Remorse
...oans and shouts and lonely cries and dire pictures of hell.” Not the typical happy depiction of a sacred event that one would be accustomed to hearing, showing that Hughes is not at all pleased to be apart of the experience, even feeling alienated from the rest of the “saved” children stating at one point that he is, “ashamed of myself.” Hughes’s shame finally causes him to cave to the pressure of having his entire church focusing on him; he claims to have seen Jesus after coming to the conclusion that Jesus won’t be appearing. He remembers the euphoric state of some of the church goers as “waves of rejoicing.” In these passages where Hughes remembers the pressure he was under the reader can see the inner struggles the Hughes goes through. Hughes wants to believe that the heavens will open and Jesus will come rescue him from the awkward situation he has been placed in, yet slowly as people begin to parade around him, and the rest of the other children apparently have been saved, he can see that there really is no tangible Jesus. I believe that Hughes is more afraid of not seeing Jesus because of the disappointment it will bring him. His frustration at the end of the essay when he openly cries for the “last time in his life” almost seems as if it is caused from the frustration of not being able to tell his aunt that he has been...