The Knowledgeable Sayings

Authors Note: This piece is analyzing the quotes and/or sayings that relate to the short story “Thank You Ma’am” by Langston Hughes.

“Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.” –Forrest Gump

Just imagine, being alone; no family or friends at all. Think about having no money for food or transportation and all you really want is a pair of blue suede shoes. Lastly, dream about how this unorthodox, enigmatic woman named Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones would take you in and feed you just to teach you a lesson. This is what the main character; Roger goes through in the short story “Thank You Ma’am” by Langston Hughes. In this brief two hour time with Mrs. Jones, he is taught that he can’t get the goods that he wants by stealing from other people. The teenager also learns that you don’t have to be discriminative or prejudiced to demonstrate proper manners and/or thankfulness. There are many quotes in the short story and in the outside world that clearly shows and analyzes the main concepts and conflicts of this story, “Thank You Ma’am”.

The opening quote that can be related to the story “Thank You Ma’am” by Langston Hughes is the saying, “It takes a village to raise a child.”(By: African Proverb) This excerpt is logically related to the young boy, Roger because he doesn’t have a home or anyone to love him. When Luella asks him if he has any family he simply repeats, "No’m”. The reason this relates to him because if he was raised and nurtured by an actual family and if he grew up in a safe environment or a 'village', he would not have been trying to steal Mrs. Jones pocketbook.

Furthermore, another quote that is comparative to “Thank You Ma’am” is “Everything happens for as reason.” This reference simply means that if Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones would have done something like calling the cops, Roger wouldn’t have learned the simple life lesson of kindness. He realized that you don't just have to be rude and mean to people to teach them a lesson. He acknowledged that you can be nice and caring to people to show them something important. The real meaning of that excerpt, is that no matter what happens or what you do, everything happens for a reason. Maybe he wasn’t told on for a reason and it was just karma for Roger(Which I highly doubt), or that she was just giving him a chance.

In addition, there is also one more very important quote in the chronicle that helps Roger change his life completely. Luella exclaimed at him in her house saying, "Um-hum! You thought I was going to say but, didn’t you? You thought I was going to say, but I didn’t snatch people’s pocketbooks. Well, I wasn’t going to say that." When saying this, the no-longer-thug Roger learned probably the most important lesson in his life. This excerpt means so much to him because it taught him that all people are created equal and that you should never discriminate people for what happened in the past because they may have changed by then. After that I don’t think that the young teenager will never make fun of people and he will not in any way, try to steal from people to get what he wants.

In conclusion, I would like to express my feelings on the title of this piece. What this means is when Roger was captured by Mrs.Jones, he had no idea what was going to happen. Just like in the saying from Forrest Gump, “…you never know what you’re gonna get.” Nevertheless, “Everything happens for a reason” and who knew that for Roger, his ‘village’ would be Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones.