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Thank You, M’am
Themes and Colors
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Thank You, M’am, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Empathy, Kindness, and Punishment
Langston Hughes’s “Thank You, M’am” tells the story of a young boy, Roger, who meets an older woman, Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones, while attempting to steal her purse. When Roger is initially confronted by the firm and imposing Mrs. Jones, he clearly believes he will be punished for his crime; indeed, she takes him in hand, kicks him “square in the blue-jeaned sitter,” and shakes him “until his teeth rattled.” Yet it…
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Family, Community, and Home
“Thank You, M’am” narrates the events of one night for Roger, a young boy, and Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones, the older woman he attempts to rob. Rather than reporting Roger to the police or take other legal action, Mrs. Jones offers the boy motherly guidance and a temporary home. Her unexpected choice can be read through the historical background of the story’s implied setting: Hughes was a central figure in the early…
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Choice vs. Circumstance
“Thank You, M’am” demonstrates that individuals make better choices—and even become more upstanding, more moral people—when they are honest about their shortcomings and mistakes. A more stereotypical, less nuanced version of this story might have blamed or excused Roger’s attempted theft of Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones’s purse on his income, race, or class. Instead, through observing the series of decisions made by Roger and Mrs. Jones, Hughes’s story presents a more complex…
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