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Thank You Ma Am By Amy Tan

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The way a family or person lives can be stereotyped but if one looks hard enough, the true colors and character of a person will show. In the short story “Thank You, Ma’am” by Langston Hughes, Roger, a teenager, attempts to steal a purse from a woman named Mrs. Jones, to buy himself some blue suede shoes. Instead of calling the cops on the young boy, Mrs. Jones graciously invites him into her house and offers him a second chance. In the short story “Rules of the Game” by Amy Tan, Waverly is a young girl who is a chess prodigy in the making. However, the pressure her mother puts on her to be as good as she desires pushes Waverly to her limits, causing her to run away from home. In the short stories “Thank You Ma’am” and “Rules of the Game,” …show more content…

Roger's world gets rocked as he meets his mentor, Mrs. Jones, who grants him a second chance. As the text states, “The woman said, ‘You ought to be my son. I would teach you right from wrong. Least I can do right now is wash your face. Are you hungry?’” (Hughes 1). Mrs. Jones treats Roger with tough love, and then offers him food and a place to clean himself up even after he tried to rob her. She felt sympathy for him in the sense that she also felt responsible to clean him up and feed him. Likewise, Lau Po treats Waverly with kindness as he devoted his energy to teaching her everything he knows about chess. The text states, “By the end of the summer, Lau Po had taught me all he knew, and I had become a better chess player” (Tan 5). Waverly was given the chance to spend all summer getting better at chess, thanks to Lau Po’s kindness and patience. Without him, she would not have gotten better at chess since she was on her own. In conclusion, Roger and Waverly are similar because they both had influential mentors involved in their …show more content…

The two characters share a similar trait, they both had influential mentors in their lives, and the mentors changed each character for the better. The two characters differ however, as Roger is a thief because he does not know any better, and Waverly is a hard worker because it is all she has known. They have different family lives, but their relationships with said family contribute to their actions in the stories. Each character’s setting affected the plot of each story because of the hustle and bustle of city life. Both characters do not live in a particularly safe area, as both characters are poor as well. Even though a person or family can be stereotyped, there is always a chance to look hard enough and see the true character of said person or

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Play it onto the discard pile. (b)Analyze: At the beginning of this story, the narrator, Waverly Jong, explains how her mother taught her the art of invisible strength when she was six years old, saying that it is a strategy for winning arguments, respect, and chess game. (a)Recall: When Waverly fears that she will lose a chess match and shame the family, Mrs. Jong says, "Is shame you fall down nobody push you. " Under the humor of her syntax, however, her words are powerful and biting - that is, Waverly has no one to blame for her failure but herself.

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This quote from the text stands out to me because it shows that Waverly’s mom cares more about herself than her community. Every Saturday, Waverly and her mom would go to the market. Not to purchase anything, but for Waverly’s mom to show off her daughter who became a national chess champion. Instead of focusing on how her family felt about Waverly’s sudden success and helping them cope with Waverly’s busy schedule, the mother chose to flaunt Waverly and boast about her accomplishments.

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Roger, once selfish and dishonest, becomes more cooperative and polite. Her actions towards the boy influenced his actions. Mrs. Jones’s impact was first apparent when she had Roger stay and eat dinner with her. Scared and confused, Roger didn’t understand why she was being so hospitable even through he had tried stealing from her.

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It is also, by forgiving Roger, that Mrs. Jones helps him open his eyes to the idea of choice. The combination of her sternness and compassion affects Roger tremendously. The text states, “ The boy wanted to say something else other than “Thank you, ma’am” to Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones, but he couldn’t do so ..” (Hughes Pg.3) Instead of forgiving him, had Mrs. Jones handed him over to

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