"Salvation"

By Langston Hughes Comment [A1]: The essay begins with a stark

contradiction. This is likely intended to entice the
audience and provoke an inquiry into the nature of
his “salvation.”
Comment [A2]: This detail establishes
I was saved from sin when I was going on thirteen. But not really saved. It happened like this. expectation placed on narrator.

There was a big revival at my Auntie Reed's church. Every night for weeks there had been much Comment [A3]: Hughes uses polysyndeton to
“pile on” the aunt’s proclamations. This also mimics
preaching, singing, praying, and shouting, and some very hardened sinners had been brought to the confused manner in which children hear and
Christ, and the membership of the church had grown by leaps and bounds. Then just before the articulate lists.
revival ended, they held a special meeting for children, "to bring the young lambs to the fold." Comment [A4]: Syntax change to emphasize the
My aunt spoke of it for days ahead. That night I was escorted to the front row and placed on the naivety of the youth, which is ushered by the
punctuated excitement from the aunt in the
mourners' bench with all the other young sinners, who had not yet been brought to Jesus. previous sentences.
Comment [A5]: The child is likely taking what his
My aunt told me that when you were saved you saw a light, and something happened to you aunt said literally. The juxtaposition of the visceral
inside! And Jesus came into your life! And God was with you from then on! She said you could environmental observations that precede this
statement only further underscores the likelihood
see and hear and feel Jesus in your soul. I believed her. I had heard a great many old people say that the child misunderstood his aunt.
the same thing and it seemed to me they ought to know. So I sat there calmly in the hot, crowded Comment [A6]: Again, we have an experience
church, waiting for Jesus to come to me. that is devoid of the abstractions of a sermon.
Instead, the narrator hears it as music.

The preacher preached a wonderful rhythmical sermon, all moans and shouts and lonely cries Comment [A7]: The sermon is being portrayed
as a contrive system of persuasion. It isn’t likely
and dire pictures of hell, and then he sang a song about the ninety and nine safe in the fold, but happenstance that the song was evoked before the
one little lamb was left out in the cold. Then he said: "Won't you come? Won't you come to children were called forth. This is evidence of the
Jesus? Young lambs, won't you come?" And he held out his arms to all us young sinners there on adult narrator making a judgment that the child’s
persona wouldn’t likely make.
the mourners' bench. And the little girls cried. And some of them jumped up and went to Jesus
Comment [A8]: Again, Hughes uses a syntactic
right away. But most of us just sat there. shift from a longer sentence to a shorter one to
emphasize the latter.
A great many old people came and knelt around us and prayed, old women with jet-black faces Comment [A9]: Hughes’s description of the old
and braided hair, old men with work-gnarled hands. And the church sang a song about the lower people illustrates the stark contrast of the young
“lambs” and the persistent elders. The imagery
lights are burning, some poor sinners to be saved. And the whole building rocked with prayer could be taken as either antithesis to the youth
and song. and/or as frightening.
Comment [A10]: The italicized emphasis of
Still I kept waiting to see Jesus. “see” leaves little doubt of the conundrum. The
narrator took his aunt’s description literally.
Comment [A11]: The irony of a child coming to
Finally all the young people had gone to the altar and were saved, but one boy and me. He was a God because he tires of sitting rather than because
rounder's son named Westley. Westley and I were surrounded by sisters and deacons praying. It of a spiritual epiphany creates a humorous shift in
was very hot in the church, and getting late now. Finally Westley said to me in a whisper: "God the narrative. This use of irony also reinforces the
audience’s understanding of the narrator’s desire to
damn! I'm tired o' sitting here. Let's get up and be saved." So he got up and was saved. see Jesus. Even fatigue won’t dissuade him from
wanting to witness Jesus in the room.
Then I was left all alone on the mourners' bench. My aunt came and knelt at my knees and cried, Comment [A12]: The word “swirled” articulates
the dizzying circumstance for the young narrator.
while prayers and song swirled all around me in the little church. The whole congregation prayed The heat, pressure, and confusion have caused the
for me alone, in a mighty wail of moans and voices. And I kept waiting serenely for Jesus, narrator’s sense of reality to become distorted.
waiting, waiting - but he didn't come. I wanted to see him, but nothing happened to me. Nothing! Comment [A13]: Hughes uses antithesis here
I wanted something to happen to me, but nothing happened. with “wail of moans” and “serenely” to create a
contrast and build tension.
Comment [A14]: The parallelism of “nothing
happened,” as well as the repetition of “nothing”
conveys the disappointment of the narrator’s
unrealized wish to see Jesus.
I heard the songs and the minister saying: "Why don't you come? My dear child, why don't you Comment [A15]: Here, the narrator is called by
name by the minister to pressure him to submit.
come to Jesus? Jesus is waiting for you. He wants you. Why don't you come? Sister Reed, what This, as well as previous attempts, portray religious
is this child's name?" salvation of the young as insincere and
manipulated.

