Paramveer.M Ms.Szpryka. ENG1D1-02 21st September 2020 Thank you, ma’am Expository paragraph Question: Explain the theme of trust or compassion appears in the short story “Thank you Ma’am” The theme of the short story thank you ma’am is about the compassion Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones, shows towards Rodger. I believe that the short stories theme is compassion because she didn’t immediately report Rodger to the police, she also took him to her own home to fix him up and provided him a meal, she also shared her experiences as a kid that leads us to believe she was put into a situation like Rodgers. Firstly, we see Mrs. Luella drag Rodger to her home after he had just tried to steal her purse. Instead of reporting him to the police she wanted to teach him a lesson by herself rather than sending him to a juvenile detention center. She did this by dragging him all the way to her house. Secondly, she brought him to her house but instead of a major punishment or a lecture she took him to wash himself off and eat a homecooked meal this is reviled when Rodgers says "You gonna take me to jail?" Mrs. Luell responded by saying "Not with that face, I would not take you nowhere". She later asked Rodger “Maybe you ain't been to your supper either, late as it be. Have you?" Rodger replies saying, "There's nobody home at my house". The conversation later leads to Mrs. Luella offering to cook something up for them both. Finally, Mrs. Luell shows her compassion for Rodger due to her being in a similar position when she was younger, we can make this inference when she says, "I were young once and I wanted things I could not get." The woman said, "Urn-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. I have done things, too, which I would not tell you, son neither tell God” if He didn't already know. In conclusion I believe that the theme of the short story is the compassion that Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones shows towards Rodger because she chooses to deal with the problem herself by taking Rodger home rather than calling the police, Mrs. Luella also decided to feed Rodger a meal and give him money for his new shoes, finally she hints at the bad deeds she had done as a kid which shows the likeness between Rodger and Mrs. Luella childhood and why she shows so much compassion towards Rodger.