Salvation by Langston Hughes
“Salvation” is an excerpt from The Big Sea (1940), an autobiography by Langston Hughes (1902-1967). Poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer, and newspaper columnist, Hughes is best known for his insightful and imaginative portrayals of African-American life from the 1920s through the 1960s.
In this short narrative, Hughes recounts an incident from his childhood that deeply affected him at the time.
Access the excerpt at the following website:
https://moodle.galenaparkisd.com/pluginfile.php/101334/mod_resource/content/1/Hughes–Salvation.pdf
Read the excerpt, and answer the questions below.
Multiple Choice – Circle an answer, and explain why you chose it.
1. The first sentence: “I was saved from sin when I was going on thirteen”—proves to be an example of irony. After reading the essay, how might we reinterpret this opening sentence?
(a) As it turns out, Hughes was actually only ten years old when he was saved from sin.
(b) Hughes is fooling himself: he may think that he was saved from sin when he was a boy, but his lie in church shows that he did not want to be saved.
(c) Although the boy wants to be saved, in the end he only pretends to be saved “to save further trouble.”
(d) The boy is saved because he stands up in church and is led to the platform.
(e) Because the boy has no mind of his own, he simply imitates the behavior of his friend Westley.
2. Who has told young Langston about what he will see and hear and feel when he is saved?
(a) his friend Westley
(b) the preacher
(c) the Holy Ghost
(d) his Auntie Reed and a great many old people(e) the deacons and the old women
3. Why does Westley get up to be saved?
(a) He has seen Jesus.
(b) He is inspired by the prayers and songs of the congregation.
(c) He is frightened by the preacher’s sermon.
(d) He wants to impress the young girls.(e) He tells Langston that he is tired of sitting on the mourner’s bench.
4. Why does young Langston wait so long before getting up to be saved?
(a) He wants to get revenge against his aunt for making him go to church.
(b) He is terrified of the preacher.
(c) He is not a very religious person.
(d) He wants to see Jesus, and he is waiting for Jesus to appear.(e) He is afraid that God will strike him dead.
5. At the end of the essay, which one of the following reasons does Hughes not give to explain why he was crying?
(a) He was afraid that God would punish him for lying.
(b) He couldn’t bear to tell Auntie Reed that he had lied in church.
(c) He didn’t want to tell his aunt that he had deceived everybody in the church.
(d) He wasn’t able to tell Auntie Reed that he had not seen Jesus.(e) He couldn’t tell his aunt that he didn’t believe that there was a Jesus anymore.
Questions on Content, Structure, and Style
1. What would be gained or lost if the essay began with the first two sentences combines as follows: “I was saved from sin when I was going on thirteen, but I was not really saved”?
2. What is salvation? Is it important to young Hughes that he be saved? What makes the story of his being saved at the revival meeting?
3. How does Hughes create the scene in the revival meeting? Which sensory details of sight and sound are particularly effective in reflecting the emotions of the characters and helping the reader feel present at the church?
4. Which people in his life are pressuring the twelve-year-old Hughes to be “saved”?
5. Why does Hughes resist going to the altar with the rest of the children? What sense of conflict does he feel?
6. What does Hughes’ use of dialogue add to his story? Which people speak directly and how do their words help the reader understand Hughes’ emotional state?
7. Why does Hughes single out Wesley’s action for description?
8. What are Hughes’ reasons for finally joining the other children? Does he explain his thinking clearly enough for you to understand his decision?
9. Hughes varies the length and structure of his sentences throughout the essay. How does this variety capture and reinforce the rhythms and drama of the evening’s events? How does Hughes’s choice of words, or diction, help to establish a realistic atmosphere for a religious revival meeting? How does Hughes use figurative language to capture a particular moment? (See, for example, “a sea of shouting…waves of rejoicing” in paragraph 13.)
10. Why is Hughes crying in bed after the service? How does his aunt perceive his tears? How does this make the story of his being saved so ironic?
11. Hughes describes one of the primary differences between the ways children and adults view the world: children generally think in concrete terms, while adults are also able to think in abstract terms. Do you think this difference is the root cause of the conflict in this memoir, or do you think something else is causing it?
12. What is Hughes’ main purpose in this narrative? What is the theme that holds this memoir together? Why do you think this event had such a profound impact on him? What did he learn from the ex
