"Thank you, M'am" by Langston Hughes is a short story which ends with many possible future outcomes. Roger is a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old who tries to steal Mrs. Jones's purse so that he can buy himself a pair of blue suede shoes. He selects a "large" woman, late at night, who he thinks will not be able to stop him, and so the reader can only hope that his encounter and Mrs. Jones's surprising and...
"Thank you, M'am" by Langston Hughes is a short story which ends with many possible future outcomes. Roger is a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old who tries to steal Mrs. Jones's purse so that he can buy himself a pair of blue suede shoes. He selects a "large" woman, late at night, who he thinks will not be able to stop him, and so the reader can only hope that his encounter and Mrs. Jones's surprising and uplifting behavior have the desired effect on him.
It is feasible to think that Roger does learn from Mrs. Jones's kindness and will emulate it in the future because he changes from a belligerent teenager into a concerned young boy who even offers to run an errand for Mrs. Jones to show his gratitude. The fact that he also recognizes that his thanks is hardly sufficient, and he "wanted to say something else" in expressing how he feels when he leaves with the $10 she has willingly given him, does show that she has already had quite an effect on Roger. Accordingly, perhaps when they meet after a year, Roger can honestly say that he has not attempted to steal any more purses, and that he has enjoyed his blue suede shoes, and that he has perhaps even taken a part-time job so that he can save his own money to buy the things he wants the most. Even though Roger and Mrs. Jones do not really know each other, the reader senses that Roger would like to make Mrs. Jones proud of him.
No comments:
Post a Comment