Lesson 1：salvation

Lesson one

Salvation (saving of the soul from sin. The word has a strong religious connotation)

Langston hughes: (February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967) 蓝斯顿休斯(Langston

Hughes)是1920年代的非裔美人艺术运动：哈林文艺复兴运动(Harlem

Renaissance)中，最重要的作家及思想家之一。哈林文艺复兴运动是一项用来颂扬黑人的生活及文化的活动。休斯的创作深受他在纽约市哈林区的生活影响，哈林区是最主要的非裔美人居住地区。他的文学作品有助塑造美国文学及政治。就像其他活跃于哈林文艺复兴运动中的艺术家，休斯也拥有强烈的种族自尊；藉由他所创作的诗词、小说、剧本、散文及童书，他提倡平等、诅咒种族歧视及不公，并赞美非裔美人的文化、幽默感及灵性。

Langston Hughes was one of the most important writers and thinkers of the

Harlem Renaissance, which was the African American artistic movement in

the 1920s that celebrated black life and culture. Hughes's creative genius

was influenced by his life in New York City's Harlem, a primarily African

American neighborhood. His literary works helped shape American

literature and politics. Hughes, like others active in the Harlem

Renaissance, had a strong sense of racial pride. Through his poetry,

novels, plays, essays, and children's books, he promoted equality,

condemned racism and injustice, and celebrated African American culture,

humor, and spirituality.

.

Salvation: (summary) Langston Hughes creates a past experience into a true to life drama of guilt, deception, and grief, in "Salvation." He reveals the story of how he was forced into receiving

Christ by his peers, relatives, and preacher. Helpless and alone, he struggles against overwhelming

odds. After a long-winded sermon the children of the congregation are asked to come forward and

accept Jesus.

Instead of moving forward, Langston waits for the Lord to come to him. When nothing happens,

Langston goes forward anyway just to please his aunt and the church. In the end he is not only

grief-stricken, but has Lost all belief in God.

1. sin vs crime: (note: p.5)

2. going on thirteen: get nearer--- I don’t know her exact age, but she may be

forty-one going on forty-two.

3. revival: a series of meetings (called revivial meetings【宗】复兴布道会;),

characterized by public confession of sins and declaration of renewed faith in

religion, intended to bring back the religious enthusiasm among people.

4. by leaps and bounds: Very quickly非常快地：growing by leaps and bounds.长得飞快

5. to bring the young lamb to the fold: to bring the children into the Christian

community

6. escorted and placed: formal words, in place of the more usual “taken and seated”,

to mark the solemnity of the occasion: under the escort of….

7. mourners’ bench: a front seats at a revival meeting, reserved for those who are to

make professions of penitence.

Second paragraph:

1. my aunt told me that when you were saved you saw a light…: “you” here is an

informal style, referring to people in general. A formal substitution of “you” here

is the pronoun “one.”

2. God was with you from then on (since then).

3. she said you could see and hear and feel Jesus in your sould. (why the repetition

of “and ’): creating an impression that what the aunt had chattered about could

go on and on. Contrasted with this long string, the abruptly short sentence “I

believe her” placed immediately after, is extremely effective in telling of the

chold’s readiness to believe. For the same stylistic reason, single-sentence

paragraphs such as para. 5 and 12 interposed between long paragraphs, stand out

particularly and so give prominence to certain key events. “still I kept waiting to

see Jesus”(apr. 5) reflects the boy’s haive piety. “so I got up” (par. 12) indicates a

sudden realization, a transition from simplicity to worldliness.

Third paragraph

all moans…of hell: “of hell” modifies all the four preceding nouns (moans—groans,

dire---dreadful) . also note the alliteration and rhyming in the following: the ninety and nine safe in the fold, but one little lamb was left out in the cold.

Paragraph 4

Old women with jet-black faces and braided hair, old men with work-gnarled hands

(tell us sth. about the people):

Gnarled: 饱经风霜的：粗糙的，the gnarled hands of a carpenter.木匠那双粗糙的手

And the church sang a song about the lower lights are burning, some poor sinners to

be saved: the church means all the people in the church. Rehtorically, it is a

metonymy (转喻) A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for

another with which it is closely associated, as in the use ofWashington for the

United States government or of the sword for military power.

换喻，转喻：一种一个词或词组被另一个与之有紧密联系的词或词组替换的修辞方法，如用华盛顿代替美政府或用剑代替军事力量

1.The kettle boils.壶水开。(用the kettle壶，表示 the water in the kettle 壶水)

2.He is fond of the bottle.他喜欢喝酒。（用bottle装酒的瓶子，表示wine酒）

3.Grey hairs should be respected.老人应受到尊重。（用grey hairs白发，表示old people老人)

4.The pen is mightier than the sword.笔要比剑更锋利。（用pen笔，表示article文章）