Mrs. Jones attempts to improve Roger's integrity through her actions by physically forcing Roger ("[she] put a half-nelson about his neck") to witness and share in a different sort of life than the one he knows:
..."Ain’t you got nobody home to tell you to wash your face?"
"No’m," said the boy. [...] "There’s nobody home at my house," said the boy.
Along with physically forcing her care upon him--along with dragging him home, making him supper and compelling him to wash his face and comb his hair in order to be "presentable"--Mrs. Jones also makes an example of her past life and her present life. She makes an example of herself by telling him that she too has wanted what she couldn't have: "I wanted things I could not get." She makes an example of her past life by telling him that she too has done wrong things that she is ashamed of: "I have done things, too, which I would not tell you, son—neither tell God...." She makes an example of her present life by telling him--as she would tell a respected equal--about her job at the late-night "hotel beauty-shop" where customers of all kinds come in:
[A]s they ate, she told him about her job in a hotel beauty-shop that stayed open late, what the work was like, and how all kinds of women came in and out, blondes, red-heads, and Spanish.
She also makes an example of her present life by sharing her food with him: "So you set down while I fix us something to eat." After setting the table and sharing her leftovers, what was stored in her "icebox" for her own supper ("She heated some lima beans and ham she had in the icebox"), she splits her own "ten-cent cake" in half to share with him:
...Then she cut him a half of her ten-cent cake.
"Eat some more, son," she said.
It is important to understand what integrity is in order to understand how these actions might be attempts at improving Roger's integrity. Integrity is the state or condition of being true to a sound moral code and to a strong ethical code. Integrity is also called probity or honesty. Probity and honesty are qualities or states of truthfulness, honorableness, decency (or "presentableness"), dignity and sincerity. Mrs. Jones's actions, witnessed by Roger, demonstrate all these qualities, including honorableness, dignity and sincerity, which is especially evident at the moment when she hands Roger ten dollars then leads him to the door--fronting her "barren stoop" and the street--while admonishing him to behave himself: "Behave yourself, boy!"
"Now, here, take this ten dollars and buy yourself some blue suede shoes. And next time, do not make the mistake of latching onto my pocketbook nor nobody else’s--...."
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