Character Analysis: The Lesson By Toni Cade Bambara

1088 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Black Stereotypes as Reflected in Popular Culture

Tama Dieudonne Prof: Brand ENC-1102 3 March 2018 Characterization of Sylvia "I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act." Stated Bill Gates, a business magnate and philanthropist. I selected this quote by the fact that sometimes we do not see the problem until someone show it to us, and we will look forward to resolving it. Toni Cade Bambara’s, “The Lesson” illustrates the story of young children growing up in poverty and how an instructor creates the environment to help them discover and succeed in learning some very important issues about the world they are living in. Sylvia is the protagonist and the narrator of the story. She is an African-American girl, who happens to recognize the value of money and the true story behind not …show more content…

The experience, which Miss Moore has given to Sylvia, seems to be more significant. Miss Moore, takes a group of poor children to the F.A.O. Schwarz Toyshop on Fifth Avenue in New York City and shows them very expensive toys. The children were looking for price tags, and the girls start to think about wealthy people who could afford paying the small fortune for a toy ship. On the way to the toy shop, Sylvia feels and behaves in her usual way: “hangin out the window and hollering to everybody, putting lipstick on each other cause Flyboy a faggot anyway, and making farts with our sweaty armpits” (Bambara). In the other hand, when she gets to the Fifth Avenue, she feels humiliated. She also feels like she comes from another planet: “everybody dressed up in stockings. One lady in a fur coat, hot as it is. White folks crazy” (Bambara). This demonstrate the fact she’s never been anywhere similar to the place that’s miss Moore bring

Show More
Related

  • Blind By Rachel Woskin: Character Analysis

    332 Words  | 1 Pages

    The book Blind, written by Rachel DeWoskin, is about a highschool sophomore named Emma, who went blind after being struck in the face with a firework. When she first lost her sight, Emma was placed in a hospital for over 2 months, and once she was released, she could finally go home again. DeWoskin uses the characterization of Emma throughout the beginning of the text to help the reader understand the character’s struggle more. Especially in the first few chapters, it was difficult for Emma to adapt to a world without sight. For instance, DeWoskin writes, “And sat down, numb, on our gold couch. And tried to open my eyes, rocked, counted my legs and arms and fingers. I didn’t cry. Or talk” (DeWoskin 44). As a result of losing a very important scent, she’s started to act differently from a person with sight.

    Read More

  • Character Analysis: The Liles Of The Field

    256 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the Lilies of the Field by William E. Barrett, Homer and Mother Maria both display straightforward, hardworking, and stubborn character traits. Firstly, Homer and Mother Maria both display a straightforward personality by being brutally honest about their opinions. For example, when Mother Maria asks Homer to build a chapel, Homer speaks his mind by telling her he does not want to build it. Mother Maria shows her straightforward behavior during Homer’s stay at the convent. One morning, when Homer sleeps in late, Mother to becomes extremely upset and is not afraid to show how she feels about him. Secondly, both Homer and Mother Maria display a hardworking spirit. Homer is a hardworking man because after finally agreeing to build the chapel,

    Read More

  • ' The Lesson, By Toni Cade Bambara

    1753 Words  | 4 Pages

    In this story, Bambara indicates the distance between Miss Moore and Sylvia, by showing the contrast of educational background between them. As Sylvia said, Miss Moore has “her goddamn college degree (330-331)”, but most of people around Sylvia did not go to the college because they were too poor to go. At the beginning of the story, everyone in the class looked like they did not like Miss Moore, as Sylvia said “we kinda hated her (330)”. She also said that “I’m really hating this nappy-head bitch and her goddamn college degree (330-331)”. As these words represent, she was insulting Miss Moore and the readers hear that the sarcasm in Sylvia’s tone most of the times in the story. She also called Miss Moore “lady”. This depicts Sylvia treated Miss Moore as an outsider. According to Naderi, “Miss Moore’s state of being called ‘lady’, her educational background, her ‘proper speech’ (195) make

