Muna Salad

Final Project

Thank You, M’am

Thank You M’am is one of my favorite stories, and it took place in 1930’s when the Great Depression was happening in the America. The story portrays poverty and the impact it has on children. Hughes tells a heroic story about a strong woman and a child to get people’s attention to child hunger. I Like this story because it discusses about important moral that most people overlook.

Roger, “fourteen or fifteen”, tries to steal a purse from a woman in the middle of the night because he didn’t have any parents to take care of him. When Mrs. Jones tells Roger that she would take him home, Roger says “There’s nobody home at my house”, which suggests that Roger had no parents to take care of him. Hughes tries to show the child’s situation through his physical features like his “dirty face”.  All these details show that Roger wasn’t stealing for fun, but rather, he was stealing to save his life. Child Hunger  wasn’t only portrayed in Roger’s childhood, but Mrs.Jones has also been a victim from child Hunger. She says, “I were young once and I wanted things I could not get”, and this is the reason that Mrs. Jones relates with Roger. Both of the characters have been victims of child hunger, and Hughes is trying to gain people’s attention to the matter of child hunger.

Forgiveness is powerful, and the good it does is unreplaceable. Despite Mrs.Jones and Rogers’ unfriendly encounter, Mrs.Jones seem to care about Roger as he was her son. Nowadays, if some poor guy tries to snatch a woman’s purse, he would probably go to jail for a long time. No one would ever invite a thief, who tried to rabb them, to his or her homes, but Mrs.Jones invites Roger, feeds him, and cleans him. Her forgiveness is huge, but her ultimate goal for her compassion was to change his heart, and she says to him “Good-night! Behave yourself, boy!” as he leaves. She understands his motives to steal but most importantly, she tries to make him realize that it’s never okay to steal. Hughes’ purpose is draw people's’ devotion to helping and forgiving children because their poverty isn’t their fault. Children don’t choose to be poor. They are born with it.

Great Depression was a time of struggle, and in those times, people tend to go to survival mode. Everyone is fighting for their life, and no one stops to help someone else out. As humans, we tend to be self-centered during any tragedies, and we forget about love. Mrs.Jones was working late shift, and this suggests she was from poor class. Even though Mrs. Jones was financially struggling, this didn’t stop her from giving cash to Roger, and she says to him “buy yourself some blue suede shoes”.  Love overpowers any temptations. Even though Mrs. Jones could have kept her money, she thought it would do good for Roger. Love is also about trust. Mrs.Jones trusts Roger even though he tried to steal from her. For example, “The woman [Mrs.Jones] did not watch the boy to see if he was going to run now, nor did she watch her purse which she left behind her on the day-bed”. During economic crisis, our urgent needs cloud our morals, but Mrs. Jones didn’t let that happen.

Hughes’ convincing story reveals the strength of love, forgiveness, and kindness. The moral of the story lies with Mrs.Jones’ moral decisions towards regarding this specific incident. Instead of sending Roger to jail, she decides to take him to her house and treat him as her son. And instead of blaming him, she relates with him and tries to navigate him.