Thank you m'am by Langston Hughes

English Literature - Short Stories

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE in LITERATURE

Thank You, Ma'm by Langston Hughes (1902-1967) represents a time period of American social culture characterized by different attitudes, language, and values than those prevailing in contemporary American society. In particular, the story emphasizes a very different dynamics between adults and adolescents that cut across all demographic distinctions. It recalls the entire genre of first generation black & white television series of the 1950s-era when virtually all young people replied "yes sir" and "no ma'am" to adults.

In many ways, the attitude of respect that was common at the time is entirely extinct in contemporary social relations except in the most formal circumstances. In the past, adolescents deliberately used substantially different language to address adults than the less polite terminology they may have used amongst themselves. In general, the differences in attitude and conversational tone between adolescents and adults were obvious in both directions, as captured by Hughes in this passage:

If I turn you loose, will you run?" asked the woman.

Yes'm," said the boy.

Then I won't turn you loose," said the woman. She did not release him.

I'm very sorry, lady, I'm sorry," whispered the boy.

Um-hum! And 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?"

No'm," said the boy.

Then it will get washed this evening," said the large woman starting up the street, dragging the frightened boy behind her.

He looked as if he were fourteen or fifteen, frail and willow-wild, in tennis shoes and blue jeans. The woman said,

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?"

In principle, robbery is actually a much more extreme for of dishonesty than merely lying about one's intention to escape from the physical grasp of an adult, but the social values ingrained in the would-be mugger made it difficult for him to deceive his victim about running. It is difficult to imagine a similar situation today where a fifteen-year-old bold enough to resort to street crime would refrain from using the necessary strength to overpower the woman, striking her if necessary. At the time represented by Hughes' story, that response was unthinkable, even for a mugger.

Likewise, on the woman's part, she was undoubtedly angry at the boy, yet her prevailing impulse was to express that anger in the context of mentorship and surrogate parenting. Instead of having the boy formally arrested, the woman apparently considers that more likely to add to the problems that contributed to his desperation in the first place. She adopts a an authoritative demeanor and combines punishment with a lesson in personal perspective, values, and appropriate behavior expressed mainly through the persona of a critical parent.

That dynamic was so familiar to the boy that he responded, probably automatically, by adopting the correspondingly appropriate demeanor on his part, as clearly evidenced by the following passage:

The woman was sitting on the day-bed. After a while she said, "I were young once and I wanted things I could not get." There was another long pause. The boy's mouth opened. Then he frowned, but not knowing he frowned. The woman said,

Um-hum! You thought I was going to say but, didn't you? You thought I was going to say, but I didn't snatch people's pocketbooks. Well, I wasn't going to say that." Pause. Silence. "I have done things, too, which I would not tell you, son -- neither tell God, if he didn't already know. So you set down while I fix us something to eat. You might run that comb through your hair so you will look presentable."

The natural ability of the woman - even (presumably, from her autobiographical descriptions), an ordinary woman without advanced education or training in adolescent psychology - to understand the importance of allowing the boy to identify with her experiences is also characteristic of a time period when (virtually all) adults seemed to understand how to reach out to troubled adolescents. The pivotal moment in the change in the nature of their relationship followed immediately, both as described by Hughes and also, specifically, in terms of the boy's response: In another corner of the room behind a screen was a gas plate and an icebox. Mrs.