Toni Cade Bambara The Lesson

The short story that piqued my interest is “The Lesson”, authored by Toni Cade Bambara. In “The Lesson”, an African American girl named Sylvia is the narrator of the story. A college educated African American woman named Miss Moore moves in to her neighborhood in Harlem, New York. Miss Moore takes it upon herself to take Sylvia and other African American neighborhood kids to educational events. On one occasion Miss Moore takes Sylvia, her cousin Sugar, Flyboy, Junebug, Big Butt, Mercedes, and Rosie Giraffe on a trip to an expensive toy store called F.A.O. Schwarz. They take two cabs to the toy store, and Miss Moore gives Sylvia five dollars to pay the cab fee, with tip of course. Sylvia instantly loses interest in the trip, focused purely on the money, and ultimately her keeping the remainder of

The group of kids and Miss Moore make it to the toy store, and note that everything there is very expensive. It is so outrageously expensive to the children, they don’t even want to go into the store, but Miss Moore insists. A fiberglass sailboat costs over one thousand dollars, which is a ridiculous amount of money to the children. Miss Moore askes the kids what they think about the store prices. Sugar tells Miss Moore that she believes that all the children’s combined food intake for a year wouldn’t even come close to the price of the toy sailboat. This pleases Miss Moore, and irritates Sylvia in the process. Sugar goes on to conclude that something is awfully wrong with a society where the price of a toy sailboat is more money than the children and their families will ever see. In the end, the children leave the store, and Sylvia and Sugar both plan on how to spend the remaining four dollars Miss Moore