Langston Hughes Salvation Summary

Marlene Lozano-Trinidad
Lutrell
AP Lang. and Comp.
15 October 2017
Driven To Apostasy
Writer and member of the 1920’s literary movement, Langston Hughes, in his autobiographical essay, Salvation, elucidates the loss of innocence and faith due to the pressure of accepting a concept that he has yet to acknowledge. Hughes’ purpose is to describe his childhood experience of the burden to be saved by Jesus, resulting in his loss of faith. He adopts a solemn, yet disappointing tone to convey his childhood event and argues the unqualified religious pressure.
Hughes narrative essay commenced with a contradiction intended to entice the audience and evoke skepticism on his “salvation”. He portrayed real-life situations and cultural differences in the

1) but was mislead to believe he would be. He enticed the audience's attention to provoke an inquiry into the nature of his preservation. It is vital to comprehend that at the certain age of twelve and thirteen the adolescents are finding their place in their congregation; it becomes difficult for some to surrender to the pressure of the congregation. The “lambs” ( Hughes para. 3 ) were to be strengthen into the inclusion of the elder’s society, thus they would be accepting of their church and faith. Despite the fact Hughes needed physical credibility to believe in Jesus, he wanted to believe his aunt regarding his newcome salvation. He realized that in reality he was not saved, rather he was corrupted by the pressure from the congregation leading to the loss of

He believed that since they were older and had more knowledge “they ought to know” ( Hughes, para. 2 ) the events that would occur during the religious revival, thus he presumed his aunt spoke the truth. As children, they were taught to trust and respect their elders, thus, Langston in his younger years followed the orders of his aunt; the lies fed to him in his adolescent years destroyed his virtues. He was disappointed and “ashamed” ( Hughes para. 11 ) once he recognized that Jesus would not reveal himself. His disappointment conveyed the parallelism and repetition of “nothing” ( Hughes para. 7 ). Specifically when he realized that “nothing happened” ( Hughes para. 7 ) during the religious revival he started to doubt himself and reflect how foolish his actions were. The shift in the narrative emphasized that he no longer believed in his religious salvation and punishment for his sins. He “got up” ( Hughes para. 12 ) from his placement in his sins while the rest of the children had confirmed so easily; Hughes could not understand the figurative language of the salvation. Hughes expected to physically see Jesus because of the adults in his life have enlightened him that he would, although they manipulated him to believe he would be