Thank You Ma'am

"She was a large woman with a large purse that had everything in it but hammer and nails. It had a long strap, and she carried it slung across her shoulder. It was about eleven o’clock at night, and she was walking alone, when a boy ran up behind her and tried to snatch her purse. The strap broke with the single tug the boy gave it from behind. But the boy’s weight and the weight of the purse combined caused him to lose his balance so, intsead of taking off full blast as he had hoped, the

boy fell on his back on the sidewalk, and his legs flew up. The large woman simply turned around and kicked him right square in his blue-jeaned sitter. Then she reached down, picked the boy up by his shirt front, and shook him until his teeth rattled."

Description: Thank You Ma'am is a story that transformed the stereotypes of bossy Black women and young Black men. Its a short story about an incident where a teenager tries to steal a woman's purse. However, the woman then invites the young man into her home and insights into the both characters' motivations are revealed.

Explanation: Hughes again sets his story in a city. The 1920's were a time rife with petty crime as well as organized crime. He draws upon the common occurence of getting your purse or wallet stolen, but then expands on this situation to provoke deeper insight into our humanity.

Evaluation: Thank You Ma'am is one of Hughes' most famous short stories. Hughes takes the negative connotations associated with stereotypes of Black people and rewrites them in a way that makes characters normally perceived as bad, seem good.

Analysis: Unfortunately, people did not act as kindly towards criminals and stereotypes of Black people severely damaged public opinion of Black people. This made the 1920's a time that was boring for most Black people. However, the fact that a black author like Langston Hughes was able to achieve such great success is a testament to how the 1920's were roaring for some.