fear based not out of love. I find it so unfair that since i'm a christian I have the truth and i'm saved that everyone has to believe in what i believe. What about those who are devoted to hinduism or buddhism? Are they wrong for doing what they were raised to believe? Personally I believe that a belief should be true not imposed by another....