Short Story Thank You, M Am By Langston Hughes

Doing something small to benefit someone else can have a great impact on their life. This is what Mrs. Jones did for Roger. In the short story “Thank You, M’am” by Langston Hughes, Mrs. Jones was crossing the street when Roger tryed to snatch her purse. Instead of dragging Roger to the police station Mrs. Jones decided to whip the boy into shape instead, and give him some discipline. Mrs. Jones had an impact on Roger and the kindness she had towards him changed the way he will look at life. Despite the juvenile behavior that Roger showed Mrs. Jones by snatching her purse, she wanted to him to know right from wrong instead of just being punished by the cops. Mrs. Jones wasn’t like any ordinary women she saw the good underneath the bad. In the story Mrs. Jones states “You ought to be my son. I would teach you right from wrong. Least I can do right now is to wash your face. Are you …show more content…
Jones, but it was going to have an impact in his life. He showed signs of fright to her at first but began to warm up to her once she gave him a clean towel to wash his face and cooked him a nice dinner. The story states that Mrs. Jones says “Then we’ll eat.” “I believe you're hungry or been hungry to try to snatch my pocketbook!”, this is very important because, it lets the reader comprehend that what Mrs. Jones is saying is starting to have an effect on Roger because he is not trying to run or talk back he is listening and beginning to appreciate. Another claim that supports this reasoning is in the story when Mrs. Jones says to Roger, “Well, you didn’t have to snatch my pocketbook to get some suede shoes, you could of asked me.” Roger then replies with “M’am?”. This is also important because Roger really hasn’t ever had someone be this nice to him, from what we can infer about his character. So, to have this women that he didn’t know say, if you wanted the shoes then you should have asked, is a game