Theme 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

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.

"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

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

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

Miss Moore finally leads the kids to the toy store. The are immediately dazzled by the toys in the windows; even declaring which ones they were gonna buy. The children seemed to know they couldn't afford the toys, but they didn't think they would be off by much. The once brave and proud and strong children were hobbled at the door, none of which wanting to go in first. Here is the point where they get slapped in the face. Here is where they first see that they do not belong here. Eventually one of them pushes through the crowd and throws herself into the gallery of toys. They go around gazing at the different objects. Miss Moore drives the point home by leading them to the fact

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.

“She’d been to college and said it was only rifht that she should take responsibility for the young ones’ education, and she not even related by marriage or blood(330). The lesson at first was led to believe about the children learning about money. However, as we find out, the lesson was more than just a value of a dollar, it was more about the major division of wealth. The lesson begins by Miss Moore asking the children what money is.

Ms. Moore one of the characters in the story sets out to teach the underprivileged children. Sylvia, one of the main characters is very pessimistic. She has her own insight on how things work. Ms. Moore decides to take the city kids to the Manhattan toy store F.A.O. Schwarz to demonstrate that there is more to living in the slums of New York City. That life has more to offer then just being poor.

life is unfair and unjust. They hate what they cannot attain, yet still want it. This leads both Sylvia and Abner to destructive behavior. Being an adult, Abner is both more aware of what he feels to be an undeserved disparency between classes, and more direct in expressing his anger about it. Abner steals, burns the barns of his employers, and ruins their possessions. He is also considerably more violent, seeing nothing wrong with hitting his son across the face to teach him a lesson. Sylvia's anger is much more subtle. She is still young, and has not endured all of the suffering that Abner has. Her hate is less tangible, her anger directionless. She is confused by the injustices she see's, and does not know how to express it. Sylvia fights to keep from developing the clear cut ideas Abner has about class, and instead expresses her anger in any direction. Miss Moore receives a fair amount of this, coming to be scorned by Sylvia because she is educated. Sugar also feels Sylvia's anger, when Sylvia "stand...[s] on her foot so she [won't] continue" to talk to Miss Moore about

This journey the kids went on was probably new to them in many ways. The cab ride seemed new to these kids, and when they got to the toy store, they were in complete awe. These kids were also soon to judge the people with money that might come into this toy store, calling them rich. Miss Moore’s slow approach to explaining things made the kids slow down as well

When a child is born and raised in a certain cultural environment, it is hard for that child to imagine life any different. For most children, they would assume that everyone lives the same way and would not expect life to be any other way; until that child is introduced into a new cultural environment. Upon introduction of the new culture, the child experiences different thoughts, feelings, and emotions. So many questions come to the child's mind, along with resistance. The resistance comes in the forms of rebellion or denial; rebellion and denial to change. In the short story “The Lesson” written by Toni Cade Bambara, Sylvia, a child defiant to the teaching of life lessons from Miss Moore, captured this tough lesson best when she said “She