Salvation

     In the beginning of Langston Hughes short story, "Salvation", he uses a lot of choppy sentences.  I liked this because it was straight forward and he cuts to the chase.  "I was saved from sin when I was going on thirteen.  But not really saved.  It happened like this." It seems a bit juvenile, like an elementary student would write this, but he began his story this way for a reason.

    In the second paragraph, Hughes sets up the story by telling us how his Aunt made it sound like being saved by Christ was so exciting. He uses a couple of exclamation marks to emphasize this and I believe he uses foreshadow in the sentence, "I believed her." Later to not believe that Christ exists at all. 

   Hughes conveys a lot of irony in his story which might also be the theme.  Young Hughes went to church with the mission to be saved and he came out not even believing in God any more, which came as a shock to me.  He had the entire church there praying for him, and he lied in front of all of them because he didn't "see" Jesus.  It was hot and crowded in the church, much like it would be in hell.  Seeing that God hadn't punished Westley, the boy sitting next to Hughes, for lying about being saved, he went ahead and lied too; later to feel guilty about his decision.

    I find his story comical in a way, for it seems so typical for that little boy next to Hughes to say, "God damn! I'm tired o' sitting here.  Let's get up and be saved." I think that's what any twelve year old boy would do.  From my own experience, I feel like I've done this before too.  When I was smaller and went to a Catholic church, I had no idea what I was doing but I didn't want to be singled out so I just followed along.

    Hughes was simply being pushed to conform to all the other "lambs", or kids.  With the pressures his Aunt had placed on his shoulders, poor Hughes didn't want to disappoint anyone.  This sounds really familiar.  Everyday people give in to conformity: the way we dress, the things we buy, & sometimes the music we listen to.  When others step out of that box, they're judged instantly, even criticized.  Hughes was probably afraid of being criticized had he not gone up to be "saved".