1. Day 3:Langston Hughes’ “Thank you, Ma’m”
Lit Types
LAP 1: Short Stories
“Shoes got by devilish ways will burn your feet.”

2. “Thank You, Ma’am” Point of View Characters
“She was a large woman with a large purse that had everything but a hammer and nails.”
Third-person point of view
Characters
Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones
Roger

3. Characterization
Characterization: the method used to describe a character.
Direct Characterization– the author tells us directly what a character is like.
Indirect Characterization– what a character is like is revealed through his/her thoughts, speech, and actions.

4. Characters Analysis
What are the similarities between the two characters?
What are the differences between the two characters?

5. Make Inferences
Inferences are educated guesses about things that are not stated directly in the story.
Discussion
What can you infer about Mrs. Jones when she says, “I have done things, too.”?
Things Mrs. Jones has done in her past seem to help her understand Roger’s actions. She lets him know he’s done something wrong, but she seems to want to give him another chance.
Perhaps someone in her past gave her a second chance, too.

6. Discussion Questions Why did Hughes create these two characters?
What do these characters reveal about Hughes?
How does the dialect (way in which the characters speak) affect the tone of the poem?
Referring back to the poem, “I, Too”, how are the speaker of the poem and the two characters of the short story similar?

7. “Interlopers” Pre-reading
mccoys/videos/hatfields-and-mccoys-saga