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Manuel Cruz
Professor Ashante Lucombe
English Composition

Steve Maraboli in his book Life, the Truth, and Being Free said: A kind gesture can
reach a wound that only compassion can heal. This quote talks about how someone can change
your life just by helping you or giving you something out of their own things. Langston Hughes,
an African American author and NAACP Spingarn Medal awardee, reflects this quote in his
famous short story Thank You Maam. In this famous piece of American Literature, Mr.
Hughes fights vigorously to show how racism had affected society in the United States and how
black people had to fight for their rights and help each other in such dark times. There are only
two characters in this marvelous story, Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones, and the kid Roger.
The writing narrates how a young man tried to rob Mrs. Jones late at night and ended up being
taken care of and fed and cleaned up by her. The main theme in this story is kindness. Rhetorical
devices are used throughout the text to make the reader understand better, some of them are
realism, imagery, characterization, ethos and pathos.
In the story, the author employs realism, a form of rhetorical device which strives for
describing the situation by using factual events rather than fictional. This can be observed in the
following quote: "I wanted a pair of blue suede shoes. This is being said by Roger as Mrs.
Jones questions him about why he was stealing. In this quote the author expresses realism
because it shows how in those times people had a rough economic situation. Some people
wanted things they couldnt afford and they sometimes would turn to stealing. The action of

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stealing from others has never been seen or will ever be seen as a right thing to do because you
have to earn what you have either through hard work or a gift.
In the beginning of the story, Mr. Hughes starts with imagery, a way for the author to
describe an object or person. She was a large woman with a large purse that had everything in it
but hammer and nails, the aforementioned quote is an exact example of imagery. The author is
trying to convey the idea of how tall the woman was compared with the later mentioned kid, who
she shook until his teeth rattled, meaning that he was so skinny and small that she could easily
pick him up. After the kid tried to grab her pocketbook, she was a kind person and took him to
her house and washed him and fed him.
Another example of a rhetorical device used by the author in this writing is
characterization, or the method used to develop the characters, in this case the way the character
speaks. In the Analysis of Thank You Maam by Ahmad Bilal, he says Her speech also throws
some light on her social class as she speaks Black Vernacular English. This can be observed all
throughout the reading, the following quotes are just a few: You a lie here, she didnt use an
auxiliary; I would not take you nowhere in this quote a double negative can be seen; You
could of asked me and here she uses of instead of have. These examples are just the perfect
ones to show how the vernacular has been predominant on black communities since that time,
the 1920s 30s and now too.
One of the boldest themes in the story is kindness. Throughout the reading, Mrs. Luella
Bates seems like the kind of person who would always care for others with a motherly touch. In
this essay it is unknown to the reader if Bates has or ever had kids of her own but she sure knows
how to take care of one. In the sentences "Um-hum! Your face is dirty. I got a great mind to wash
your face for you. Ain't you got nobody home to tell you to wash your face? she shows the

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behavior that any mother would show for her kid. I think she was patient and kind to him
because she saw that he was really struggling and as a kid that wanted something and couldnt
have it, it touched her heart and decided to at least give him the money to buy the new shoes and
some advice so that he would never have to do it again. Roger, left Mrs. Bates house with
compassion in his heart because he saw how great she had treated him after trying to steal from
her.
The setting is one of the thing that makes reader visualize how, where and when the story
is taking place. In this story, Mr. Hughes doesnt do a great job describing the setting at all in the
beginning part. The only thing that helps the reader know when and where this is taking place is
the following It was about eleven oclock at night and she was walking alone. This quote
helps us understand that Roger tried robbing Mrs. Bates as was walking alone to her house and at
night. Other than that we cannot determine the place where the stealing happened. Later on, he
does describe the place where she lived at, it was a large kitchenette-furnished room at the rear
of the house. Although theres not a lot of detail in it, we still can imagine this large house and
how it couldve looked.
The story has not one but several different tones, or the attitude a literary work takes
towards its subject or theme, it also reflects the narrators attitude. One of the tones is ironic,
there isnt just one sentence that explicitly shows the irony but in the story as a whole we can
observe it. Normally a person that steals from you, you wouldnt take home, feed, and give
money to so he could buy the shoes he wanted, here in just these aforementioned things we can
see that irony is a big part of our reading.

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References

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Bilal, Hafiz Ahmad. "ANALYSIS OF THANK YOU M'AM: HALLIDAY'S
METAFUNCTIONS." ANALYSIS OF THANK YOU M'AM: HALLIDAY'S METAFUNCTIONS.
SAVAP International, 2012. Web. 30 Oct. 2015.
Rampersad, Arnold. "Hughes's Life and Career--by Arnold Rampersad." Hughes's Life and
Career. Oxford University Press., 1997. Web. 1 Nov. 2015.
"Langston Hughes." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets. Web. 1 Nov. 2015.
Chinitz, David. Rejuvenation Through Joy: Langston Hughes, Primitivism, and
Jazz. American Literary History 9 (Spring, 1997): 60-78.