Thank You Ma Am Essay

583 Words2 Pages

The short story by Langston Hughes “Thank You Ma'am,” takes place in a community that isn’t the greatest. Roger, a young man, wants new shoes, but he doesn’t have the money nor parents looking after him. Roger resorts to stealing to get the shoes. The women he tried to steal from caught him, but she came from a similar place in the past. The women, Mrs. Jones, feeling empathy took care of the boy, and paid for the shoes. One lesson this story implies is to put yourself in others people's shoes before judging or acting. From the get go, the story shows the woman understands where Roger comes from. Mrs. Jones past made her understand why Roger was trying to steal, so she acts with knowledge of her past, and the understanding of why Roger did what he did. Langston explains Mrs. Jones past “I have done things too, which I would not tell you, son neither tell God, if he didn’t already know.” This text shows that Mrs. Jones stepped in Roger’s shoes when she decided not to take him to the police and take care of him. Mrs. Jones understands where he comes from and remembers how she felt and acted on how he probably felt. …show more content…

Jones, and Roger understood each other and learned for the past is that the boy did not run or steal, and Mrs. Jones trusted him alone with her purse. “Mrs. Jones got up and went behind the screen. The women did not watch the boy to see if he was going to run, nor did she watch her purse, but the boy took care and sat where she could see him.” This shows that Mrs. Jones understood how he felt and put herself in his shoes and knew the bot wouldn’t run or steal. This also proves Roger understood the women, and learned from the past because he knew where she came from and that she is trying to take care of him. He also learned from the past because he didn’t try stealing from her or running off he had second thoughts from his experience from the

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