Toni Cade Bambara is an accomplished and respected author, teacher, and civil rights activist. She focused her work around her upbringing and personal experiences that shaped her to be who she was. Bambara grew up in Harlem, New York and included her knowledge of her hometown in many of her pieces such as “The Lesson”. Bambara used her platform to advocate for the oppressed during and after the civil rights movement, she would always encourage future writers to use their platforms for change as well. Her culture and community were at the heart of her work and it was reflected in every literary piece she wrote up until her death. “The Lesson” is a short novel written by Bambara that focuses on a group of African American children and systemic …show more content…
Bambara uses comparison to emphasize the difference between money use between the upper-class (White Americans) and the lower-class (African Americans). In the toy store many things are talked about such as the sailboat or the telescope yet, a glance at the price of these “toys”sent a shock wave through the kids’ bodies (4). Bambara’s comparison starts here as Sylvia thinks of the sailboats they already have, “Who’d pay for all that when you can buy a sailboat set for a quarter at Pop’s? [.]”(4). It's at this point that the kids start thinking negatively about what they have by picking defects from their own sailboats. The kids hadn’t looked down on their situation until this moment. What was a life’s worth of money for blacks was an object for whites. Sylvia, one of the main characters of the story, sets herself on a toy she was interested in, not a big toy but sufficient enough to capture her attention, the price was marked at $35. Sylvia couldn’t help but think what this type of money could mean for her family, “Thirty-five dollars could buy new bunk beds for Junior and Gretchen’s