¨Trumpeter of Lenox and 7th / through Jesse B. Semple,/ you simply celebrated Blues and Bebop / and beling black before / it was considered hip.¨ (Wesley Boone). Although the poems ¨Long Live Langston¨ by Wesley Boone, and ¨The weary Blues¨ by Langston Hughes were written in different time periods and with different purposes, the poems show similarities such as using similar figurative language to express an idea, and differences such as communicating different themes. Here are some examples of the similarities and differences shown throughout the poems.
“Salvation” is a short story by Langston Hughes describing a boy when he discovered a significant truth about faith and religion. The last paragraph of “Salvation” functions as an epiphany for the boy. An epiphany is an experience of sudden and striking realization. It can also mean the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi. This event helps shape the boy’s religious understanding far differently from what his Aunt Reed believes. According to his aunt, a light appears if you are saved from sin, and something happens inside of you. The boy hears adults mentioning the same light, which further leads him to believe his aunt. He is the last child in the church along with a boy named Westley to not see the light.
The idea that hardships may bring out of someone something they did not know they had within them is something that many people believe. American culture is one that admires resolve in the face of hardship as we believe that is when someone shines that most. However adversity does not always bring out something that was not being shown before but rather gives a new direction to talents that someone already has. Adversity may push some to recognize talents they did not they had, like for example taking an advance class in a subject they did not like but finding they are talented in understanding the subject. While adversity may help people discover a talent or build their character, adversity just mostly puts their talents to use in a different way or showcases people’s character.
Langston Hughes 's shifting attitude toward salvation in his essay was disappointing and at the same time upsetting. He 's disappointed and upset because he was forced to believe in the situation that something will happen to him inside before he accept Jesus but instead it did not happen. Most of the time we are pressured to accept an idea of what others belief, not because we agree to it but instead we intentionally do it for them to stop asking. Some felt the guilt after, and do something about it but most of the time we just let it go and move on.
What is the American Dream? Many people have tried to explain the dream, or how they feel about the dream. Most try to be all patriotic and country loving like Walt Whitman... But others like Langston Hughes reveal a darker side of the dream.
Life is a short four lettered word which blows in the wind and silences everyone at once when it finally ends. What keeps you holding on is your faith; faith that things will get better and they do indeed. Your faith is what keep holding on which ties into your religion; moreover, the God(s) you believe in. Furthermore, everyone has pressured events in life which changes them for the best or worst; moreover, these events change our course of life and ] affect our future. As an example, Langston Hughes, as a child, was pressured to believe something he did not simply believe because he was sought out as a outcast. A outcast for not feeling the spirit enough or seeing Jesus; his spirit not feeding on Jesus and ashamed of himself for not being
“Beware of the Easter Bunny” by Charles Colson, “Letter from Birmingham Alabama” by Dr. Martin Luther King, and “Salvation” by Langston Hughes depict the ways human have the wrong definition of Christianity. People often expect from God and what He can do, but do not understand the true concept of Christianity.
In “Salvation,” Langston Hughes presents his momentous coming-of-age story as a dark and saddening ending to his childhood that provides the reader with understanding of the loss of innocence; and faith he faced and how it impacted who he came to be. Hughes makes a strong implication that children become less and less innocent over time. Hughes himself proves that through the tone of his entire essay. It begins with a light toned; yet still ironic introduction, but ends with a dark, depressing final line. Hughes supplies his reader with multiple literary devices such as imagery, flashbacks, and irony to present this comparison of his younger self and his older self.
Langston Hughes short story “Salvation” epitomizes what is an internal struggle for many people, especially children, who want so badly to believe what they have been taught all their lives by their relatives, elders in the church and the preacher; that to have a relationship with God, you must be saved and only then will you be able to see him. Hughes’ Aunt Reed paints such a vivid picture of that idea beginning in the story’s second chapter: “My aunt told me that when you were saved you saw a light, and something happened to you inside! And Jesus came into your life! And God was with you from then on! She said you could see and hear and feel Jesus in your soul.” (Hughes)
Hughes thought he was going to actually see Jesus, and after a while when he didn’t see him, he lied about it just so he could be “saved”. He didn’t even believe in Jesus anymore. “So I decided that maybe to save further trouble, I’d better lie too, and say that Jesus had come, and get up and be saved. So I got up.” (Hughes, 300). The only reason he had gotten up because he had waited and waited to see Jesus and the other little boy had also lied about seeing Jesus. Hughes was the last person in the church that was
In Langston Hughes short story Salvation, he reminiscences about his Auntie Reed’s churches attempt to “save” him at the age of twelve. The preacher holds a distinctive affair for the children which he calls “bringing the young lambs to the fold.” Each child sits on a mourner’s bench and slowly but surely each one stands, are received by the preacher, and subsequently saved by Jesus. Langston observes while all his peers stand up and are saved, while he sits and waits for Jesus to truly reveal himself; however, he is dumbfounded when another boy named Wesley blasphemes and is not subsequently struck dead. Langston had sat at the mourner’s bench for a considerable amount of time and was badgered by the grinning Wesley who sat proudly on the platform above. Reluctantly, he rose to join his peers
In the poem “I, Too”, the author Langston Hughes illustrates the key aspect of racial discrimination faces against the African Americans to further appeals the people to challenge white supremacy. He conveys the idea that black Americans are as important in the society.
In “Salvation” by Langston Hughes, he recalls a time from his childhood when he was at church. All the children of the church were being “saved” until he was eventually the last one who wasn’t. Feeling tired and pressured, Langston stood, declaring he had been saved. He felt horrible for lying, but the pressure placed upon him by the entire church outweighed the feeling of guilt. Similarly, people of all types experience a feeling similar to Langston’s; something called peer pressure. Everyone succumbs to peer pressure at some point in their lives, good and bad. In Langston’s case, he is a victim of peer pressure and feels awful for succumbing to it in the first place.
The Harlem Renaissance was an artistic and cultural movement during the 1920s and the 1930s. It was sparked by a migration of nearly one million African-Americans who moved to the prospering north to escape the heavy racism in the south and to partake in a better future with better tolerance. Magazines and newspapers owned by African-Americans flourished, poets and music artists rose to their feet. An inspiration swept the people up and gave them confidence.
In Hughes story, Salvation, a young boy is worshipping with his aunt when he is soon escorted to the front of the church and placed on the mourners’ bench with several other children his