The Way People Can Change- “Thank You Ma’am”

Author's Note- This short response is from L.H.'s short story of "Thank You Ma'am." It talks about some points in the story of how Rodger behaved and the foolish choices that he made. Look for a couple of tricky vocabulary words in the story.

In L.H.’s short story “Thank You Ma’am,” we learn how people can affect others in a positive way. Rodger, a teenage boy who has no family and has nothing, decides to go up to a large woman to try and steal her purse for money so he can buy some blue suede shoes. The lady that had the purse, Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones, noticed that this boy was lonely and had nothing in his life. Mrs. Jones wanted to help this young boy, so she took him into her household and began teaching this boy to not steal and had Rodger wash his face and clean himself up from his selfish ways.

Throughout the story, Rodger is being transformed into a new person so he wouldn’t go back to his treacherous ways. I think that Rodger behaved the way he did because there is a song by Elvis Presley called, “Blue Suede Shoes.” When Rodger listen to this song, heard or saw the shoes, he instantly wanted them and because Rodger has no family or money, he went and snatched people’s purses to get money and buy the shoes. Rodger behaved like this just for shoes. When Mrs. Jones took Rodger into her house, he learned to end his ways on stealing purses from other people. Many people, like Rodger, will get desperate for something that they really want and start their bad ways, by taking other people’s money and they end up going to jail. If Rodger would have stolen Mrs. Jones’s purse and got away, then he could have gotten caught and gone to jail, rather than being taken in and being taught the right ways instead of the wrong ways and buying the blue suede shoes at the end of the story. Never be selfish and get desperate for something you really want. Think of the right ways that can keep you out of trouble.