"Salvation" and "The Distance to the Moon"

"Distance to the Moon" was much more enjoyable to me than "Salvation".

There's an animated short and a full reading by Liev Schreiber of "The Distance to the Moon" at the following links:
Click Here For A Reading of "Distance to the Moon"
Click Here For The Animated Short of "Distance to the Moon"

You can read "Salvation" for yourself at the following link:
"Salvation"

Both stories are about children learning lessons about life. What lessons are learned by the narrators? How are they similar and different? 

In both passages children learn lessons about life. In "Salvation" as the passage opens it is clear that the child has grown and is retelling a story from his childhood. I believe he learns that one shouldn't take everything adults say literally and he also learns that you don't need to see and feel god in order to know that he is present within your life. He also learns that throughout life you will be tested and experience a variety of emotions such as disappointment and guilt but you must continue on. That lesson is learned with age as can be seen with his abandonment of his beliefs when he feels as though he has not been saved. In "The Distance of the Moon" the narrator learns universal emotions. He goes through different stages of such as experiencing jealousy and infidelity. And although things change to him it seems as though the more things change, the more they remain the same. The passages are similar in the sense that within both passages feelings were evoked from the narrators such as disappointment and they grew from their experiences. They are different, I believe, in the sense that one revolved more around emotions and the other around faith. In "Salvation" it seemed as though it was a process he went through to grow up as well as in "The Distance of the Moon". The main difference being that throughout the passage there’s more of a youthful joy and discovery in "The Distance of the Moon" and the undertone is more mature in "Salvation."

"Salvation" is by Langston Hughes
"The Distance of the Moon" is by Italo Calvino

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