“Salvation”
Summary
In the reading, “Salvation” by Langston Hughes it gives the reader a front row seat into a Church congregation and the perspective from a twelve-year old boy named Langston who was brought by his aunt to “See the light” and be “Saved” at this big revival. Throughout the passage, the readers can see the transition as the younger kids, along with the narrator, are all one by one supposed to give their lives over to Jesus. As the Pastor and all the congregation are praying and singing for the kids to be saved, Langston is wondering when his time will come for him to “See Jesus” but he is not alone as there is one more boy named, Westley, who also has yet to be saved. More and more time passes and at this point Westley is fed up with waiting and says to Langston…show more content… I’m tired o’ sitting here. Let’s get up and be saved.” And at that moment he was saved. Not only did Westley lie about being saved, but what can that really mean where he stands in his religion and his walk with God. But after this “revelation” Langston gets this uncertain feeling and really questions if he will eventually see Jesus in this revival, but he just can’t bear keeping the congregation waiting so long. So all the praying, shouting, and singing finally got to Langston and he decided to make the same decision that Westley did, and that was to just go up to the altar and proclaim that he has been saved and finally saw Jesus. After all this is done and Langston is back home he goes to his room and just starts to cry, his aunt thinks that this is just because the “Holy Ghost has come into his life and he had seen Jesus,” but in reality, Langston was crying because he had deceived everyone in the church and just couldn’t bear telling them that he lied but the most major revelation is that he didn’t really know if he believed if there possibly was a God since he didn’t have the chance to encounter