Explanation paragraph
This found poem is created from the story “Thank You, M’am” by Langston Hughes. In the story, Roger tried to steal Mrs. Jones’s bag, and got caught by Mrs. Jones. She dragged Roger to her house but left the door open. In paragraph 23, “Roger looked at the door — looked at the woman”. Roger could stay and get punished by Mrs. Jones, gaining her trust, or run away through the door and probably get taken to jail. The poem is created based on this internal conflict that Roger had between run and stay. The door and the jail symbolize the boy’s thought of running away, and the table represents staying with Mrs. Jones. The light bulb icon represents the the thoughts inside Rogers head, and the “struggle”, which was explained in the poem later. I used the word “I’m sorry” to bring out a sad mood and give a background of Roger doing something wrong (snatch Mrs. Jones’s pocketbook). I also described the Roger as a poor kid instead of a thief in my second sentence because he was lacking the positive influences around him. In the story, Mrs. Jones educated Roger for him to become a good person and “behave yourself”. In my poem, I specialized “doors open” because the story mentioned it many times. It is the icon of the internal conflict in Roger between keep being bad and purification. “And take me to jail” is one of the possible resolutions of the story, but in the story, Roger chose to stay.
Additional information:
https://study.com/academy/lesson/langston-hughes-thank-you-maam-theme-summary-analysis.html
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Langston-Hughes