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Salvation Langston Hughes Summary

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Langston Hughes wrote a short story called “Salvation” which follows the events of a young Langston Hughes sitting in a church waiting to be saved by Jesus. Only he is never truly saved. Langston, amongst all the other children, waited patiently to be delivered before his Aunt and all those in the church. As the night continued children began to embrace Jesus one by one until it came down to Langston and one other boy, Westley. Langston and Westley endured the wait endlessly. The boy next to Langston stood up and was pseudo-saved, no longer wanting to wait for something he knew wasn’t going to happen. Feelings of confusion, fear, and shame swarmed Langston as he was the only one left in front of the entire community. Pressure and fear break Langston, forcing him up. The church breaks into song and prayer. Later that night, ashamed of lying and deceiving the church, Langston cried himself to sleep. Coming to the realization that he no longer believed in the higher power. Personally, although the story ends with Langston no longer believing in Jesus, I hold the belief that this expressive narration is written to show pressure of community and family can force people to act. The primary purpose of this work is to be expressive. The entire story is filled with Langston 's feelings and emotion of the events that unfold that night in the church. For example in the middle of the narration, Langston says “I kept waiting serenely for Jesus, waiting...but nothing happened

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