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Lesson By Toni Cade Bambara

    1365 Words  | 3 Pages

    This negative attitude towards Miss Moore is what starts Sylvia’s character, which shows us how young and naïve she really is. At first glance we could perceive Miss Moore’s character as the protagonist and Sylvia’s character as the antagonist of this story. But really Miss Moore isn’t the center character Sylvia’s character is the center of this story, Miss Moore is just a character that starts conflict with Sylva’s character. Sylvia being the narrator

    Read More

  • Rich versus Poor in The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara

    1783 Words  | 4 Pages

    The conflict between Sylvia and Miss Moore is because of Sylvia's understanding of the division between the rich and the poor. Sylvia lives in a very poor neighborhood so it is assumed that she and her friend get around by stealing things. This is shown when Sugar asks, "Can we steal?" in a serious tone like she's getting the ground rules squared away before she plays. (Bambara, 458) Another example is when Miss Moore tells Sylvia to calculate ten percent of five dollars to tip the cab driver. Sylvia replies, "And I'm stalling to figure out the tip and Sugar say give him a dime. And I decide he don't need it as bad as I do, so later for him." (Bambara, 458) This shows Sylvia's selfish nature, which stems from the ghetto she grew up in.

    Read More

  • Character Analysis: A Long Way Gone

    609 Words  | 2 Pages

    Julius Caesar is mentioned throughout the book, A Long Way Gone, many times. In A Long Way Gone, Ishmael would be reading Julius Caesar or a soldier would be reciting some of the speeches in the play. In Chapter 12 of A Long Way Gone, Ishmael is called over to talk with Lieutenant Jabati. Then, Lieutenant Jabati showed Ishmael the book he was reading, which was Julius Caesar, and asked Ishmael if he had ever heard of the book. Ishmael had read the book in school, and began to recite a speech from the book. After this happened, Lieutenant Jabati and Corporal Gadafi used emotional arguments to motivate the people in the village to stay there and support the military. Also, Lieutenant showed all the people in the village dead bodies to help

    Read More

  • The Theme in The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara

    602 Words  | 2 Pages

    perhaps Sylvia got a bad impression of Miss. Moore from all that was said about her by

    Read More

  • The Chosen Character Analysis

    574 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Chosen by Chaim Potok is a phenomenal novel about two Jewish boys who live in two very discrepant worlds because of the impressions of their fathers.The Hasidic Rabbi, Reb Saunders wants his son, Danny Saunders, to perdure the family legacy and become a Rabbi. Mr. Malter, Reuven’s father, is an Orthodox Jew who is easy going about what he wants his son to do. Throughout the book, both Reuven and Danny face problems and sufferings that helped them both to become stronger and get through the hard times they faced.

    Read More

  • Economic Inequality in Toni Cade Bambara's The Lesson

    1658 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...siting F.A.O. Schwarz awakens in Sylvia an internal struggle she has never felt, and through criticizing Miss Moore, Sylvia distances herself from realizing her poverty. In her responses to the toys, their prices, and the unseen people who buy them, it is evident that Sylvia is confronting the truth of Miss Moore's lesson. As Sylvia begins to understand social inequality, the realization of her own disadvantage makes her angry. For Sylvia, achieving class consciousness is a painful enlightenment. For her to accept that she is underprivileged is shameful for her, and Sylvia would rather deny it than admit a wound to her pride: "ain't nobody gonna beat me at nuthin" (312).

    Read More

  • Miss Moore´s Teachings in Toni Cade Bambara's “The Lesson”

    624 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of Miss Moore's defining qualities is her intelligence. Her academic skills and self-presentation is noticeable through her college degree and use of “proper speech” (Bambara, 385). Miss Moore also makes her intelligence evident from the methods she uses to teach Sylvia and the other children. Unlike planting them in classrooms, she takes them out on trips to show them the real world. Despite all the insults she receives from th...

