Student Question
Is "Salvation" by Langston Hughes a nonfiction work?
Quick answer:
This text is based on a true story. It was written by Langston Hughes and published in his autobiography The Big Sea. This essay shows how he did not see Jesus at the time of salvation for him when he was about thirteen years old. In this essay, the author's tone can be observed in three ways: by his language, by what he includes, and by what he omits. The language of this essay indicates that the author has a light-hearted tone because of his use of simile and metaphor. He uses saying "But not really saved" (line 5) to indicate that he wasn't really saved but other people were. He also uses similes such as ""Salvation," by Langston Hughes, is actually a short excerpt from his autobiography, The Big Sea. Autobiography is generally considered a genre of nonfiction; it discusses real people and claims to describe events accurately, in so far as the author can remember them.
James Mercer Langston Hughes was born in 1902. The story recounted in "Salvation" takes place when Hughes was 12 years old. Thus, the setting can be dated to 1914. The Big Sea , from which "Salvation" was excerpted, was published in 1940, some 26 years after the events being described. One can then assume that Hughes may not have remembered every detail with perfect accuracy and may have used some of his skills as an imaginative writer to flesh out the details of the story. Although the story is basically nonfiction and we can assume it to be accurate in overall import, it is...
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not a journalistic work (which would emphasize precision of detail) but rather an account of how the author remembers his early life.
What makes "Salvation" by Langston Hughes nonfiction?
"Salvation" by Langston Hughes is a short essay and a chapter of his memoir, entitled The Big Sea. By definition, memoir and essay are both nonfiction forms. A memoir is similar to an autobiography in that it has the writer remembering moments from his life and relaying those to the audience. Hughes is most famous for his poetry, but "Salvation," as a personal essay is definitely a nonfiction text.
The essay is told in first person, as Hughes begins by saying, "I was saved by sin when I was going on thirteen. But not really saved. It happened like this." We can tell from the start that he is going to tell an autobiographical story about his salvation, or his lack thereof. From there, Hughes tells about an experience he had at church as a child. His aunt told him that he would see Jesus and be saved. When he saw Jesus, he would go to the altar and be welcomed by the church community as one of their own. In brief, Hughes never sees Jesus, but he thinks the other children who go to the altar, claiming to have seen Him, are lying. He decides he should lie, too, and be done with the charade. He is welcomed and celebrated as the other children are, but when he goes home that night, he cries in bed because he didn't see Jesus, and further, "now I didn't believe there was a Jesus anymore, since he didn't come to help me."
The essay reads like a short story told in the first person, but is based on Hughes's personal experience. He makes a very intimate confession at the end of the story about his own faith at that time in his life. Therefore, this text is nonfiction.