Then Langston begins to talk about his first time joining the revival at
his aunt’s church. She told Langston that he will be “saved” when he sees a light
and Jesus comes into his life. As a thirteen-year old boy, he is so excited to see
Jesus and earn salvation. He keeps sitting in a crowded church, waiting for Jesus
while the other children step up and are saved. The church’s minister asks him: “
Why don’t you come? Why don’t you come and be saved?”. I wonder whether
his aunt and many old people lied to him. He hasn’t seen either a light or Jesus
yet so how he could be saved. I guess since I am brought up in a Buddhist
family, I barely know about God, Jesus and salvation. That’s why I’m getting
confused. In my opinion, this young little boy wanted to literally see Jesus and a
light. It would be a magical thing for a child. Langston simply wants to show us
how the way of thinking of a concept of things of a child is different from an
adult. His aunt should have fully explained things to him.
In the next paragraph, there is boy who is left behind with Langston when
the others step up and are saved. Later, he loses his patience and gets up even
though he doesn’t believe. In the sentence “ God had not struck Westley dead for
taking his name in vain or for lying in the temple”, I think Langston was quite
upset about it. He was also pressured by the crowd. Langston uses a lot of
sounds like “ mourning, shouting, crying, praying” which make me put myself
into Langston’s position and feel the same pressure. Then he thought he’d better
lie because his aunt was crying and he really wanted to go home. He could no
longer wait for Jesus. If I were him, I would do that too.
In the last paragraph, he talks about how he felt after the revival at the
church. He couldn’t sleep and kept crying. His aunt thought he was crying
because he had seen Jesus. But in fact, he cried because he had sinned. He had
deceived everyone. This results in his belief that Jesus does not exist because
Jesus did not help him.
As a little boy, Langston couldn’t fully get what his aunt said before
the revival. Neither do I since I have a different religion. If I were in his
position, I would do the same thing. And I still have no idea when he said
“saved but not really saved”. It is quite confusing for me.
