Sylvia, the protagonist, in Toni Cade Bambara’s short story, “The Lesson,” loses her innocence during the realization of how expensive the toys are in the store. The story narrates and experience of a girl who lives in filth in which she and her friends are not currently aware of their situation. Miss Moore a college educated women visits the neighborhood each weekend in which she takes the children to fieldtrips. Miss Moore attempts to teach the students in the beginning of the story the value of money and their current situation but fails. She does this by giving Sylvia five dollars, so she could pay the taxi. Miss Moore fails on teaching them a lesson since they are too caught up in other things such as mentioned in the story “Me and Sugar and Junebug and Flyboy hangin out the window and hollering to everybody, putting lipstick on each other cause Flyboy a faggot anyway, and making farts with our sweaty armpits.” This shows how they could careless of how money is supposed to be handled. Later in the story Sylvia is unable to tip the taxi driver in which she shows their lack of comprehension towards the value of money and the luxury it is to ride a taxi in which their parents cannot afford. …show more content…
She starts up by mentioning what money is and by questioning their way of living. As their heading down the street Miss more keeps informing them if they knew what things cost, what their parents make, how much goes for rent, and how money is unfairly divided in this country. You can prove Sylvia’s innocent as mentions in the story “And then she gets to the part about we all poor and live in the slums, which I don’t feature.” This proves here innocence as she is unaware of her current situation and lacks the comprehension of social