When reading “Salvation”, an autobiographical account written by Langston Hughes, it quickly becomes apparent to the reader that there is hardly any genuine dialogue to be found at all in this text.

To help you answer this question, I would like to point out that it is important not to confuse direct speech with dialogue. For example, the first time that direct speech is used in the text is during the preacher’s sermon, when he invites the children to “come to Jesus.” Readers might think that this is dialogue, as someone is speaking. However, this alone does not make it a dialogue. A dialogue requires more than one person to speak. However, the children do not say anything in response. Therefore, despite direct speech being used here, what is being said merely forms part of the preacher’s sermon, and therefore is still a monologue.

Similarly, when Westley speaks to the narrator, you could also argue that this is not really a dialogue, as Westley only comments on how he feels, yet the narrator does not engage in a dialogue, as he does not respond. You could therefore argue that, whilst there are some attempts of people trying to make dialogue in the story by trying to speak to Langston, these attempts are never successful, as there is no response.

The only time that a genuine dialogue takes places in this text is when the aunt responds to the preacher’s question and announces Langston’s name.

The reason why Langston Hughes decided to write in this manner could be that he wanted to highlight how lonely and out of place the he felt in this situation. He didn’t feel like part of the congregation; he felt like an outsider. The lack of dialogue in this text further underlines this feeling of loneliness.