Throughout the course of a lifetime individuals are faced with many challenging situations. However, "challenging" does not always carry the air of tragedy or hardship that the word implies, but rather it might refer to a difficult decision of morals. In Langston Hughes' Salvation, the writer tells of his first encounter with what we may today call a question of faith. Through contrasting personas and a unique style of writing the author depicts a childhood experience that forever changed his perception of a religious belief.

To gain the desired effect, in the beginning of this story Hughes makes use of simple words and keeps the sentences short, similar in style to that of a child. But since the text is written in the past tense and the narrator mentions that he was "going on thirteen" we know the speaker is now older. After reading a little further...