Theme Of Salvation By Langston Hughes

Salvation by Langston Hughes depicts one boy’s search for religion and his eventual abandonment of it after this pursuit ends in failure. In the story, Hughes explores the high expectations that accompany religion, and the crushing disappointment wrought by failure to achieve such lofty goals. The essay takes the form of an anecdote in which he was presented in front of his church in order to be “saved from sin”. However, the actual outcome of the experience strays far from this anticipated result as it leads him to question the foundation of religion and the very existence of God. The contrast between the contents of the story and the title establish a sense of irony, as in no way did he achieve “salvation” but rather he is made victim of …show more content…
His purpose in this is to imply that as a result of their innocence, the kids are not capable of deceit. Hughes is described as “going on thirteen”, and this makes the application of the term “lamb” somewhat ironic as the description is ill-fitting for such an age. At the age of thirteen there one definitely possesses the ability to deceive, which is later proven by Hughes himself when he makes the decision to “save further trouble” for himself and get up, pretending to be saved. He perpetuates this irony when he describes how “all the new young lambs were blessed in the name of God” when in reality just a few moments before the majority of them had “just sat there” when they were invited to join Jesus, and like Hughes and Westley they got up because the preacher “held out his arms” and there were “moans and shouts and lonely …show more content…
The subjective diction is utilized as a tool to emphasize this fact, in the case of words such as “ashamed”, “buried”, and “couldn’t bear” which all suggest the depth of the feelings that Hughes experienced following the event, and how they contributed to his extreme reaction of doubting religion. Youth is an important idea in the story in other respects as well. It is the vessel by which the disillusionment that results from the misinterpretation of adults by children is communicated, showing that is a contributing factor in the problems that Hughes faces. His issue was that he “kept waiting to see Jesus” and it is this literal interpretation of salvation that causes religion to come into question for him. Religion is something much more metaphorical in nature for adults, but the kids’ minds do not typically head in this direction. Westley is further evidence of this, as he is very casual about the whole thing, saying “God damn! I’m tired o’ sitting