Salvation 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. It was the night of the big revival, and Langston, a young boy going on the age of thirteen, was brought to his Aunt Reed’s church to see Jesus and be saved from sin. His aunt told him, “when you were saved from sin you saw a light, and something happened to you inside” (219). He believed her. When he was brought to church, his aunt directed him to the front row, where he sat calmly and patiently in the heat, waiting for the preacher to begin the service. The Preacher welcomed the “young lambs” (219) and started his sermon. Towards the end of his speech he invited the young children to the altar to be saved. At this point, Langston was confused because he was not seeing Jesus before him. All the young boys and girls sprang to their feet except Langston and another boy named Westley. They were the only two left on, what the parishioners of the church called, the “mourners’ bench” (218). Finally, Westley became very restless and decided that he was not going to sit on this bench anymore. Langston was left there all alone until his aunt ran over to him and asked him why he was not going to Jesus. She knelt there and prayed for him. Langston sat there waiting for something to happen, but nothing! He truly wanted to see Jesus but he did not. Finally, he thought to himself and saw that nothing had happened to Westley for lying about not seeing Jesus. Langston then decides that he, too, will go to the altar and lie, hoping that nothing will happen to him for lying to God. Suddenly, loud cries of rejoice were heard throughout the church and everyone was pleased to see that “all the new young lambs were blessed in the name of God” (220). That night Langston cried because he did not understand why he did not see Jesus. His aunt had heard him and explained to his uncle, “the Holy Ghost had come into my life” (220). From that point on he did not believe there was a Jesus, since he d... ... middle of paper ... ...fighting his feelings about not seeing Jesus. He feels that he is lying to God and himself by getting up and being saved even though he cannot see Jesus. Even though the reader knows that he truly is being saved from sin. He is doing something good for himself. Therefore, we can see that he truly does not understand the meaning of God. He is a child on the verge of adulthood. He has every right to be confused and misinterpret religion because he is learning. Religion is metaphorical and imaginative; it is what you believe it to be. Langston Hughes found himself in a world of misunderstanding. His confusion leads him to believe that there is no Jesus. This is part of the growing process. Learning from your own experience is the most important part of life. Conflict and struggle are also important aspects of life. They define each and every part of a human’s living day. Therefore, the narrative techniques used throughout this essay truly help the reader visualize what the author sees, feels, and hears. Work Citied Hughes, Langston. “Salvation.” Subjects and Strategies. Ed. Paul Eschholz and Alfred Rosa. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1999. 218-22.
The first thing that has an impact on the “child” is when the girls tell how Sister Perpetua told them to stop “ungentlemanly boys” by saying “Stop sir! I am the Temple of the Holy Ghost!” (238). She sees how the phrase influences Miss Kirby and she herself feels “as if somebody as given her a present” (238). This phrase reappears as a motif later in the story and already in this original context the religious is confronted with the secular.
The novel Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, published in 1845, provides Americans with a firsthand look into slavery prior to the Civil War. Douglass, born a slave early into the nineteenth century, encounters and survives the task of living as a slave. Within the ninth chapter of his life, an argument arises that claims Southern Christianity differs immensely from its Northern counterpart. A majority of Christians in non-slaveholding states at the time believed that Christian slaveholders were kinder after they converted, Douglass worked to invalidate this claim. In chapter nine, the ingenious use of dispassionate tone and allusion throughout the passages support the claim that a simple conversion to Christianity only gives justification to cruel southern slaveholders.
The book begins with Whitefield's early years growing up in an inn, which exposed him to many different people, including actors. Later, Whitefield utilized what he learned from the actors and became known for his theatrical sermons. Stout traces Whitefield through some of his difficult days as a student and servitor at Oxford University. As a servitor, Whitefield was in the lowest social class and had to serve more wealthy students. During this time, he converted to Christianity and joined John Wesley's "Holy Club.
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).
In most people's lives, there comes a point in time where their perception changes abruptly; a single moment in their life when they come to a sudden realization. In Langston Hughes' 'Salvation', contrary to all expectations, a young Hughes is not saved by Jesus, but is saved from his own innocence.
The longer Langston waited, the more faith he lost. This forced Langston became like Westley, getting up out of his seat and going forward to the minister for no reason. But he didn't get up for the right reasons. This is shown when Westley said, "'God damn! I'm tired o' sitting here. Let's gut up and be saved.'" When Westley did this, he left Langston standing alone, defending his own beliefs. Langston's aunt put a lot of pressure on Langston when she said, "Langston, why don't you come? Why don't you want to be saved? Oh, Lamb of God! Why don't you come?" Searching for a handle on the moment and not knowing what to do, Langston remained seated, but he realized that in doing so, he was only hurting his aunt's love for him. She wanted to see Langston saved, and abandoned. It was due to the enormous pressure from his aunt and everyone else in the church that Langston got up.
The “sinners” were perfect sermons during the Great Awakening. Jonathan Edwards was successful with his great eloquence with powerful and fearful images of hell to persuade the congregation at Enfield to seek forgiveness and repentance. Gallagher in his analysis emphasized the auditory experience of the sermon and has coined a term known as “a recurrent pulsation” to indicate the oratorical power of Edwards to change his congregation with his voice rather than to impose any laws on them (220). Gallagher suggested to critics of “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God” to focus more on understanding Edwards’ preaching style and his approach to poetry to encourage others to analyze his writings to support American literature (221). Irrespective of what critics of “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God” would say, the facts still remain the same.
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...
The Bible shows God constantly pursuing His people and man rejecting him over and over again. This passage displays this ongoing struggle by showing all Jesus did for us and how the people still shunned and rejected him. However, this passage also gives reassurance that it is never too late to repent and accept the Lord. This passage displays some important themes of the Bible: man’s redemption, God’s forgiveness and grace, and the blessing of a relationship with God. This passage is essentially the message of the Bible in one small
Rhoads, David, Joanna Dewey and Donald Michie. 1999. Mark as Story: An Introduction To the Narrative of a Gospel. (2nd edition). Minneapolis: Fortress.
...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.
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
Critical Essays on Langston Hughes.
In Kelly Brown Douglas’ book, The Black Christ, there are a few different Jesus images. Some of these ideas coming from the Slave Era, and othe...
Stowe wrote of how the human soul is “poor” and “helpless”, but that through Jesus Christ it becomes “powerful” and “glorious.” Stowe described how Uncle Tom’s Cabin shows a parallel to Jesus Christ in how he lived in the lowest poverty and that no man was so poor and lowly that he was undeserving of the love from Jesus. Stowe detailed the American laws against African Americans in how they can “do nothing possess nothing acquire nothing but what must belong to his master.” Stowe concluded her preface by speaking of the day of reckoning and how Christ has regarded every sorrow of the African American