“The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara takes place in Harlem around the 1960’s. Sylvia a ten year old African-American girl play’s the part of the story’s narrator. Throughout the story there is a consistent theme of Sylvia’s anger towards those of higher status. She demonstrates this with her word choices toward those she views as better than she.
“The Lesson” is a short novel written by Bambara that focuses on a group of African American children and systemic
The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara was a story about a group of children taken to a toy store by an older woman named Miss Moore. It is clear from the text that she is an educated woman and wants the children to really think about the environment that surrounds them. The store they entered is strictly for the privileged who have money to spend on expensive gadgets. As the group of children walk around they are constantly heckling the price tags and making assumptions on the people who would purchase these kinds of items. The children that Miss Moore is with are clearly not financially well off and the presence of the store seems to irritate them due to its extravagant existence.
Rhetorical Analysis of Jerome Cartwright’s "Bambara's the Lesson” Jerome Cartwright’s feature article on Toni Cade Bambara’s “the Lesson” was published in 1989. This piece provides a scholarly secondary source for Bambara’s short story because it was featured in The Explicator, a quarterly journal of literary criticism published by Taylor & Francis, Inc.
Toni Cade Bambara’s short story, “The Lesson”, is more than just a vivacious story about a girl in poverty out of place in a high-end toy store. Instead, Sylvia’s transformation, the change in both her mindset and attitude, is clearly seen throughout the length of the story, especially after Miss Moore’s trip to the toy store. Toni Cade Bambara wrote “The Lesson” as part of her short fiction collection, Gorilla, My Love that was published in 1972 (Wikipedia). She is a social activist most recognized by her African-American experiences in her writing. Bambara was born in Harlem, a neighborhood in New York City (Toni Cade Bambara Biography).
Lesson Learned Toni Cade Bambara creates a character that is way too smart to ignore what is happening around her in the real world. Throughout the story story, she learns that there is a difference between the rich and the poor, and even though it isn’t fair is not fair, it is very real. By the end, Sylvia, a rebellious, “terrorize the West Indian kids and take their hair ribbons and their money” (625) kind of girl with terrible people skills, living in a typical African American neighborhood finds she experiences a huge attitude adjustment in regards to her outlook on not just money, but life in Bambara’s The Lesson.
Loss of Innocence In John Updike’s “A&P” and Toni Cade Bambara’s “The Lesson” the two authors illustrate difficult initiations teenagers face while they realize the harshness of society around them. Updike’s “A&P” explores the inner thoughts of a teenage boy, Sammy, who makes the tough decision to quit his job at the local A&P and realizes the bitterness of the world. Similarly, Bambara’s “The Lesson” explores the inner thoughts of a teenage girl, Sylvia, who realizes the value of money and clash of social classes through a field trip to a toy store. Although the protagonists are a part of different societies, they share similarities in character development through parallel epiphanies.
Toni Cade Bambara uses a paperweight and sailboats as symbols for the significance of money to relate to education and social freedom in her short story “The Lesson”. The paperweight, an object used on desks to keep papers in place, is used to symbolize the force oppressing the African American community, referring to the lack of education that keeps the kids from achieving their full potential. The paperweight allows for the realization that the lack of education in the kids’ lives plays into their social status when Junebug comments that “[she does not] even have a desk” (3). The reader can see that education is not a big part of the kids’ lives, and this concept of holding valuable items down with a weight is difficult for the kids to grasp
The author also gives a speech that he had given at commencement for the group of men. He is rewarded with a briefcase and a college scholarship but he is also told to 'know his place'. The Lesson is the story of a young woman teacher that wants to show her students from Harlem that there are opportunities outside their world by taking them to a fancy toy store in Manhatten. They see things they know they could never possibly afford. She wants them to see inequality.
The symbols present in “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, depict the economic and social injustices faced by specific members of society, specifically the children in the story. The characters in the story are being mentored by Miss Moore, a woman from their block who has taken up the role of taking them out on weekly outings. The story touches on the situation of the children that are stuck in living in almost poverty. “The Lesson” focuses on the socioeconomic disparities between the different racial groups and how. Bambara uses several techniques such as irony, othering, and second person point of view to make the story meaningful and demonstrate the characteristics of the characters.
1. Miss Moore is a college educated African American woman who lives amongst the poor and teach their youth. The lesson Miss Moore wants the children to learn is about wealth and poverty and the facts of social inequality. Miss Moore is stimulating the children’s critical thinking skills. Taking the narrator Sylvia and the other children to a toy store where the toys are sold for money that their families could live off.
Where Miss Moore wanted to construct a life for the unfortunate youth from her hometown. When comparing “The Lesson” and “Everyday Use”, there are numerous similarities and differences noticed regarding their
Marxist Criticism, specifically the Hegelian Dialectic is applicable in Bambara’s short story, “The Lesson”. Social class is predominant at the time “The Lesson” was written and the story focuses on the main character, Sylvia’s perception of her own class, the struggles that it brings and what she is then introduced to by Miss Moore. The Hegelian Dialect can be applied to this story as the transformation ensues within Sylvia upon her enlightenment of the difference in social classes. What appeared to be anger, frustration and resentment within Sylvia, undergoes a conversion into an upheaval curiosity of a newfound “culture”. Does the enlightenment occurring within Sylvia, present a new synthesis of which she uses as a platform for change?
No matter how people learn lessons, they will stay with the person forever, and help them through life. In the short stories “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara and “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, there is lesson that a character will learn about life. Although, in “The Lesson”, the teaching was more profound and had a deeper meaning behind it, while “Girl” was a parent forcing instructions on a child in order for the child to learn how a woman is to live. This being said, the teaching is more profound in “The Lesson” than the one given in “Girl.” “Girl” is a short story that teaches that there are many lessons we learn throughout life from parents, or in this case, a single parent.
Lesson Learnt In step with the poem, “The Lesson” by Toni Bambara, we were given the subject of appearance, class, equality, disgrace and schooling. Narrated within the individual by using a young African Yankee woman known as Sylvia, the reader shortly realizes from the beginning of the tale that Bambara is also exploring the topic of appearance. Miss Moore out of all the characters in the tale stands out more from all. Now, not completely will she have college schooling but Sylvia thinks that she is absolutely unique to folks that live round her.
