Analysis Of Langston Hughes's Short Story 'Salvation'

That Saved Day Most children that are raised in the Charismatic Christian church, experience the epiphany of being saved at some point their childhood. Some may grow up and remain saved, some may later have doubts that they ever truly felt Jesus, which may lead them to doubt his existence at all. Langston Hughes tells of his experience of being saved from his sins in his short story titled “Salvation.” Hughes tells of his salvation beginning during revival at his aunt’s church. On a night just before the ending the revival ended, the pastor hosted a special sermon for the children in attendance. Langston found himself being escorted along with the other children to the front row of the church, shortly after the service had begun. When

“I was saved from sin when I was going on thirteen. But not really saved.” (Hughes 432), leaves the reader curious as to what he means. You get drawn in by his opening sentence which, keeps you reading. His method of writing this short story leaves the opening and conclusion contradicting each other tremendously. Hughes was “saved” in the opening before he begins to tell series of events as they begin to happen. Whereas, he stopped believing in Jesus entirely as the story goes on. How can a person be saved but not really believe in Jesus at

The reader is inspired to find out what type of person they are based on the three images that are brought out in this story. There are those that believe in the existence of God without a shadow of a doubt, like Langston’s aunt, those who just go with the flow, such as Westley, and, finally those who do not believe in God at all. Langston in the end of his recollection begins to doubt the existence of Jesus simply because he thought that a person could not be saved until Jesus literally came to him in the human form. When he did not experience “seeing” Jesus, his feelings changed from confusion to guilt and sadness. He could only cry in his bed later that night because he could not bear to tell his aunt why he actually went up. He knew that if he told her how he truly felt, it would absolutely crush her spirits and leave her extremely upset and possibly angry at him for faking the whole