Analysis Of Salvation By Langston Hughes

The world wants us to take part in things that we might not want to but we feel pressured by society or yourself. In the story, Salvation, Langston Hughes implied this perfectly. “I was saved from sin when I was going on thirteen. But not really saved” (McMahan, Day, Funk, and Coleman 279).
Langston Hughes was twelve when he was “saved.” He was at a revival at his Aunts church when he soon felted pressured to accept Jesus into his heart. He wanted to experience what everyone else was feeling but could not experience what others were. Soon he began thinking of what the other guy was feeling and began to become ashamed of himself, holding everything in for so long. Then Westley was sitting high on the thrown with Christ and Langston wanted that. Soon after Langston’s stood up to be saved, everyone started cheering and celebrating his salvation with him. Whenever he got home from the revival he cried alone in his room. His aunt thought he was crying because the Holy Spirit came into his life. Little did she know he was crying because he lied and said that he seen Jesus when he really didn’t (McMahan, Day, Funk, and Coleman 280).

This is an example of man against society.

Man verses society is when he or she struggles with the laws or beliefs of another group. Also, this is an example of man verses man, which is when the main character cannot decide what to do or think. Man verses society takes place when Langston is debating on standing up to be saved like everyone else or to sit until he sees Jesus. Langston obviously stands up because he was pressured by what everyone else is doing. That goes along with what happens in our world. Everyone gets caught up in being like everyone else, instead of just being themselves. Man verses man occurs when Langston is lying in his bed at night crying. This is when the guilt takes over because he lied about seeing Jesus. He did not see Jesus and eventually he does not believe because he did not

see.
In paragraph four we see close ups from Langston’s childhood as he was describing the older women in the church with jet black faces and had braided hair. While the old men with work gnarled hands came and prayed around him. Typically this was an elder black church so all were expected to praise and worship. The black church culture “Although diverse religious expressions exist among African Americans, research suggest commonalities among those who identify themselves as Christian: scriptural interpretation, ritual development, and religious expression that are contextually relevant to the African American experience; emphasis on spiritual as well as temporal needs of congregants and community members; and, a self-help tradition. Reliance on spirituals, call-and-response, gospel music, prayer and scriptural references that evoke both prophetic as well as priestly activity emerged as African Americans appropriated elements of Christianity and African religions to address their social reality” (Barnes 4) This relates straight from the book. Langston describes the black church gospel music playing when he was saved. Also, he was in a call-and-response situation. They sat him in front of the church and basically said “be saved.”