The Lesson By Toni Cade Bambara

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

Without money, they cannot afford shelter, food, or any other basic human needs. America’s capitalist society in which the basic goal is “to turn money into more money” is what brings on this money-centered lifestyle Americans must live (Johnson 42). The goal of creating more money means that goods must cost more than it takes to make them turn a profit. By extension, this means that the wages of the workers must be lower than what the product is being sold for. Thus, companies push to increase worker productivity and cheap labor to produce more products while spending less. The result is a “class system based on widening gaps in income wealth, and power between those on top and everyone below them” (Johnson 44). Although many Americans despise their lot in life, they have little choice but to work for the oppressive system. Capitalism produces oppressive consequences in which the class system provides little to no security to those who are not in the top ten percent. Bambara does not hesitate to call the reader’s attention to this fact through the ideas of Miss Moore. Sylvia narrates that Miss Moore is “boring us [the children] silly about what things cost and what our parents make and how much goes for rent and how money ain’t divided up right in this country” (Bambara 146). This lecture to the children by Miss Moore serves as a direct message to the reader about the clear and ever-growing economic divide in the United

Bambara uses “The Lesson” to particularly highlight the effect that unchecked capitalism has on the American Dream. As James Truslow Adams originally defined in The Epic of America, the American Dream is “that American dream of a better, richer, and happier life for all our citizens of every rank” (Kamp). It is the ability to better one’s life from what it was. However, as Allan G. Johnson points out, most Americans have little to no power to improve their class position as people are “working two or more jobs, and families [are] relying on two wage earners to support the same standard of living their parents managed with one” (44). Most Americans are forced to work extra hard just to tread water in the class they are in and are not able to better themselves. This directly contradicts the American Dream in which everyone has an equal opportunity to better themselves. This unequal access to the American Dream is perfectly represented in “The Lesson” when Sugar asks, “I think… …that this is not much of a democracy if you ask me. Equal chance to pursue happiness means an equal crack at the dough, don’t it?” (Bambara 151). Here Sugar confronts the issue directly. She suggests that the American Dream means that everyone should have the same opportunities to make money. However, with the capitalist system equal opportunity to money is not the case as represented by the