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Symbolism In The Lesson By Toni Cade Bambara

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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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“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.

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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.

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The land of the free if you can afford it and the home of the brave enough to work two jobs to keep the house, the American people’s “normal” becomes far more shocking when put under the microscope. Such examination results in a deeper understanding of the harmful effects of America’s unchecked capitalist society giving insight into the inequality embedded in it. Toni Cade Bambara’s short story, “The Lesson,” provides its readers with the opportunity to delve into this understanding. The short story is narrated by Sylvia, a young black girl from Harlem in the 1960s, as she discovers the truth of the economic inequality that she faces. The staggering realizations brought on by the orchestration of Miss Moore are not only felt by Sylvia but also

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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.

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In literature, the technique of symbolism is used to convey an idea about a subject, person, or place. In the works of Amy Tan and Julia Alvarez, symbolism is influential throughout their stories. The story of ¡Yo! is a great example of how well Julia establishes the symbols of a haunting folklore to a real-life terror. Although the story of ¡Yo! takes place in the United States, it tells the story of a family that escapes from The Dominican Republic during the time of a terrifying wave of dictatorship.

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In The First Part Last Angela Johnson uses symbols to tell weather or not bobby is coming of age. I think that bobby did come of age and became a man. Some symbols are when he decided to keep feather and he came back for her when he left her when he left her at home when he was on his way to the basketball courts. So here is the story of bobby. Basketball represents childhood rolling away.

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The primary character, Sylvia, is a fourteen year old African American young lady, who recounts the story in a first individual account. Sylvia notices Miss Moore, an educator who felt that it was her obligation to help underprivileged kids learn. Miss Moore felt there was a lesson to learn at FAO Schwartz, an exceptionally costly, high society toy store in downtown Manhattan. The reason Miss Moore conveys the kids to FAO Schwartz is caught in Bambara's utilization of imagery. Miss Moore utilizes the toys in FAO Schwartz to pass on to the children where they are on the social stepping stool.

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“The Lesson” “The Lesson” was written by Toni Cade Bambara. This essay recounts the day Miss Moore took a group of neighborhood kids to the toy store F.A.O Schwartz. Sylvia and her friend Sugar make it clear that they’d rather be somewhere else and out enjoying the day. Sylvia and her friends are astounded by the price tags they see on some toys and are left breathless wondering why someone would pay “37$ for a performing clown or 1000$ for a handcrafted sailboat”. The conflict between the narrator Sylvia is external conflict and it is shown by self VS economic welfare.

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The story “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara illustrates how a young girl of the name Sylvia decides to ignore the help of her new neighbor Miss Moore. The little girl and her fellow childhood friends get the opportunity to take a field trip to a toy Museum; Miss Moore is the host and her intentions are to expose the isolated kids to show them that there is more to life than living in poverty. Bambara’s word choice portrays the vocabulary that the little kids possess, and they do not know nearly as much information as Miss Moore does because she has a college education. She attempts to educate the kids with numerous facts, but the kids disregard it because they are too fascinated at what the museum has to offer. Sylvia has a foul attitude and

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The two stories, “The Lesson” and “Everyday Use” involve main characters that hold differences and similarities. In both stories the main characters were well educated, African American woman. During Toni Cade Bambara’s story “The Lesson”, the main character Miss Moore used her education to help the children in her hometown. Whereas in Alice Walker’s story “Everyday Use”, Wangero decided to use her education in a way that took things away from her family and past. Wangero could care less how her family was doing and entered their home like a fire taking everything in her wake.

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Social inequalities between black and white people are no longer as distinct as they were a few decades ago. Nevertheless, many people still have a lot of prejudices against African-Americans. The unfairness of socioeconomic status can be seen in our daily lives yet it is something that we push to the back of our minds. By showing these social inequalities through the use of language, Toni Cade Bambara 's short story "The Lesson" raises awareness for the African-American pursuit of cultural identity and emancipation. The reader gains an insight into the world of a black working class girl, named Sylvia, who narrates the story in African American vernacular English (AAVE).

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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.

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In the short story “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker shows the conflicts and struggles with people of the African-American culture in America. The author focuses on the members of the Johnson family, who are the main characters. In the family there are 2 daughters and a mother. The first daughter is named Maggie, who had been injured in a house fire has been living with her mom. Her older sister is Dee, who grew up with natural beauty wanted to have a better life than her mother and sister.

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