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You ought to be my son. I would teach you right from wrong. Least I can do right now is to wash your face. Are you hungry?

This line occurs early in the story after Mrs. Jones captures Roger and has noticed and remarked on his dirty face. Over the course of the story, Mrs. Jones moves from anger at Roger to a maternal desire to care for him and show him a better way to live. This moment marks the beginning of that transition. While Mrs. Jones decides in this moment to act generously toward Roger, she is still motivated by anger. He does not want to be fed and cared for, only released. However, Mrs. Jones is in control of the scene and forces him to accept her generosity, showing that she feels determined to improve his life, not personally warm toward him as an individual. This line also indicates the limits she will place on their interaction. Although she will act as his mother for the evening, she is not embarking on a long-term relationship but rather enacting the “least [she] can do.”

“Eat some more, son,” she said.

Toward the end of their meal, Mrs. Jones cuts her cake in half to share with Roger and encourages him to eat more, calling him “son.” This moment marks the completion of the transformation of their relationship. Early in the story, Mrs. Jones declares that Roger should be her son, so that she could teach him right from wrong. By taking him home, scolding him in a maternal way, and feeding him, she has acted as his mother for the evening. This line from the text contains both the maternal fussing of a mother urging her growing child to eat as well as an echo of the Biblical theme of showing love and building relationships by sharing food. Mrs. Jones uses food as a form of care and a way to reach Roger in order to teach him to live a better life. Although the two never meet again, for this night they are mother and son.

Now, here, take this ten dollars and buy yourself some blue suede shoes. And next time, do not make the mistake of latching onto my pocketbook nor nobody else’s—because shoes come by devilish like that will burn your feet. I got to get my rest now. But I wish you would behave yourself, son, from here on in.

At the end of the story, Mrs. Jones gives Roger the money to buy the blue suede shoes he wants, the most surprising moment in a story built on unexpected twists. This moment represents Mrs. Jones’s full forgiveness of Roger for his attack and an act of compassion and generosity built on both the maternal role she has taken on and her understanding that he is in a position she has also experienced. The gift comes with a lesson against stealing, not on moral grounds because of the harm done to the victim, but on grounds of self-interest. Hughes implies that Mrs. Jones knows from experience the personal psychological cost of goods that are “come by devilish,” that is, by means of bad deeds. Her greatest gift to Roger is not the ten dollars but the lesson on how to live without needing to feel ashamed of himself.

The boy wanted to say something else other than “Thank you, m’am” to Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones, but he couldn’t do so as he turned at the barren stoop and looked back at the large woman in the door. He barely managed to say “Thank you” before she shut the door. And he never saw her again.

The final lines of the story—Roger’s choked-out thanks to Mrs. Jones—give it its title. Roger’s inability to say more than “thank you” indicates both Mrs. Jones’s businesslike swiftness in seeing him out and the difficulty of adequately responding to the enormity of her generosity. Mrs. Jones has not only forgiven Roger for attacking her, fed him, and given him money for his shoes, she has also shown him a level of care he does not receive at home, including imparting lessons on how to live a better life. While “thank you” seems an inadequate reply to such gifts, Roger is only a child. Hughes’s decision to title the story “Thank You, Ma’am” suggests that the story itself is meant as an act of gratitude, whether for the generosity of a particular woman or for all the Black women who help Black children grow up well.

Next section The Importance of Dignity

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