Thank You, M’am

When, at the beginning of the story, the young and spry Roger tries to mug the old and unprepared Mrs. Jones, she unexpectedly comes out the victor in the tussle—an example of situational irony. While readers would expect the youthful and pugnacious Roger to easily mug Mrs. Jones, she quickly overpowers him and drags him back to her home in a headlock, as captured in the following passage:

Sweat popped out on the boy’s face and he began to struggle. Mrs. Jones stopped, jerked him around in front of her, put a half nelson about his neck, and continued to drag him up the street. When she got to her door, she dragged the boy inside, down a hall, and into a large kitchenette-furnished room at the rear of the house.

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In an example of situational irony, Mrs. Jones treats Roger with compassion and kindness in the aftermath of him trying to steal her purse. While many people would react to such an experience by violently attacking or otherwise punishing their mugger, after their brief altercation Mrs. Jones ends up feeding Roger dinner and willingly giving him 10 dollars so he can buy the pair of blue suede shoes he so desires. The following passage captures Mrs. Jones’s ironic and unexpected kindness toward the boy:

She heated some lima beans and ham she had in the icebox, made the cocoa, and set the table. The woman did not ask the boy anything about where he lived, or his folks, or anything else that would embarrass him. […] Then she cut him a half of her ten-cent cake. “Eat some more, son,” she said. When they were finished eating, she got up and said, “Now here, take this ten dollars and buy yourself some blue suede shoes.”

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In an example of situational irony, Roger, who has just tried to steal Mrs. Jones’s purse off of her, decides not to try to steal it again, even when she creates the conditions for him to easily be able to do so (by leaving her purse within his reach). The following passage captures the irony of this moment:

The woman did not watch the boy to see if he was going to run now, nor did she watch her purse, which she left behind her on the daybed. But the boy took care to sit on the far side of the room, away from the purse, where he thought she could easily see him out of the corner of her eye if she wanted to. He did not trust the woman not to trust him. And he did not want to be mistrusted now.

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