Thank You Ma Am By Langston Hughes

In the short story “Thank You Ma’am” there are different themes there is compassion, love, and trust. That is very ironic considering that young boy Roger did try to steal Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones purse in the beginning of this story. Even though he was trying to steal from her she never called the police she never judged him because no one should ever judge a book by its cover.
Langston Hughes shows that there are still people that care it does not matter if you know them are not they still care about you. Hughes also shows not everyone is quick to judge and he makes it obvious with Mrs. Luella not judging roger but teaching the young boy right from wrong. So at this point why didn’t Mrs. Luella Bates call the cops on roger? Any other person would have called the cops but
Luella Bates does trust Roger because she leaves her purse and never watched him to see if he was going to run away. She is also telling her story to him and that she has “…done things too which I would not tell you son neither tell God, if he didn’t already know.” (Hughes 2) Roger in return is showing that he doesn’t want to lose this trust that Mrs. Luella Bates has for him but he also trusts Mrs. Luella Bates because by now he would have already run but “… he did not want to be mistrusted now.” (Hughes 3) There is also love being shown from Mrs. Luella Bates to Roger, but why is Mrs. Jones showing love to someone that tried to steal from her? Hughes is expressing in this story that not everyone is bad and everybody just needs a little bit of love in their life or a little guidance. I believe that Roger wanted to learn a lesson from Mrs. Jones because if Roger did not care he would have run already but instead he stayed. She is showing more love to roger by saying “... take this ten dollars and buy yourself some blue suede shoes…” (Hughes