Langston Hughes’ Salvation and Floyd Dell’s We’re Poor essays have a main common theme about two boys coming of age, but there is a secondary and maybe not as easy-to-spot theme: the consequences of adults underestimating children.
Langston is a boy who believes in Jesus the way many kids believe in Santa Claus. He has listened to many grown ups telling stories about how Jesus saved them. His aunt starts speaking about a special meeting for children that is going to be held before her church’s revival ends “to bring the young lambs to the fold.” His aunt has even given him many examples of what he is going to experience when Jesus comes into his life: “you [see] a light, and something [happens] to you inside!” And he believes her because “old people . . . ought to know.”
Floyd is a happy boy who does not feel anything is missing from his perfect life. His parents are always home. He always has potato soup which is his favorite meal. And when the Sunday-school superintendent makes a speech about hard times and children not having enough to eat, he is able to help with an envelope with coins and a bag of potatoes. But everything changes when Christmas gets closer. His parents do not seem to want to talk about it. He starts thinking about the reasons for his parents ignoring the subject completely. And finally the anxiety of this situation makes him to confront them by asking “This is Christmas Eve, isn’t it?”
Langston goes to church on that special night and sits on the mourners’ bench with other children. When the preacher finishes his sermon the whole congregation starts calling the children to the altar to meet Jesus. Langston waits for Jesus to come and take him but nothing happens. None of the clues his aunt has told him to wait for show. And when he realizes that it’s getting late and every one is waiting for him, he stands up and runs to the altar to be saved. But he knows that he is doing this for all the wrong reasons. Later that night when alone in bed he thinks that Jesus has not come to help him. And he regrets having lied and deceived everybody. He even believes that there is no Jesus at all.
After Floyd asks his Christmas Eve question, his parents look away. His mother is noticeably distressed and leaves the room. His father puts on a joking face and explains he does not know if it is Christmas because he has not been reading the papers. He also leaves the room and Floyd, like Langston, goes to his room and is left alone with his thoughts. That is when he realizes that they are poor! This is the reason why his mother did not want him to put his name on the envelope. This is why the envelope only had pennies. And the reason why his father is always home is because his has no job. He also wrongly concludes that because he is now a poor boy he is not allowed to want anything or to have anything, not even hope.
It is not a coincidence that the turning point in these stories is when both boys are left alone to their own thoughts in the dark of their rooms. In Langston´s story his aunt fails in explaining what his journey into spirituality will be. And in telling him that she is trying to put into words what it was like for her. Letting Jesus come into his life is more of a private experience in which he is not supposed to actually see Jesus but understand that this very concept will help him to explain faith as an adult and share it with the church community. In Floyd´s story his parents underestimate the ability of the kid to perceive all the hints about their situation. It could be said that they do this to try to shield him from a painful situation, but not explaining what is actually going on has a worse effect.
Both kids arrive at conclusions of their own based on what they think it means to be saved by Jesus or what it means to be a poor kid. These two notions are perfectly natural for anyone entering adulthood but they are rendered more painful because the adults do not support them with the truth along the way. Entering adulthood should be a journey to share with other adults who should treat you like one. At home my mother was like this but my father was more like Floyd’s father. The only decision I was left alone with as a child was to choose what method I preferred. I chose my mother’s.
