Hughes Questions

1. Hughes main point was that church can be deceptive. Although it was at the end, it was one of his strongest statements. He lay in a bed crying because of that and the fact that he lied to his aunt to be saved. All those who told him about the great feelings of being saved and his aunt's misunderstanding with his feelings were the complete opposite of how he felt.
2. Hughes saw his friend who lied and became saved which was a sin, but he was not punished for it. Also he felt guilty for making everyone wait, and since he did not see Jesus or feel anything, he just gave up and went along with them to be saved.
3. The first two sentences contradict the idea of being saved. If people are saved, why do they still sin? What is the point of being saved from sin if all humans do is sin? His contradiction plays throughout the passage when he was saved from sin by sinning. If this can happen, what is the sense in being saved?
4. I believe Langston wrote Salvation twenty years later to expose his miscomprehension of the bible’s ideas. The bible is a very hard book to understand because there is so much to pull from it. Everything in there is not literal; there are many symbols. In fact the very Bible itself is a symbol of God’s voice. Everything the adults said were shown figuratively, not literally. The very fact that he was crying after he did what he did and his hesitation of doing it gave a sign of good in him. He was also thinking about everyone else and how tired they might be. He was caring for others, concerned for his friend, and upset that he lied. He also shows significance of his crying since he said he only did it once more in his lifetime showing he doesn’t cry a lot. With this you can say he wasn’t touched by a Holy Ghost, but he knew right from wrong and for that you can see a lot of good in him.
5. He assumes that the audience knows about the gist of the ceremony because he jumps right into it. He does add detail though to describe the way his church does it, if it is done differently than another local church.
6. All of the ideas about him being alone, everyone waiting on him in paragraphs 3-10, as well as the fact it was getting late, made Hughes very anxious. He “began to be ashamed,” so the pressure got to him (Hughes). The most powerful was probably the song that was used about the lonely sheep that almost literally referred to him. This really got to him and hits the audience emotionally because you know when a song is about you it makes its way to the heart quickly.
7. With narration it had a better effect on the audience. An argumentative essay would have turned some readers away who had different beliefs. In the form of a story, it can attract anyone, even those who are not in this specific religion. The title would probably be “What Is Salvation?”
8. He shortens the time taken to get to the sermon as well as shortening the service of the church that day besides the altar incident. He skips all the people that went except him and Wesley. He drew out his part to add more expression to his experience. At the end he jumps to his home in bed, because it was the only thing that mattered at the time. When you are that upset as a child the only thing left for you to do is go in the bed and cry. This gives the ending of his reason for writing this chapter.
9. During the sermon, he uses shorter transitions that consider a shorter time period than days or weeks like then, finally, and suddenly, (Hughes). Then he once again uses “That night” as a jumper transition (Hughes).
10. This is the focal point of the narrative. This is the place and time he learns this big lesson so we must know how it works to get the full understanding of his experience.
11. I think he feels understanding. He now realizes what happened at this time and even though he was ashamed as a child, he may not have redone it any kind of way even if he could. In the beginning when he spoke of those who told him he would see Jesus and whatnot, he did not call them liars. He just merely said that he did not feel anything.
12. He is setting up the time period. His sentences are child-like because he is a child at the time in the story. It would be a little strange to have sophisticated, advanced writing as a 13 year old boy.
13. Hughes expected to see Jesus in the literal sense while his aunt expected him, not to literally see him, but feel his spirit come over him. It would be more accurate to say see as Jesus in the sense that he would be able to see what Jesus would do or “What is the right choice?” This is a very significant difference because it gives the contradiction of a literal and figurative sense of the Bible. It is also where they say the “Holy Ghost” comes in because eit is supposedly the spirit that guides you to the path of justice.