Analysis Of The Lesson By Toni Cade Bambara

Then, Miss Moore takes the kids on a certain “fieldtrip” to the toy store. Miss Moore prepares to teach the difference of how people spend money. Sylvia feels insulted and thinks that Miss Moore thinks they are stupid when she asked what money was. Miss Moore asked if they knew how much to tip a cab driver. Sylvia wanted to keep the money and save it to eat barbeque. Stealing seems to be common within the group. When they go into the toy store, Sugar seriously asked, “Can we steal?” (358) Ms Moore quickly refused and walked them around the toy store. The kids ss

“And then she gets to the part about we all poor and live in the slums, which I don’t feature. And I’m ready to speak on that , but she steps out in the street and hails two cabs just like that.”

Toni Cade Bambara addresses how knowledge is the means by which one can escape out of poverty in her story The Lesson. In her story she identifies with race, economic inequality, and literary epiphany during the early 1970’s. In this story children of African American progeny come face to face with their own poverty and reality. This realism of society’s social standard was made known to them on a sunny afternoon field trip to a toy store on Fifth Avenue. Through the use of an African American protagonist Miss Moore and antagonist Sylvia who later becomes the sub protagonist and White society the antagonist “the lesson” was ironically taught. Sylvia belong to a lower economic class, which affects her views of herself within highlights the

In "The Lesson" it talks about a group of children who lives in the slum of New York City in the 1970s. Sylvia the main character is ignorant, rude and stubborn. In the summer all she wanted to do is have fun with her friends however, Miss Moore a well educated black woman took it upon her self to take Sylvia and her friends to a toy store called F.O.A schwarz in manhattan. On the trip Miss Moore is trying to show them a different world , the "real world" something the children are not accustom to seeing. She's helping them to figure their identity and how they are as a person. At the end Sylvia realizes that she is a strong and intelligent individual.

In the article, "Stupid Rich Bastards", the author, Laurel Johnson Black, gives an insight on her life and upbringing in a "poor" family, the effects it had on her, her life goals, and dreams. Black’s article was published in the book This Fine Place So Far from Home: Voices of Academics from the Working Class in 1995. Throughout the article, Black gives an explanation of the conditions in which she and her family lived in, which include her parents having to take on various jobs such as her father being a plumber, junk man, car salesman and her mother—a cook, school crossing-guard and a McDonald 's counter worker as well. With all these jobs, Black also mentioned that the income was still inadequate. Being that her family 's way of living was not the best, her parents decided that one of their children has to make it or go to college, and Black was the one who was going to be the one to do that. She did this with hopes that she would earn more money, be able to make a better life for her and her family, maneuver along with the "stupid rich bastards", talk like them, learn their ways but not be like them, and explain to her family about the lives of the same "stupid rich bastards", people who had or made more money and had better lives or felt better than others. Along with her telling her story, the main purpose of Black’s story is to bring to our attention that she is trying to “keep the language of the working class in academia” (Black 25).

When Ms. Moore, Sylvia and the group of kids were in toy store the kids perspective about social class changes, the prices of toys were so expensive it makes the kids to begin to think about life as evident said by Sylvia  “...we start down  the block and she gets ahead which is O.K.by me cause I’m

Growth within characters makes them more appealing. Toni Cade Bambara’s “The Lesson” conveys character growth as a way to achieve more appealing characters. “The Lesson” follows an obnoxious girl named Sylvia who goes on a trip with some friends. Miss Moore orchestrates this trip; Sylvia and her cousin, Sugar, hate Miss Moore. The children and Miss Moore travel from Harlem to Fifth Avenue to visit a toy store.

It has always been distinctive that knowledge arises through realization of the surrounding world. “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara and “Araby” by James Joyce deal with the lessons learned in life. Sylvia from “The Lesson” lives in one of the burrows of New York and journeys to the Fifth Avenue and learns about the immeasurably diverse lifestyle of the people there. The main character of “Araby” possesses the craving to venture onto the enchanted market Araby to purchase a gift for his beloved. Sylvia and the main character of “Araby” soon learn how the world is so different and how it will transform their lives.

