Thank You M Am, By Langston Hughes

"Thank You M'am" by Langston Hughes is a realistic fiction short story about a scrawny boy named Roger and a black lady named Mrs. Jones. After Roger attempts to steal Mrs. Jones money to buy shoes she handles the matter herself by kicking him to the ground. She then takes him to her house, cleans him up, feeds him, and teaches him right from wrong. Langston Hughes, the author of "Thank You M'am", teaches us that you should give people second chances. You can tell the second chance Mrs. Jones gave Roger was helpful because at the end of the story, Roger has the chance to run out of the house and take Mrs. Jones money, but instead he stays put because she gave him mercy by not calling the cops on him.

"You didn't have to snatch my pocketbook to get some suede shoes, you could have asked me." Mrs. Jones tells Roger. Hughes explains in this quote that if Roger had just asked Mrs. Jones for help she might have given it to him. He didn't have to act how he did to get what he wanted. Mrs. Jones was an understanding women and didn't call the cops on Roger, giving him another shot to clean up his behavior.

Langston Hughes displays Mrs. Jones as the role model of the story. She's the one who's been through a lot and is
The author implies that Roger's home life isn't the best and he doesn't have a lot of money. Roger says, "There's nobody home at my house." in the story after Mrs. Jones asks him why he wasn't at home eating his supper. That helps the reader understand and relate to him and what he's going through. When he snatches Mrs. Jones pocketbook he tries to act like he didn't mean to do it but deep down, he feels guilty about it. He thinks that she's going to take him to jail. But to Roger's surprise, she is very helpful. Roger was very fortunate to have this situation end with him not at the police station. After Mrs. Jones is done fixing up Roger, he leaves struggling to say a small thank