Gene Kwan

10/8/2008
1st Period
Exercise 2-9 All but #5

1. The opening “I was saved from sin…but not really saved.” Already suggests irony
in the story. When the author takes his aunt’s words “Seeing light”, he took it
quite literally. The enthusiasm of his aunt also suggests that they may be in the
south, where more gospel and black people are seen in church. It was funny how
he says he sat there waiting for Jesus. It makes the reader think whether he is
literally waiting for Jesus, or figuratively. Enthusiasm “rhythmical sermon,
moans, shouts, lonely cries.” The end of the second paragraph says the preacher
calls the “young lambs” over to be “saved”. Funny, “But most of us just sat
there.” Do children really understand the meaning of Christ? The author really
paints a picture of a lively church. “And the whole building rocked with prayer
and song.” The line “Still I kept waiting to see Jesus.” Answers the question, yes
he is literally waiting for Jesus. And he emphasizes this; he keeps waiting, and
waiting. At last from the peer pressure he joins the crowd to be “saved”. And it’s
ironic how because of that, he no longer believed in Jesus. This story was
definitely more Pathos.
2. . The author is twelve. Auntie Reed is very religious. Church going was a normal
part of society in his community. Churchgoers are very enthusiastic. Children are
converted at a young age. The energy of the church does not match the emotion
of the author. The author does not really understand what “Seeing Jesus” means.
The author feels guilty for lying. The author no longer believes in Jesus.
3. Emotions and Feelings: the author provokes a feeling of anger or annoyance by
describing his feeling of being lost and confused within the story. The author lets
the readers know just as much as him, but the other characters do not know. Tone:
the contrast of tones between the author’s thoughts and church people, an almost
sarcastic tone of irony in the beginning of the story, a sad tone in the end.
Figurative Speech: “hot crowded church” “rhythmical sermon, moans shouts and
lonely cries and dire pictures of hell” “Some of them jumped up and went to Jesus
right away.” “And the whole building rocked with prayer and song.” A sea of
shouting” “waves of rejoice”.
 Gene Kwan
10/8/2008
1st Period
4. The author grew up with a strong religious background, the author doesn’t know
that seeing Jesus is not literal, the people in church are incredibly intoxicated by
their religion, the people in the church fail to see the authors trouble, the author
lies and pretends to be “saved”, in the end, no one but the reader understands what
the author went through thus provoking annoyance towards the church folk the
author is expressing irony in his story. Finally, “jet black braided hair” and “work
gnarled hands,” suggest that the author is black, although he could be Asian,
Hughes is far from an Asian surname, and braiding hair among Asians is
uncommon
5. (don’t do).
6. In Langston Hughes’ story Salvation, a story of how an event that was supposed
to immerse the author into religion ironically causes him to stop believing in Jesus
because of misunderstandings from both the author and the church people. The
author is brought to church by his aunt to be saved, his aunt tells him when he was
saved “you saw a light” and “something happened to you inside!” The author
takes both of these figurative phrases literally and waits for it to happen. The
second misunderstanding is when the author misunderstands what “seeing Jesus”
meant. He instead waits to see Jesus in a literal way, not in a way where a person
sees him religiously. After all the kids have been “saved”, he is still waiting for
Jesus. The church people start to grow “worried” about why he wouldn’t come to
be saved. If they understood that Hughes wanted to see Jesus in living flesh, they
would not of put all this pressure on him. In the end he lies and is “saved”. When
really, he needed Jesus’ help to get out of this situation, but he never “showed”.
So the author now no longer believes in Jesus.
7. The purpose of this text is to share an experience of irony, and communicate it to
a reader. Usually stories about being “saved” are completely different. The author
makes a great transition from excitement to irony throughout the story. In the
beginning of the story he is excited to be saved, but as the story grows, he
misunderstands the meaning of being saved, and receives pressure from the church.
From then on the pressure grows, starting from waiting and waiting for Jesus, to
being the only child left to be saved, to having the entire church pray for him to be
 Gene Kwan
10/8/2008
1st Period
saved. The main cultural value in this story is the importance of church, and to have
children understand who Jesus is at a young age so they may pass on the faith. The
enthusiasm of all the people shows how church going is a community event, and an
important one at that. Despite the good intentions of this culture, for this author it
does him more harm than good. The author wanted to communicate to us that, even
though most people can be “saved” in one way, church people especially should take
their time to understand how people feel about being “saved” This alternate
perspective of being “saved” provides many church members (if they read this text)
information about an avoidable mistake.