thank you ma'am and Mother to Son

The story of thank you ma’am was a peculiar story. The young boy was determined to steal the old lady’s purse, but he was not expecting what was about to happen. She was a strong old woman, and when the boy tried stealing her purse, she fought back. The oddest part of it was that instead of the woman calling the police and forgetting about the whole thing. She took the boy and dragged him to her house. The boy was trembling with fear as she continued to tell him that his face was dirty. Once they got to the house the woman made the boy food and told him to wash up. Something that really mesmerized me was that, she purposely left her purse in the same room with the boy, she then left the room. Its incredible that the woman actually trusted that the boy had learned his lesson and was not going to take her purse and run with it while she was gone. They had dinner, which then she began to talk about her life and what she does for a living. It may seem like the woman was conceded about talking about her self but in reality, she was doing him a favor. By not asking the boy questions about his family that he most likely does not have, she made him feel comfortable. She did not push him into talking about something he most likely did not want to talk about. She then told him that her life was hard too. I think this statement is really what connects the mother to son poem and that story. In the Mother to Son poem, the mother says her life was not a crystal staircase, just like the woman told the boy she had a tough life too. The woman is like the mother in the poem, trying to explain to the boy that things will get better if you just leave your past and do not go back into “the dark”. The boy left the woman’s home speechless not even being able to say “Thank you Ma’am.”