Essays on Thank You Ma Am

1958

Langston Hughes

Short Story

Urban Fiction, Literary Realism

Roger, Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones

The story is based on the African American segregation and life in the 1950s.

African Americans, racism, friendship, segregation, a challenging life of the American South.

It is the short story where a young person learns about friendship and care. It speaks of the African American poverty, prejudice, and segregation in society. It has a rising action as a dynamic story, which makes it as powerful as it is.

It is a great short story where a young African American boy learns a lesson about being kind, sincere, and caring for others even though the setting may look totally different. It tells us about being good for others and having others do so to you as well. Starting with a thief attempt, the story unfolds to forgiveness and love.

• Mrs. Jones represents the contents of a woman's life with all its challenges and sorrows.
• The purse that Mrs. Jones carries is a metaphor of all the burdens that she always carries along.
• Trying to tear the purse away, the young Roger is a symbolism of taking all the heaviness away by assisting Mrs. Jones in offering help.
• The young Roger is a communication bridge between present and the past for Mrs. Jones, which is a reflection of hope for our society.
• Thank you, ma'am is a great reminder of kindness through the lens of our prejudice and stereotypes we all live in.
• It has a Biblical influence of being kind and making just a single step to help us prevent the crime.
• The shoes that Roger has dreamt of is another symbolism of receiving a helping hand that will assist him in walking through a different path now.

• "A large woman with a large purse that had everything ... but hammer and nails."
• "Roger ... looked at the woman—looked at the door—and went to the sink."
• "I have done things, too, which I would not tell you, son—neither tell God."
• "And he did not want to be mistrusted now."
• "I wanted a pair of blue suede shoes."

The main message is about forgiveness and empathy, the power of love, trust, and the Christian values. It is the complex mixture of a person's character VS society, which is explained by oppression to racism.

It is not only a topic of African American segregation, poverty, and prejudice, it is also a lesson of forgiveness and kindness. Since we see gangs almost daily as we watch the news or talk to friends, this short story must be used as the essay topic to talk about kindness, caring for each other, and trying to choose a different way.