In the short story, “Thank you Ma’am” the author, Hughes uses irony to surprise the reader and the characters throughout the story. The situational and dramatic irony surprises the boy, Roger and reader by the actions that the main character, Mrs Jones took when Roger failed to steal the purse while she was walking home on the sidewalk. The author explains that Mrs. Jones purse is very heavy, but Roger does not know this and he gets the surprise of his life when, “But the boys weight and the weight of the purse combined caused him to lose balance so, instead of taking off full blast like he hoped, the boy fell on his back…”(Hughes 1). This was obviously was not Rogers plan and the weight of the purse has surprised him so then he does the
