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Toni Cade Bambara The Lesson Essay

623 Words3 Pages

The Lesson
The theme of “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, is that learning can cause discomfort but if you never come out of your comfort zone then you will never learn. In the story it expressed how minorities are oppressed due to social inequality. All children in the story have dreams of their own but the education system in the lower social class is not equal to the education system in the higher social class. Children do not have the same opportunity to expand their knowledge because of social inequality.
The children in the story were extremely uneducated. Their absence of knowledge was shown through word choice and their dislike for Ms. Moore. Ms. Moore was an educated African American who lived in the same neighborhood as the children. …show more content…

Moore has a college degree she feels that it is her responsibility to educate the children in her neighborhood. “She’d been to college and said that it was only right that she takes responsibility for the young one’s education” (Bambara86). She will show them that there are other parts of the world than the ghetto and let them observe the inequality of the society. Ms. Moore scheduled a trip for them to go to a toy store called F.A.O Schwarz in the higher class area of New York where all of the rich people lived. The children did not like that idea. “I’d much rather go to the pool or to the show where it’s cool” (Bambara86) , said by one of the children. When the children entered the toy store they were all in shocked because they have never seen expensive toys in their lifetime. “Same thing in the store. We all walkin on tip toe and hardly touchin the games and things” ( Bambara90). They were all confused on why people pay so much for a toy because the cost of one toy could feed a whole family or pay for bills from where they are from. Some of the students began to realize the purpose of the trip. One child said, “that this is not much of a democracy…equal chances to pursue happiness means an equal crack at the dough, don’t it?”(Bambara92). This child was able to understand the purpose of the trip by coming out their comfort

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