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Bibliography essay on langston hughes
Research essay on langston hughes
Research essay on langston hughes
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A look back at "Salvation" by Langston Hughes
Our story begins like many other stories with a setting, main character, and a catchy introduction. Like many other stories it attracts the reader’s attention with something vague, making the person reading the story want to continue on further into the piece. This reading is like many other’s which portray real life situations, and show a different culture coming from a first person point of view. In the story, the main character, Langston, is a young boy who seems to be going through a common religious ritual that is normally bestowed upon young people when they reach a certain age in what seems to be a different sort of society. At this age, young people are asked, or maybe better yet, told to believe in God, and only then will these children be able to achieve pure "salvation." This is highly evident within the first paragraph where the author writes, "Then just before the revival ended, they held a special meeting for children, "to bring the young lambs to the fold"" (Hughes 1). It is during these ceremonies that Langston feels that he has almost committed a crime for which his sins will never be forgiven.
Throughout the reading, the author explains the process that these young children are put through during a ritualistic ceremony. The process according to the author is the path to righteousness, or the way to God. “My aunt told me that when you were 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” (1). The last passage really tells the reader what the ritual entails, or what young Langston and his peers should and will be experiencing during this process to “salvation.”
The piece as a whole is very descriptive from the way Hughes talks about “wonderful rhythmical sermon” (Hughes 1), to the way he illustrates the people around then, their actions, and the detailed narration of events. He even goes into detail about his friend Westley who he feels did not find salvation in God, but was so tired of sitting there waiting for something to happen, that he pretends to be saved and that he has seen the light.
Frederick Douglass’s memoir, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” describes Douglass’s life as a slave who through a multitude of experiences, reaches his path to freedom. He inherently has a life very disparate to that of a traditional slave. Through good fortune Douglass is able to escape the clutches of back-breaking agricultural work, and instead is given away as a personal slave. While working for the Auld family he receives a somewhat un-strenuous experience, in which he is able to clandestinely become literate. Douglass’s autobiography is a story in which the savior and key to salvation does not take physical form, but lies in literacy. In this memoir, Douglass goes through a process of understanding, in
...fact, it is the saving grace of mankind: the hope that God will save society and establish harmony and justice. The modern story takes the opposite view; it shows what happens when hope is lost, when society has nowhere to turn: it is a more pessimistic, more complicated view of humanity’s progress.
As a child, Hazel Motes is indoctrinated in religious fundamentalism by his grandfather, “a circuit preacher, a waspish old man… with Jesus hidden in his head like a stinger” (9). Time after time young Haze hears the searing sermon of his Bible-thumping grandfather who, in front of a crowd, would point to his grandson, “that mean sinful unthinking boy,” and pronounced him “redeemed”: “That boy had been redeemed and Jesus was not going to leave him ever…. Jesus would have him in the end!” (10). Understanding Jesus as the “soul-hungry” devourer, as “something awful,” the boy very early comes to the conclusion that “the way to avoid Jesus was to avoid sin” and, at the age of twelve, decides to follow the preacher’s calling like his grandfather. Furthermore, Haze’s mother, with “a cross-shaped face” reinforces the fundament- alist piety in her son by equating the boy’s germination sexuality with sin. Her chilling question “what you seen?,” to the shame-faced boy who just had a peek at a naked w...
A small church congregation comes together for Sunday evening mass. The congregation is made up of close friends and family. The novel is centered around the Grimes family. They go to a Baptist church, “Temple of the Fire Baptized” and it is a very close congregation where every member has a personal bond with one another. This fact, I believe, adds to the dynamics of the way they worship and ultimately the way they identify with God.
As he was living in the Auld’s household for about seven years, at the expensive of Mrs. Auld he was educated to read and write as a young boy. At Mr. Auld’s dismay the lessons and tutoring is forced to come to an end, even though we see the shared similarities between Mrs. Auld and Douglass. Similar to pharaoh’s situation, her heart has hardened as a result of her husband’s commands. By this time we know that Douglass possesses the knowledge of the alphabet, leaving nothing in his way for reading except the understanding of words. It is here that he makes an exchange for bread to the poor local boys who provide him with reading lessons. The boys themselves see that Douglass is no less a boy than they are except the separation of
In Langston Hughes’ essay “Salvation,” Langston talks about the first time he is going to be saved from sin. Langston is a young boy around the age of thirteen. He is going to church to see Jesus for the first time. In which case, he truly experiences religion for the first time in his life. Throughout this essay Langston uses many narrative techniques such as, imagery, metaphors, and irony to explain his interpretation of that one night when he did not see Jesus.
This poem at first seemed straightforward to me. As I read it more closely and thought about it more I began to put bits and pieces together. I think Hughes has done a wonderful job of describing the slave experience, from the beginning of his narrative to the end, which is when he starts to realize that a brighter future might exist. The way it was written made me really think about what it was Hughes was trying to say. This poem made me realize that a great many people suffered as slaves. These people lived their whole lives in this capacity, most without hope of any change of status. I felt like I was putting together a jigsaw puzzle and it was a good feeling when I finally saw what I believe Hughes wanted me to see.
