Summary Of The Lesson By Toni Cade Bambara

In “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, the author illustrates the idea of social inequality and the lack of quality education for African-American children. The narrator of this story who is introduced to the reader as a young black girl growing up in Harlem named Sylvia, inevitably is revealed as the story’s dynamic character. The story introduces Miss Moore, the only educated person in the neighborhood, who decides to take some children on a trip to F.A.O. Schwartz in Manhattan. Sylvia, initially looks upon Miss Moore with bitterness and defiance and believes Miss Moore is preventing the children from having fun. In reality, the goal of the trip is to show the children another side of life, hoping they realize that education is important if

It is in this scene where Miss Moore introduces the theme of the story as she begins to speak about the social inequalities in their modern day society and Sylvia showing little interest in wanting to hear anything Miss Moore has to say supporting the careless character she appears to be in the beginning. Sylvia describes the things Miss Moore is mentioning to be “Boring” to imply that Sylvia has absolutely no interest in wanting to understand what Miss Moore has to say. Towards the end of the story, after Sylvia’s visit to Manhattan and F.A.O. Schwartz, she appears to be reflective and more understanding on the lesson Miss Moore has enforced as she states: “She can run if she want to and even run faster. But ain’t nobody gonna beat me at nuthin.” (Bambara). When Sylvia says that she will not be beaten down by anything, it is clear that she realizes that there is more to life which is why when Her cousin Sugar challenges Sylvia to race to the store, Sylvia says Sugar can run ahead because she needs to be alone to think about the events of the day. It appears that Sylvia’s character has changed since she is now understanding and no longer