Thank You M Am Langston Hughes Analysis

Treating someone with kindness and empathy can change his or her life drastically even if you don’t realize it right at that moment. In “Thank You M’am” by Langston Hughes, Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones treated a boy named Roger with such a degree of forgiveness you would not usually expect, considering Roger had just tried to steal her purse from her minutes before. Their interaction that night contained the power to drastically change Roger’s view on the world. Mrs. Jones’s helpful and non-judgemental attitude towards Roger served as a catalyst for the transformation of Roger’s view on the world, showing that even strangers can possess the power to change each other’s life forever. Mrs. Jones took Roger into her home for the night as

Jones taught Roger that it is more important to learn from your mistakes than to only be punished as a result of them. “‘You gonna take me to jail...take you nowhere,’ said the woman” (pg 2, paragraph 7-8). “When they were finished eating...from here on in” (pg 3, paragraph 7). Mrs. Jones could have reported Roger to the police after he tried snatching her bag, but she chose not to. She instead wanted him to learn to not make this mistake ever again. If she had taken Roger to jail, all that would have done was punish him for trying to steal. He would not have learned any lesson except to not attempt to steal bags anymore. Roger most likely would have came up with a different illegal method to get quick money. By taking Roger into her home and helping him recognize the consequences of his actions, Roger learned to not try to take anything from others for his personal benefit ever again. Even though Mrs. Jones and Roger were strangers brought together through an unsuccessful theft, the impact left on Roger was greater than any possible interaction with anyone he knew. He learned the important lesson of recognizing and accepting when you can or can’t have something you want and always taking others’ feelings into consideration, even if you don’t know