Elements Of Plot
"There was a big revival at my Auntie Reed's church."
"membership of the church"
"Then just before the revival ended, they held a special meeting for children..."
Exposition - Setting & Characters
"I had heard a great many old people say the same thing and it seemed to me they ought to know. So I sat there calmly in the hot, crowded church, waiting for Jesus to come to me."
Inciting Incident
"So I decided that maybe to save further trouble, I'd better lie, too, and say that Jesus had come, and get up and be saved.
So I got up."
Climax
"That night, for the first time in my life but one... I cried, in bed alone, and couldn't stop."
"But I was really crying because I couldn't bear to tell her that I had lied, that I had deceived everybody in the church, and hadn't seen Jesus, and that now I didn't believe there was a Jesus any more, since he didn't come to help me."
Resolution
Theme
There are some things in life that you must believe in with your heart, not your eyes.
True faith is believing, not seeing.
Social pressure has the power to make you feel less than you truly are.
Believing and seeing are two different things.
Lying to appease others is no way to live.
Lying creates guilt than can eat you up inside.