"Langston," my aunt sobbed. Comment [A16]: Here the audience arrives at

the beginning of the epiphany. If God is an all-
powerful sentient being, how could he accept a lie?
"Langston, why don't you come? Why don't you come and be saved? Oh, Lamb of God! Why Westley mocks Jesus with his sinful pride and
playful “knickerbockered and grinning” derision.
don't you come?"
Comment [A17]: His indoctrinated sense of
ethics is challenged by Westley’s blasphemy. The
Now it was really getting late. I began to be ashamed of myself, holding everything up so long. I narrator’s belief system is a lie.
began to wonder what God thought about Westley, who certainly hadn't seen Jesus either, but Comment [A18]: This short paragraph
who was now sitting proudly on the platform, swinging his knickerbockered legs and grinning emphasizes the shift in the essay. The narrator no
longer believes in religious salvation and
down at me, surrounded by deacons and old women on their knees praying. God had not struck punishment for sin. He no longer waits “serenely”
Westley dead for taking his name in vain or for lying in the temple. So I decided that maybe to for Jesus.
save further trouble, I'd better lie, too, and say that Jesus had come, and get up and be saved. Comment [A19]: Here Hughes uses two
metaphors that connect the elation in the room to
water. The shouting is immense, as a sea is large.
So I got up. The rejoicing washed over him like powerful waves
with enough force to “sweep the place.” Perhaps
Suddenly the whole room broke into a sea of shouting, as they saw me rise. Waves of rejoicing the narrator is drowning in the hubbub that
ironically follows an insincere salvation. Perhaps
swept the place. Women leaped in the air. My aunt threw her arms around me. The minister took Hughes is mocking the ignorance of the elders and
me by the hand and led me to the platform. their lack of situational awareness.
Comment [A20]: They have all gained
When things quieted down, in a hushed silence, punctuated by a few ecstatic "Amens," all the “salvation” though none have had a religious
awakening.
new young lambs were blessed in the name of God. Then joyous singing filled the room.
Comment [A21]: This sentence, a sort of
periodic sentence, builds tension as it develops.
That night, for the first time in my life but one for I was a big boy twelve years old - I cried. I What did he do for the first time in his life? He
cried. This change is disposition is alarming. While
cried, in bed alone, and couldn't stop. I buried my head under the quilts, but my aunt heard me. the narrator was troubled and annoyed in the
She woke up and told my uncle I was crying because the Holy Ghost had come into my life, and previous sentences, he cries here. This is intended
to invite the audience to consider the reasons for
because I had seen Jesus. But I was really crying because I couldn't bear to tell her that I had lied, this change in behavior.
that I had deceived everybody in the church, that I hadn't seen Jesus, and that now I didn't Comment [A22]: Repetition is used here to
emphasize the change.
believe there was a Jesus anymore, since he didn't come to help me.
Comment [A23]: He is ashamed or doesn’t want
to clarify.
Comment [A24]: She assumes but makes no
effort to investigate. Like the church proceedings
before, the elders are portrayed as either naïve or
dismissive of a reality that conflicts with their
romantically religious desires.
Comment [A25]: The irony of “see” is revisited
here.
Comment [A26]: This ultimate sentence delivers
the heft of the essay. Yes, the narrator was
ashamed of his lying and deception. (This might be
the audience’s first rationale for his crying earlier in
the essay), but his despair is rooted in something
more profound; he lost his faith. Ironically, in a
ritual that was intended to strengthen the “lambs’”
inclusion into the church, Christianity, and the
elders’ society, this child lost his faith in all of the
above. Additionally, the choppy polysyndetic,
cumulative sentence’s syntax further builds the
tension of the epiphany.