Social Injustice Social injustice and economic inequality were very common during the 1960’s. In the short story “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, it shows these differences between neighborhoods. Bambara does a splendid job by giving the reader explicit details to show the injustices during the 1960’s. “The Lesson is told from a first-person narrative from a girl named Silvia, who lives in Harlem, New York. Silvia describes a typical day as one where she is spending time in the park or at the pool, however, in each of these cases, she describes them as being filled with alcoholics living throughout the neighborhood. Though it may seem normal these all changes when Miss Moore moves in on the block. Miss Moore is described as formal, attended …show more content…
In the story, she is usually off in her own world, in an alternative universe in which she creates to escape and block out all the troubles and difficult situation that she doesn’t want to handle. For example, in the taxi ride, before Miss Moore gave Silvia 5 dollars to pay for the taxi ride as well as the 10 percent tip. However, instead of trying to figure out how much to pay for the taxi ride and how much to tip the driver she goes off on her on and instead focuses on how to spend the money instead. “Don’t nobody want to go for my plan, which is to jump out at the next light and run off to the first bar-b-que we can find” (Bambara). By focusing on how to spend the money, when it was time to pay the driver she didn’t even know how much to tip the driver until her friends helped her out. Her irresponsibility is caused by her constant daydreaming whenever an uncomfortable situation comes up. It can be seen as an escape route to all the difficult and uncomfortable situation. Her juvenile fantasizing shows her irresponsibility in life, instead of embracing and handling the situation at hand, she seems to neglect them and focus on a more comfortable