"Thank You, Ma'am." － Society for Everyone

Today, there are many people in the world who are regarded as outcasts from society for a variety of reasons ― race, the colour of skin, extreme poverty, having committed a crime, and so on. In the story Thank you, Ma'am by Langston Hughes too, we can see such kinds of characters: Roger and Mrs. Jones. Both of them have done something bad. However, in the end, they were able to change themselves. This is why it can be safely said that Langston Hughes maintains in this story that any people who are relegated to the margins of society and therefore recognized as pariahs in the world can be accepted as members in a society and take a lively part there.

　　　　　The first reason we can say that Langston Hughes wants us to notice that anyone can return to work however strong distrust he or she once had toward society is manifested in the way Roger, who tried to rob Mrs. Jones of money, has changed. One thing showing Roger was able to get rid of his delinquent character is in his voluntary decision not to run away from the woman’s home. In this story, Roger is faced with some situations in which he could run away easily without Mrs. Jones knowing it if he wanted to. For example, when he goes to the sink to wash his face, the door is open widely as if it tempted him to go out. Moreover, when Mrs. Jones makes cocoa for him, her not at all keeping her eye on Roger could make it possible for him to steal her purse and run away. Nevertheless, in both cases, he chooses for himself to stay there and does not betray the woman’s kindness, which is a sure sign of his getting sensibility back. In addition, we can see another proof which makes us convinced of his rehabilitation in the scene in which he and the woman have to say good-bye to each other. In this scene, he “wanted to say something other than, ‘Thank you, mam’ to Mrs. Luella Washington Jones” (Hughes). He thinks that the phrase “Thank you, mam” is too ordinary to express to Mrs. Jones his feeling filled with gratitude toward her. In other words, he attempts to present her with a unique and elaborate thankful message rather than the commonplace one. This way of thinking should be interpreted as manifestation of his desire to make the woman feel favourable to him and therefore can be an obvious proof showing us that he did change into a warm-hearted person. Thus, he certainly got courage to go into society.

Secondly, Hughes’s message that any good-for-nothing person has infinite possibilities of making a new start in his/her life is indicated in Mrs. Jones’s character too. In this story, she says the following: “I have done things, too, which I would not tell you, son ― neither tell God, if he didn’t already know” (Hughes). This words suggest to us that she herself also has done something bad in her past. Today, some guess that it might be addiction or prostitution from the slangy meaning of the word “Jones” and the social background in those days respectively. Yet, we can say that she has changed herself in the end. We can see the way she has changed from two views. One is her strong sense of justice. When she captures Roger, she would never turn him loose, and on the contrary, she took him to her home in order to “teach you [means Roger] right from wrong” (Hughes). The other is her kindness. She is kind enough to let Roger wash his face, make cocoa for him, and even give ten dollars to him so he could buy some blue suede shoes, even though she is not his mother. These facts that Mrs. Jones has an extraordinarily strong morality and warm heart make us convinced that she was able to totally rehabilitate herself.

Last, and perhaps most important, Langston Hughes’s message can be explained by his own plight, too ― the undeniable fact that he was born as a black. He wants us to know that any black can make his own way through a society and play an active part in the world. This view is confirmed by the historical fact that he experienced the Harlem Renaissance in 1924. The Harlem Renaissance was an activity in which many African-American people insisted that they have their own opinions, culture, and of course identity as blacks, all of which no Europeans or white Americans should violate. It goes without saying that this activity had a great influence on his way of thinking about the tendency of society in those days that priorities were given to white people. In addition, Hughes's strong spirit of rebellion against white supremacism is seen in his essay the Nation in 1926. Here are some famous parts of it: "We younger Negro artists now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. . . . [. . .] If colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure doesn't matter either" (qtd. in Wikipedia ). As we can see, he hoped that both blacks and whites would be treated equally and the two could understood each other without feeling a sense of hatred, so that they could live in a society peacefully where no discrimination existed. This is why we can say that Hughes characterized Roger, who was able to return to a society, as black and made him a symbol of his message that any black can have his own place in a society.

Therefore, it is certain that Langston Hughes shows us that any person labelled as a pariah also has a bright future in the same way the other majority of people in the world do. Whatever horrible crime one has committed, whatever color one's skin is, he should not be treated badly in a society. Yes, reading Thank you Ma'am is the best medicine to kill our prejudice toward such people.


Works Cited
Hughes, Langston. “Thank You, Ma’am.” Short Story Classics. 24 Feb. 2004.
<http://www.geocities.com/cyber_explorer99/hughesthankyou.html>.
Wikipedia the Free Encyclopaedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 23 June.2008. 24 June 2008
　　　<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langston_Hughes>.