One of the essays we read in class was called "Salvation", by Langston Hughes. As a class, we discussed the speaker, occasion, audience, purpose, subject, and tone. Three of these aspects that I would like to discuss are the occasion, subject, and tone. The occasion for this essay was Hughes's connection with Jesus in the church when he was twelve years old. However, Hughes lied about this connection, leading to the subject which was loss of faith. By saying, "I was saved by sin when I was going on thirteen" (Hughes 179), he tells us that he was still only twelve years old. His tone in the beginning was expected and confused because he was expecting to have the connection, but he was confused because it was not as easy as he thought it would be. He was not receiving the connection as easily as everyone else. Hughes's tone changed to sadness when his friend left him alone and faked his connection to Jesus. "So I got up" (181). Hughes finally decides that he should fake his connection too, and because of this, the tone changes to Hughes being hopeless and guilty. This story ends with Hughes describing to us how he was crying because of his guilty feeling, for lying to his family and everyone about his connection with Jesus. He loses his faith in Jesus because He was not there when Hughes needed him most. All of the aspects aforementioned connect to each other, but the three I explained, in my opinion, are the most important to make the story easier to understand.
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