    Read More

  • Chris Mccandless Failure

    432 Words  | 1 Pages

    Before going to Alaska, Chris McCandless had failed to communicate with his family while on his journey; I believe this was Chris’s biggest mistake. Chris spent time with people in different parts of the nation while hitchhiking, most of them whom figured out that McCandless kept a part of him “hidden”. In chapter three, it was stated that Chris stayed with a man named Wayne Westerberg in South Dakota. Although Westerberg was not seen too often throughout the story, nevertheless he was an important character. Introducing himself as Alex, McCandless was in Westerberg’s company for quite some time: sometimes for a few days, other times for several weeks. Westerberg first realized the truth about Chris when he discovered his tax papers, which stated that “McCandless’s real name was Chris, not Alex.” Wayne further on claims that it was obvious that “something wasn’t right between him and his family” (Krakauer 18). Further in the book, Westerberg concluded with the fact that Chris had not spoken to his family “for all that time, treating them like dirt” (Krakauer 64). Westerberg concluded with the fact that during the time he spent with Chris, McCandless neither mentioned his

    Read More

  • Toni Cade Bambara’s The Lesson in the Cave

    1643 Words  | 4 Pages

    The narrator Sylvia and the children in her impoverished neighborhood are prisoners in a dark cave, which is the society that encompasses ignorance and puppet-handlers. “The Lesson” begins with Sylvia as she talks condescendingly about her neighborhood of Harlem, New York: “Back in the days when everyone was old and stupid or young and foolish and me and Sugar were the only ones just right, this lady moved on our block with nappy hair and proper speech and no makeup. Quite naturally we laughed at her… And we kinda ha...

    Read More

  • Two Kinds And The Lesson

    870 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...merica. When Sylvia arrives at F.A.O Schwartz she is surprised by the high prices of the toys. After she sees the prices of the $35 clown and $1195 sailboat she ask Miss Moore, “Who are these people that spend that much for performing clowns and $1000 for toy sailboats? What kinda work they do and how they live and how come we ain’t in on it?”(319). Sylvia comes face to face with poverty and realizes that she is not privileged to buy those toys based on her low economic status. After Sylvia leaves the toy store she realizes Miss Moore’s lesson and has a better understanding of social inequality. The last sentence of the story states “But ain’t nobody gonna beat me at nuthin”(320). Sylvia realizes that she has a disadvantage in society and doesn’t want to accept the fact that she is in the lower-class. She’s in control of her life and can choose her place in society.

    Read More

  • Young Goodman Brown Character Analysis Essay

    1075 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the story, Young Goodman Brown, the character, Goodman Brown changes throughout the story. In the beginning he was a kind man, loving husband with nothing holding him down, not even the warnings of his wife, Faith. As he walked and talked with the Devil, he became more aware of what had happened in the past with his own family. When he saw the Devil talk with Goody Cloyse on the path in the woods, he figured out by the nature of their conversation that the Devil was more mischievous than he thought. He started to have uncertainties about the errand he was on. At that point, Goodman Brown told the devil he was not going another step. Shortly after the Devil left him in the path, Brown found a ribbon on a branch of a tree

    Read More

  • Point Of View: The Lesson

    1650 Words  | 4 Pages

    To begin with, the reader gets a sense of Sylvia's personality in the beginning of the story as she talks about Miss Moore. Miss Moore is not the typical black woman in the neighborhood. She is well educated and speaks well. She has climbed up against the odds in a time where it was almost unheard of for a black woman to go to college. She is a role model for the children who encourages them to get more out of life. Sylvia's opinion of her is not one of fondness. She says that she hates Miss Moore as much as the "winos who pissed on our handball walls and stand up on our hallways and stairs so you couldn't halfway play hide and seek without a god damn mask”(357). By comparing the hatred with something she enjoys, we get to see what a child does in the slums for amusement. Sylvia feels t...

    Read More

More about Character Analysis: The Lesson By Toni Cade Bambara

Open Document