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Symbolism In The Lesson By Toni Cade Bambara

321 Words2 Pages
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
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