6 POINTS ON “THANK YOU, MA’AM”

1.    “THANK YOU, MA’AM” by Langston Hughes is a short story about Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones, an elderly African American woman and Roger, a fifteen- year old boy who attempts to steal her purse.

2.    James Mercer Langston Hughes (1902-1967) an American poet, novelist, playwright and columnist, is best known as the front runner of the Harlem Renaissance, a literary movement which saw the emergence of many black writers. Hughes’s autobiography, THE BIG SEA, was published in 1940. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then new literary art form, jazz poetry.

3.    In the story, Roger fails in his attempt and Mrs. Jones teaches him a lesson in kindness.  Instead of taking him to police station, she hauls him to her apartment and offers him food and money.

4.    This is an open –ended story leaving the readers to hope for the boy’s betterment due to the influence of Mrs. Jones.

5.    Hughes brings out the theme that circumstances and society may be unfair, but it is the right of the individual to choose the righteous path.

6.    Their brief meeting is enough to influence the boy to transform himself and live like Mrs. Jones as her message about love, trust, integrity and forgiveness was loud and clear.