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Sang Hyun Lee Writing 1010 Section 09 9/27/2013 Readers Response #1: Salvation by Langston Hughes In a short story named Salvation by Langston Hughes, author describes how he had lost his faith through the pressure of adults on him in salvation at church. Young Langston tries to hear and feel the soul in Jesus as adults in church asked him to. As time passed by, most of the children in the church stood up and got saved, but Langston stayed in his seat to see the real Jesus. Adults kept pressuring young Langston by praying and crying next to him. At last, he had to stand up although he never saw the actual Jesus. This event that happened in the church made him cry with a guilt that he lied to everyone, and consequently he lost his faith toward Jesus for not showing up when he needed help badly. I have similar experience that Langston went through. Author wrote, She said you could see and hear and feel Jesus in your soul. When I was young in elementary school, that quote exactly describes what my mother always said to me. I deeply believed in her that I could hear and feel Jesus inside my soul. I never missed church and I loved to read Bible. I was a great Christian until my friends bragged to me that they saw Jesus. They said that Jesus came to them in a sudden and helped them to get what they want. I prayed every night asking him to show up, but he never did. From then, I began to dislike Jesus for favoring my friends instead of me. However, now as a college student and a Christian, I know what real faith is. It is to believe although I cant listen, look, or hear him. However, the experience that I had when I was young is still in my mind just like how the event at church affected Langston Hughes. Langston Hughes in Salvation uses narrative view point to vividly describe his feelings when he was young. By writing this in that perspective, he gives credibility of what

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had happened, and holds on to the feelings that he felt as a young kid. He also uses irony in the very first sentence of the story which is I was saved from sin when I was going on thirteen. As readers read along the story, they can figure out that he wasnt really saved from sin but felt the sin for lying and deceiving. These strategies that he used worked perfectly with the main idea because he could make the readers feel how he exactly felt back then as a young child. Also, the irony makes the readers to think about the first line that he wrote.