Deconstruction of Thank You Ma'am

Please read the whole story here

“Thank You Ma’am” is a story about a young man who tries to snatch Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones’ purse to buy a new pair of blue suede shoes. His plans backfires and he learns a lesson about trust, honesty and respect about how to treat other the way he wanted to be treated that he will never forget.

        After reading the deconstruction of “Thank You Ma’am”, it exposes a lot of differences to the real story. There are lots of discrepancy and contradictions which made me confused as a reader to what I should really believe.

       In the world we live in nowadays, it’s very seldom to see a million acts of kindness each day. It seems like as the time passes by, there are lot of alterations and changes being felt in our societies. These changes include the changes in our goals, in our attitudes and in our perspectives in life.

       I highly believe that one mistake corresponds to a punishment. In the story “Thank You Ma’am”, it’s quite impossible to see a young thief being nurtured and pampered instead of giving him a penalty. Even though Mrs. Luella Bates Washington was a caring woman to the young thief, it’s not an excuse to let the boy escape from the crime and even telling the boy that he shouldn’t have to snatch rather he could just ask the woman for it which is not the proper way of handling the situation. For me, it’s really inconsiderable because I do believe that in order for you to get your wants, you should work for it and strive hard for it. It’s not all the time that we will just count on  our wants to be given by anybody.

       If I was on Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones’ place, I would likely not tolerate what she did because what if all the people will just believe that you can just get away from the bad doings you have done. Then if that’s the case, what would be the purpose of laws and policies in our society?

       On the second thought, maybe Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones just wants to teach the young thief a lesson in a very comfortable way which is by not scaring the boy at all. Mrs. Jones is trying her very best to let the boy feel comfortable so that he would be able to tell his problems to her which is also good because she believes that all things can only be handled by a soft conversation. Maybe she thinks that giving a special treatment to the boy is an effective method of punishment to the boy. Mrs. Jones also had shown her weaknesses in her lifestyle which opens to another statement that it’s not good to steal someone’s pocketbook, but you could still escape from the crime.

          The boy may think that Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones is something worthy of imitation and aspire to be like but morally speaking, she is someone unworthy to look up to and revered by someone else because in some cases, she is tolerating what the boy did and even telling someone to ask earnestly for something without even trying.

         The deconstruction of the story taught me a lesson in life- that we have to work hard so that you'll get what you want and to be responsible to what we did. I was also delighted by the story because Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones  wanted to give the boy a second chance and to believe that there is someone you can rely on.

Here is a short video based on Langston Hughes' short story