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Thank You Ma Am Theme

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Have you ever felt like you are obliged to a duty of making the world a better place even though no one told you to? that is how Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones felt when she came across a boy name Roger. In the story “Thank You, Ma’am” by Langston Hughes describes one night when a boy attempts to steal a woman 's purse. This leads to the lady cleaning him up, having dinner with the poor boy and teaching him a lesson. One theme you can take away from this story is, a community is only as strong as it’s weakest member.

One instance of this theme occurring in the story is when the woman begins to take interest in the boy. “Um-hum! And your face is dirty. I got a great mind to wash your face for you. Ain’t you got nobody home to tell you to wash your face for you?”(pg 5) …show more content…

“But the boy to care to sit on the far side of the room where he thought she could easily see him out of the corner of her eye, if she wanted to. He did not trust the woman not to trust him. And he did not want to be mistrusted now.” This long quote is essentially saying that the boy wants to run but decided to to because this lady is going to give food to him for free and he does not want her to be suspicious of him so he is acting on his best behavior. This is yet one more occasion where the theme is popping up. Roger is realizing that Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones is going to help him reach higher where is family has not. Even though she had and will meet this kid once, her kindness towards him by to turning him into the police, not hurting him, cleaning him up, feeding him and later in the story giving him $10 to buy shoes will make an impact. Maybe because Roger is fresh he can invent a longer lasting light bulb or cure cancer, or he could lift his other community members so they can lift up other people, all of this because Roger decided to run in the wrong

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