1 . “ I was saved from sin, when I was going on thirteen. But not really saved”
2. “I wanted to see him, but nothing happened to me. Nothing! I wanted something to happen to me, but nothing happened” .
3. “God had not struck Westly dead for taking his name in vain or for lying in the temple. So I decided that maybe to save further trouble, I’d better lie too, and say that Jesus had come, and get up and be saved” .
4. “but I was really crying because I couldn’t bear to tell her that I had lied, that I had deceived everybody in the church, that I hadn’t seen Jesus, and that now I didn’t believe there was a Jesus any more, since he didn’t come to help me” .
Explanation: 1 . these are the first two sentences of hughes’s essay. They are contradictory statements. hughes was only saved because he lied to himself. everyone else thought that he really was saved.
2. hughes was waiting for Jesus to come save him, and he was waiting for the light that his aunt told him he would see. he was beginning to lose hope because nothing had happened to him .
3 . when westley lied, hughes wanted to lie so everything would be over and everyone would be happy. hughes did decide to lie about being saved .
4 . hughes’s aunt thought he was crying because he saw Jesus. he was crying because he didn’t feel anything that day from Jesus. He didn’t believe Jesus was there for him to save him. langston hughes lied about being saved when he was going on thirteen. after some time, he was still waiting for Jesus to come to him. when he became the last one sitting on the bench, he decided to lie to save trouble. he ended up crying the night he was supposed to be saved. as a result, he didn’t believe there was even a Jesus that could help him.
from the beginning, langston was different than the other boys. the other boys were saved in a short amount of time. some of the boys, like Westley, may have lied to just put an end to everything. langston didn’t want to lie. he really wanted to see the light and be saved. In the end, he decided to lie instead of making everyone in the church wait for him. he lied to make everyone else happy.