Like Wilkins’s piece this narrative was very easy to follow. But where the two differ is Savory’s piece has more details to make her point and even includes other stories she has read or been told. It could have just as easily been a jumbled mess, but all the details she included lead into one another and kept a constant flow. Take for example these few sentences, “In the past, the Bible has been used to justify slavery, segregation, and even denying women the right to vote. As the daughter of a minister, all of this seems strange to me. Like my father, I would like to think that religion is better suited to promoting love—not hate.” (Savory). The detail of how in the past people have used religion to justify their hate leads right into her talking about being a preacher’s daughter. Another effective point in Savory’s writing is the constant use of symbols. Such as the light vs. dark symbol that is so important it is even the title of the story. In this case the symbol of the light being acceptance and the dark being any form of hate. For example, “The way I saw it, if I turned off the spotlight, no one would be able to see the real me. In the darkness, it was easier to hide.” (Savory). But another constant symbol is that of her linking the way African Americans were treated and how homosexuals were treated. She links her experience of what happened with the civil rights movement and what
In Langston Hughes 's definition essay entitled "Salvation" he discusses the social and emotional pressures that effect young people. He pulls in his own experiences from being an active member in his church, and the moment he was supposed to experience revival of twelve. Hughes 's purpose for writing this definition essay is to show the peer pressures and internal conflicts that come from both church and the religious community, and his personal experiences that led to the pressures that were put upon him in his youth. The audiences that “Salvation” was pointed towards are adults; it shows the pressures that are put upon the youth, while the child does not fully grasp the idea being expressed to them. Langston Hughes 's overall message to
...hing “bad” happened they found a way to rejoice in the suffering. The Puritan believers were selfish with sharing their faith. A plantation missionary stated that sharing the gospel to slaves would “promote our own mortality and religion.” However the gospel and religion the masters shared with their slaves did not remain the same. The slaves were able to apply their faith to their lives, their work, and their future. The faith the slaves possessed was rich in emotion and free from preexisting regulations. In this class we focus on the many faces and interoperations of Christ that change with the seasons of history. The slave faith represented in Jupiter Hammon’s poem shows a high level of integrity and selfless, personal application of faith. The emotion and need for Christ the slaves had during this time created a new realm of relationship in the evangelical era.
Langstons use of rhetorical questions keeps the poem interesting and alive. It implies its own answer
In the Christian religion, like many others, the belief in a single, ultimate, powerful being is upheld and practiced. However, unlike other monotheistic religions, the Christian belief in God is expressed in three parts: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This aspect of Christianity is very unique and is part of what defines it. Although some people may think so, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not three separate beings. They are united as one in the Trinity, the same all-powerful God. God is the creator of all and the reason for our salvation as humans. “On the Incarnation” by St. Athanasius is a book explaining the Trinity and the process by which our Savior, Jesus Christ the Son, was revealed to us and how he redeemed us.
Throughout the story, the boy went through a variety of changes that will pose as different themes of the story including alienation, transformation, and the meaning of religion. The themes of this story are important to show the growth of the young boy into a man. Without alienation, he wouldn't have understand the complexity of his feelings and learned to accept faults. With transformation, he would have continued his boyish games and wouldn't be able to grow as a person and adolescence. And finally, without understanding the religious aspects of his life, he would go on pretending he is somebody that he's not. He wouldn't understand that there is inconsistency between the real and ideal life (Brooks et al.).
In his first opening story his use of descriptive words like lovable and furry helps the congregants envision the story in their mind as if they were watching it unfold. This opening story follows Wilson’s idea to open a sermon by “starting with a not-too-serious experience of the general theme.” The second story encountered in his sermon that reinforces his theme is also descriptive and is told like one was experience watching a scene in a
The views and beliefs of the people of that era were if anything to an extreme. Whatever they believed they worshipped with a vengeance. This extreme faith can be compared to the current time "Career Goal." If the people of today can not pursue a career and succeed, they feel as if their life has no meaning. This most likely has its roots from the protestant work ethic. The ethic, in general, says that you must work hard to please God and compete for a place in heaven. This story is about such people. The modern day person has taken this work ethic and given it a greedy twist. People of today fight for position, status or power just as much as the pioneer puritans worshiped and studied the bible. The puritans would take the word of bible as the word, without interpretation, only translation by the minister of the community. Although these career driven people do not have a book to guide their path, they pursue it none the less. Some of these people have lost, or never had the belief, of reaching heaven, or even its existance. These people are the peers of the believers and set the rules or guidelines for career goals. So in effect the status in the community is a way of saying they are better. The people who do not believe in any god-like being fight in an effort to make their mark on the world, for this is the only they can be recognized or