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Toni Cade Bambara The Lesson Essay

811 Words4 Pages

After reading and analyzing “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara I discovered that the short story not only showed the struggles of economic inequalities but also showed critical points of African American culture from the twentieth century and Marxism in economics. The author, Toni Cade Bambara, grew up in two of New York’s poorest neighborhoods, Harlem, and Bedford-Stuyvesant. Bambara’s childhood gave her vision and insight into her writing. The short story “The Lesson” is based on the experiences of the author living in Harlem, how economic inequality can form a different viewpoint on the world, and how those viewpoints can be the deciding factor on children deciding and trying to be better and strive for greatness. The introduction of …show more content…

Miss Moore leads the children to a shop called FAO Schwarz, a toy shop on Fifth Avenue, where they gaze at the toys on display and wonder about the prices. It’s a moment like this when the children start to realize that some people have way more money than they probably need. One of the kids, nicknamed Big Butt because of his weight, spots a microscope and exclaims that he is going to buy that until he reads the price tag which reads $300. This prompts Miss Moore to ask how long the children would take to save. Obviously, they are from the slums and are poor so it would take them months if not years to save whereas the rich families would be able to come in and pay for a toy with less savings required. Regardless though, the store also sells a fiberglass boat for $1195 which makes the kids stunned as to why anyone would spend that kind of money when they can make a sailboat for ‘“about fifty cents.”’ When they try to enter the store, Sylvia stops in shame. She knows that she doesn’t have that kind of money and has no business being there. After being in the store, Sylvia asks Miss Moore why she brought them to the shop for. Miss Moore believes her to be angry, who wouldn’t be, it’s embarrassing to be somewhere that isn’t affordable by the economic class of which a person is a part

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