Analytical essay of Thank You M’am
The short story “Thank You M’am” is written by the famous black writer Langston Hughes. This fictional text is about the teenager Roger, who tries to steal the purse of the large woman Mrs. Luella Bates Washington, who instead of reporting the boy to the police or run frightened away chooses to learn him an alternative lesson, by taking him to her house and wash his face.

There is no place in the text that tells where the story takes place, but it is most likely that the location is somewhere in the United States, as Langston Hughes is American. The action in the story is in the street, where the boy and the woman meet, and in the woman’s house. The time of the story is probably around the 1950’s, as it is within the living period of Langston Hughes, but also the character Mrs. Washington works in a beauty shop (p. 3, l. 41), which was not a very common thing before the 50’s. There is no indications in the text that tell anything specific about the social environment, but as the boy, Roger tries to steal from Mrs. Washington, he is in all probability poor, and Mrs. Washington is probably from the middle class, as she has a house.
In the story we meet two persons: The teenager boy, Roger and the woman, Mrs. Luella Bates Washington. Roger is around fourteen or fifteen years old, wearing blue jeans and tennis shoes, and he was also looking frail (p. 1, ll. 35-36). It is possible that he does not have any one to take care of him, but it is also a possibility that he is just a cheeky devil with a family that does not give him the needed attention. During the story he changes from being a rude boy trying to steal a woman’s purse to be a boy who have learned what to do and what not to do.
Mrs. Washington is described as large woman with a large purse (p. 1, l. 1), whom works in a hotel beauty shop. As she is a “Mrs.” I assume that she