The Lesson takes place in New York?s inner city. The fictional story begins with a group of poor, uneducated, lower class city kids standing in front of a mailbox, preparing themselves for another day of being taught by Mrs. Moore. Mrs. Moore felt that it was her duty to help underprivileged children learn because she

Once inside the store, Sylvia can no longer ignore the blinding imparity between the rich and the poor. Her discovery of an overly priced toy clown prompts her to consider what could be bought for its price: "Thirty-five dollars could buy new bunk beds for Junior and Gretchen’s boy. Thirty-five dollars and the whole household could go visit Granddaddy Nelson in the country. Thirty-five dollars would pay for the rent and the piano bill too" (605). Sylvia is forced to finally address the socioeconomic inequality that works against her while simultaneously conferring certain luxuries on the rich: "Who are these people that spend that much for performing clowns and $1000 for toy sailboats? What kinda work they do and how they live and how come we ain’t in on it?" (605).

In “The Lesson,” the author shows how one can alter their circumstances. The story is being told by a young girl name Sylvia; through her observation of living in Harlem, readers are able to get a glance of what kind of environment she and the other children lived in. Sylvia was known to be outspoken and unruly but by Miss Moore taking her and her peers under her wing she made a change for the better. Miss Moore took the children on a trip to an expensive store in Manhattan called F.A.O Swartz where the children saw a variety of toys with expensive price tags. Miss Moore wanted the children to see how wealthy people lived and that the other opportunities out there. This short story shows how the environment contributes to ones determination of achieving the American Dream. Although, Miss Moore was well adjusted to this environment, the

takes on this responsibility to educate the young ones has more then a lesson to teach, but

At the end of the trip, Miss Moore leaves the children in front of the mail box, back where the trip started, thus creating a frame for the lesson of social equality. This frame is completed with Sugar and Sylvia's new understanding of the necessity of social equality for everyone. “And something weird is going on; I can feel it in

The negative effects can be seen in that competition for jobs in American society is so competitive that author John Michael Roberts asserts that people, "Work for free" (28). While Americans tend to believe that competition brings out the best in people, the Marxist theory states that it actually brings out the worst in people such as greed, selfishness, and unethical actions. This can be seen by how the characters of "The Lesson" and Callie's family are living in extreme poverty despite being in the richest nations in the world. Danzinger and Danzinger assert, "The child poverty rate in the US is high in relation to the rate in other industrialized countries" (57). This high poverty rate can be seen in "The Lesson" and it shows how competition can leave some people at the bottom even in New York, one of the richest states in the United States. Miss Moore sees that it is unjust for kids to be living in such poverty and says, "Imagine for a minute what kind of society it is in which some people spend on a toy what it would cost to feed a family of six or seven" ("The Lesson", Bambara 151). While some people get rich off competing, some get left behind and many times the ones that do get ahead had to do something unethical. Sylvia notices all of the unethical practices it takes to get ahead in a competitive society and as a result, when Miss Moore gives Sylvia money

Everyone had equal rights to learn any skills to develop and create a new better life; however, getting education became more and more difficult for many people. According to Kim Clark’s article “College Tuition, Other Costs Climb Again This Year”, he explained that a lot of students could not afford the tuition because it kept growing. For example, “Public university tuition and fees alone rose 4.8% to $8,655. In addition, higher dorm, cafeteria, books and other expenses added significantly to the overall increase” (Clark). Tuition had accounted for about half of that increase, which meant that many students had to pay extra money if they continued to go to school. In fact, not many people could accept this high cost. Especially in the public universities, more than half of the students were living in low-income families (Clark). As a result of that, tuition rising would only affect this huge particular group of students. If these low-income students could not afford to pay school fees, they preferred to drop out of school. Accordingly, more than half of the public university students would lose their rights to get education, which showed that people who would be able to get education become fewer. As people in the walled community, only Lauren and others could read and write, and these few educated people could not improve anything. Even the whole walled neighborhood was eventually destroyed by people who did not get an education. So the