Analysis Of Toni Cade Bambara's The Lesson

Point of view is an essential element to a reader's comprehension of a story. The point of view shows how the narrator thinks, speaks, and feels about any particular situation. In Toni Cade Bambara's "The Lesson," the events are told through the eyes of a young, mischievous girl named Sylvia who lives in a lower class neighborhood. The reader gets a limited point of view of view because the events are told strictly by Sylvia. This fact can influence the reader to see things just as she does. The strong language gives an unfamiliar reader an illustration of how people in the city speak. Bambara does this to show the reader that kids from lower class neighborhoods are affected by their environment due to lack of education and discipline,

The major theme of the story was creating awareness in adolescents about what life has to offer. The nature of human beings of accepting the realities of life to such an extent that apathy and lethargy sets in, is what proves to be destructive for the social fabric of today’s world. In this stagnation, Mrs. Moore provides the impetus required for people to realize their god given right to something better. We are told that Mrs. Moore has a college degree, is well dressed most of the times, and has a good command on her language. She seems to be a kind of a person who has seen the world. She has experienced life, and wants to use that experience in providing the children with an opportunity to broaden

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.

Some experiences can change people as individuals and how they view things. The process of people growing up can take time but when a transformation occurs it  can be difficult to handle. Sylvia, the narrator in Toni Cade Bambara's "The Lesson," learns a lesson about social class how the rich are different from poor ,she realizes that the money rich people spend for their kids toys can feed a whole household of poor families.In the process, she loses some part of her pride that characterizes her childhood because she thought she was living a good life  till she realizes that rich kids toys can feed her entire household so she  begins to look for hints  or ways of being wealth so that she can  have better life than her family. She

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.

Despite all her rebellious actions, Sylvia feels slightly uncomfortable when everyone is about to enter F.A.O. Schwarz. She states, “…but when we get there I kinda hang back. Not that I'm scared, what's there to be afraid of, just a toy store. But I feel funny, shame.” (Bambara 4). The quote signifies that for some reason, Sylvia is feeling insecure. She is not afraid of a simple toy store, but it is something different. She knows it is embarrassment. In this context, the cognizance is coming to Sylvia in the form of embarrassment. After witnessing the immensely different lifestyles on Fifth Avenue, she starts to understand Miss Moore’s ideas. She is slowly learning just how big the cavity is between the different economical classes. She feels like an outsider. The child in her is slowly growing up, absorbing the harsh reality of the world in the process. In addition, when the children are at the store, the exorbitant prices of the toys compels Sylvia to question herself of the social and economic differences. She states, “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? ” (Bambara 5). According to the quote, all the children have arrived at the toy store F.A.O. Schwarz and got a look at the inflated prices of the toys. Sylvia is questioning herself about

"The Lesson" by Toni Cade Bambara is not just a spirited story about a poor girl out of place in an expensive toy store, it is a social commentary. "The Lesson" is a story about one African-American girl's struggle with her growing awareness of class inequality. The character Miss Moore introduces the facts of social inequality to a distracted group of city kids, of whom Sylvia, the main character, is the most cynical. Flyboy, Fat Butt, Junebug, Sugar, Rosie, Sylvia and the rest think of Miss Moore as an unsolicited educator, and Sylvia would rather be doing anything else than listening to her. The conflict between Sylvia and Miss Moore, "This

Toni Cade Bambara wrote the short story, The Lesson, in 1972. The Lesson is considered by the Literary Canon to be a wonderful work of fiction because of its use of language, humanistic theme, symbolism, and non-genre plot. Two essential elements that add to the depth and enhance a reader?s comprehension of The Lesson are Bambara?s use of symbolism and theme.

Toni Cade Bambara’s "The Lesson" revolves around a young black girl’s struggle to come to terms with the role that economic injustice, and the larger social injustice that it constitutes, plays in her life. Sylvia, the story’s protagonist, initially is reluctant to acknowledge that she is a victim of poverty. Far from being oblivious of the disparity between the rich and the poor, however, one might say that on some subconscious level, she is in fact aware of the inequity that permeates society and which contributes to her inexorably disadvantaged economic situation. That she relates poverty to shame—"But I feel funny, shame. But what I got to be

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

The theme in "The Lesson" by Toni Cade Bambara appears to be a lesson on

“The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara is a short story set in the part of New York City. In this story, the plot takes a journey from the place like a ghetto to F.A.O. Schwartz, an expensive upscale toy store. The children live in an African-American neighborhood, in Harlem, NY. They travel to upscale stores, on Fifth Avenue in midtown, which is a much more expensive part of New York City. The story is narrated by a young girl named Sylvia, as she explains an afternoon she spent with an educated neighbor named Miss Moore. Miss Moore wants to teach the neighborhood children about the world outside of ghetto and around them “the lesson she wants to impart is the economic inequality that exists in the

"Puppy" by George Saunders and "The Lesson" by Tomi Cade Bambara are both stories that show the ugly side of poverty. In "Puppy" the main character Marie and her kids are well off because of Marie's husband. However, the other family in the story which include Callie and also Callie's husband and her kids live in poverty. Marie goes to Callie's house to check out a puppy her kids are interested in. When Marie gets there due to the class differences Marie cannot understand why Callie does things the way she does and also why her house is the way it is. Furthermore, because Callie is living in poverty Marie looks at her as less of a person. In "The Lesson" is narrated by a girl named Sylvia who has an impoverished up-brining in Harlem. In this

The children in the neighborhood are probably the most influential people in Sylvia’s life, since she is around them most frequently, and they are her peers. They too seem to come from the same kind of background as Sylvia—poor, defensive,