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Explanation and Analysis:
“Thank You, M’am” is a short story that belongs to the genre of African American literature, specifically literature written during the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was an arts movement that took place in Harlem, New York in the 1920s and 1930s that centered on Black artists highlighting the Black experience. Though Hughes does not make the races of his characters explicit in “Thank You, M’am,” the fact that Hughes almost exclusively wrote about Black characters in his fiction strongly suggests that both Roger and Mrs. Jones are Black.
It is possible that Hughes wrote this story in order to communicate that, while many Black people in Harlem lived in poverty in the 1950s and would therefore have reason to want to steal money to buy the things they want or need (as Roger does in the story), it is not an acceptable choice to make. Just as Mrs. Jones teaches Roger that he should not steal to get what he wants (while also validating his desire to have more than what he has), Hughes is communicating to his readers that people must treat each other with respect even when navigating challenging circumstances. It was very common for fiction written during the Harlem Renaissance to have moral takeaways for readers like this.
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