Essay on Symbolism and Themes in The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara

Upon reading The Lesson, by Toni Cade Bambara, the reader cannot help but feel empathy towards the narrator Sylvia and her friends, as they are introduced to the realization of unfairness distribution of wealth in society, the diverse democracy. The lesson is taught by a lady named, Miss Moore, who moves into Sylvia’s neighborhood block. Miss Moore is a college educated women who shows the reality of the economic inequality to Sylvia and her friends by taking them on a field trip to a fancy toy store called, F.A.O. Schwartz. As the children look through the window of the toy store, children began to realize high prices of things, the difference between the fancy world and the slum world that they come from. At the end of the story, Sylvia

Point of view is an essential element to a reader's comprehension of a story. The point of view shows how the narrator thinks, speaks, and feels about any particular situation. In Toni Cade Bambara's "The Lesson," the events are told through the eyes of a young, mischievous girl named Sylvia who lives in a lower class neighborhood. The reader gets a limited point of view of view because the events are told strictly by Sylvia. This fact can influence the reader to see things just as she does. The strong language gives an unfamiliar reader an illustration of how people in the city speak. Bambara does this to show the reader that kids from lower class neighborhoods are affected by their environment due to lack of education and discipline,

Toni Cade Bambara addresses how knowledge is the means by which one can escape out of poverty in her story The Lesson. In her story she identifies with race, economic inequality, and literary epiphany during the early 1970’s. In this story children of African American progeny come face to face with their own poverty and reality. This realism of society’s social standard was made known to them on a sunny afternoon field trip to a toy store on Fifth Avenue. Through the use of an African American protagonist Miss Moore and antagonist Sylvia who later becomes the sub protagonist and White society the antagonist “the lesson” was ironically taught. Sylvia belong to a lower economic class, which affects her views of herself within highlights the

The setting of the poor inner city helps us realize how unevenly the pie is split up between members of society. As close as the inner city is to Manhattan, they are worlds apart in terms of social class and wealth. The lesson that the children take out of the field trip with Ms. Moore directly related to the fact that these children have been raised less fortunately that some, and to get out of oppression and poverty, they will have to work. The children realize the value of money and how unfair it is that there is so much wealth in Manhattan and a stone 's throw away in the inner city, there is extreme poverty. The children learn social gaps are very wide, and by leaving their ghetto area they some to she that in comparison to Manhattan, they are all receiving the small slice of the American pie. Miss Moore and the Manhattan trip help the children realize that poverty is not found everywhere, and that education can give them the power to elevate their status.

Growth within characters makes them more appealing. Toni Cade Bambara’s “The Lesson” conveys character growth as a way to achieve more appealing characters. “The Lesson” follows an obnoxious girl named Sylvia who goes on a trip with some friends. Miss Moore orchestrates this trip; Sylvia and her cousin, Sugar, hate Miss Moore. The children and Miss Moore travel from Harlem to Fifth Avenue to visit a toy store.

To progress in society, one needs knowledge to further themselves. If one does not gain a good foundation for that knowledge, society will leave them behind. There are certain obstacles that prevent others from pursuing an education such as an inability to access a place of learning, not getting good education from teachers, or just flat out quitting school to make easy money by joining a gang. In Gwendolyn Brooks, “We Real Cool,” seven delinquents quit school to engage in rebellious behavior and in Toni Cade Bambara’s “The Lesson,” a teacher takes several underprivileged children to a high-class toy shop. By using point of view, diction, and symbolism, Gwendolyn Brooks and Tone Cade Bambara show the reader why it is important to learn

Furthermore, another major influence that surrounded Bambara’s short story was poverty. During this time, in which Bambara’s story was written, Americans experienced the rise in prices on market goods, oil and much more, better known as the Stagflation Era. This specific economic event was reflected in Bambara’s story when Sylvia is about to pay the cab driver, “Sugar say give him a dime. And I decide he don’t need it as bad as I do, so later for him” (Bambara 137). And in addition, Sylvia mentions how thirty-five dollars can get her a long way, “thirty-five dollars could buy new bunk beds… the whole household could go visit granddaddy nelson in the country… would pay for the rent and the piano bill too” (Bambara 140). Although poverty was the first thing learned, it was a way of life for Sylvia and her friends and they didn’t seem to have a problem with it since everyone around them is on the same level as one another- Poor! We can see this when the children are in the store, having a discussion about a paperweight, “We don’t keep paper on top of the desk in my class… I don’t even have a desk at home… and I don’t get no homework either” (Bambara 138).

"The Lesson" by Toni Cade Bambara is not just a spirited story about a poor girl out of place in an expensive toy store, it is a social commentary. "The Lesson" is a story about one African-American girl's struggle with her growing awareness of class inequality. The character Miss Moore introduces the facts of social inequality to a distracted group of city kids, of whom Sylvia, the main character, is the most cynical. Flyboy, Fat Butt, Junebug, Sugar, Rosie, Sylvia and the rest think of Miss Moore as an unsolicited educator, and Sylvia would rather be doing anything else than listening to her. The conflict between Sylvia and Miss Moore, "This

The theme in "The Lesson" by Toni Cade Bambara appears to be a lesson on

“The Lesson” really shows how Miss Moore thinks compared to how the kids think. Miss Moore is trying to teach the children long term goals in life and what they can do to make their lives better. She is trying to show what the upper class of the world has, to try to bring them to make a better decision with their lives and break the chain of poverty they are living in. She is trying to make them think of

In the short story “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, I believe Miss Moore, a well-educated black woman, who wants the children in her neighborhood to be exposed to the more cultural aspects of life. I think, however, all these black children have hopes and desires just like other kids their age. Just because these kids live in poverty doesn’t mean that they are stupid or lack the desire to become something more in life. However, my thoughts are that Miss Moore wants to show the students so that they can make changes in their future, by seeing how important education is and what their lives could be like instead of living in poverty. Miss Moore has the students use math skills in figuring tips, the cost of cab fares the prices of the toys,

Toni Cade Bambara’s short story The Lesson told in first person by a character named Sylvia. Sylvia is a poor student who resides in the ghetto of New York with her friends and family. The story begins in the summertime in New York, where the children are out of school, playing and having fun; but when a new neighbor Miss Moore move in, things change. Miss Moore is an educated African American woman, who embarks on an educational journey with the children. She realizes that the children lack experience and knowledge of a world outside of poverty, so she takes them on a trip outside their

"Imagine for a minute what kind of society it is in which some people can spend on a toy what it would cost to feed a family of six or seven. What do you think?" (Miss Moore). This saying from Miss Moore had helped the readers to understand the setting of “The Lesson”. The author Bambara whom were born and raised in New York City in which it is also the setting of this short story. Toni Cade Bambara was born as Miltonia Mirkin Cade in 1939. The name Bambara came from her great-grandmother’s trunk when she found a sketchbook in which it is the signature. Success came to her early, but did not continue rapidly. Bambara studied multiple majors in several different countries and that is where she finds her inspiration to write her stories. Social injustice inspired her to write a book stated the issue of African-American at the moment.

Although fiction is a literary genre that contains untrue stories about made up characters and situations, it also frequently references real life trials and tribulations. By creating a story about a fictional person or place the author has the ability to speak about serious topics without causing any friction with people who may be involved with that particular situation. For example, in “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara and “Brownies” by ZZ Packer the authors touch on multiple themes which range from the value of education to the impact that the socioeconomic status of a neighborhood or family has on children. The stories are very similar in a sense that they are both centered around an event taking place in the lives of

I would start with the narrative of the learning moment, a not - so learning moment and