"Salvation" by Langston Hughes and The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday Analytical Essay by Top Papers

"Spiritual salvation is the topic of Langston Hughes' short work, entitled "Salvation." The story documents his experience as a twelve-year-old boy with group and peer pressure in church as he is forced into being "saved." It was written in 1940 and is taken from Hughes' autobiography, The Big Sea. Hughes was a prominent African American writer in the early 1900s, and his audience at that time was primarily those African Americans living an urban life and dealing with discrimination and oppression. Today, Hughes' timeless stories are enjoyed by all who admire great writing. Hughes begins his story by proclaiming, "I was saved from sin when I was going on thirteen" (Hughes 197). This begins our journey into his spiritual adventure; one in which his Auntie Reed and her church have created in order to save the young Hughes from hellfire and damnation. After a long sermon, the church held a special meeting just for children in which the young sinners were expected to find Jesus."