Salvation: Langston Hughes' Powerful Testimony

In the short essay Salvation by Langston Hughes, the author describes the time he was “saved” by Jesus. He goes on to explain how he was saved and when he saved and what his family thinks of him now that he is saved. He also states that he doesn’t believe in jesus because he never saw jesus how everyone said he would. He got “saved” to make the church and his family proud.

In the beginning of the story he is at church with other children sitting on the mourners’ bench. They are all sitting there waiting to go to the altar to get saved. As he is sitting at the altar he is starting to see more kids go up to the front because they saw jesus and are no saved. However, it isn’t the same for him, he keeps sitting there and keeps praying for jesus to come save him. Pretty soon there is only two kids left, him and a kid named Westley, Westley gets inpatient and says to him “God Damn! I’m tired o’ sitting here. Let’s get up and be saved” (p98). Westley gets up to go get “saved” but he doesn’t, he sits there and continues to wait for Jesus. As time goes on he realizes he hasn’t seen Jesus and probably isn’t going to, but he ends up going up anyways to make the church and his family proud. That night when he goes home he begins to cry in his bed because he feels badly about lying to the church and his family.

I relate to this short essay a lot. All throughout my life religion was pressured on me and it was something I had to believe in. I was never able to decide for myself if I believed in Jesus or not because it was always pushed on me and to my family I was already a believer and saved. I didn’t decide for myself what I believed in until I was 16 years old at church. Everyone was so excited to be saved and to see Jesus but I never did. So I decided for myself that day and that time and moment that I was not a believer.

The short essay “Salvation” by Langston Hughes was a great story, the way he wrote his story made you feel like you could relate to his story and feel his emotions. While reading this story I could relate to most parts of story, especially when he was in his bed crying because he felt so bad about not lying to his family and church.

Works Cited

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