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The Revelation of Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes starts off by painting us a picture of him as a 13 year old boy at his Auntie Reed’s church revival, who is forced into receiving Christ by his peers, relatives, and his preacher. As he feels helpless and alone, he struggles against overwhelming odds. Even after a long-winded sermon the children are asked to come forward and accept Jesus. This is a story of a young boy who has an Experience of Revelation. His aunt and the congregation want him to go up and get saved, be obedient and step up to the pulpit.
What is the meaning of being “saved” in a young Langston mind? He state’s “So I decided that maybe to save further trouble, I’d better lie, too, and say that Jesus Had come, and get up and be saved”.(198) Can we say that young Langston, at this moment, over looks his own beliefs, so he can meet the expectations of the congregation. Langston loses his faith because of how Auntie Reed tells him that “when you were saved you saw a light, and something happened to you inside” (197). Langston takes her word, expecting to see a light and to feel something stirring in side of him. When he doesn’t see or feel anything after he’s saved, he gives up on believing in Jesus because he had believed in his aunt’s words.
As a young boy, Langston wanted to see Jesus, who wanted to earn salvation, but when he didn’t see Jesus, when supposedly everyone else saw, he’s finds himself in a position of disappointing himself and everyone in the congregation. So he finally “saves” himself by pretending to see Jesus. One has to wonder what would of happened if Langston didn’t step forward? I guess it’s hard to say. Maybe, it is kind of obvious that he was afraid to be rejected, so he fell into the trap of trying to please his aunt and the members of the congregation. This leads us to the fact as people, we tend to believe strongly in an idea or thought, but most of the time we overlook our beliefs just to be obedient...