Throughout the history of mankind no person has been given the choice as to which tier of the societal pyramid they are born into. Regardless of religion, ethnicity, or country of origin each civilization has created their own social stratification, which in turn results in a combination of social and economic inequality. As long as the disproportion of wealth and opportunity exists so has the search for a workable solution. While there has been grand solutions theorized by politicians and figureheads like Karl Marx, there are those who wish to inspire thought and provoke action through works of literary fiction. “The Lesson” (1972), a short narrative by Toni Cade Bambara, tells the story of young children from low income families as they are …show more content…
One of the most prominent examples of this is from Miss Moore. She is not related to any of the children but she believes it is her responsibility to help improve their education, “She’d been to college and said it was only right that she should take responsibility for the young ones’ education” (Bambara 280). Even as summer begins in the story, Miss Moore has planned a day out for to keep the children thinking and working over the holidays. Miss Moore’s actions illustrate that she believes in not only taking personal responsibility for her life, but also in taking responsibility for the lives of others. She has the tools to help the children, so that is what she does. The children themselves also exhibit personal responsibility when they are looking at the toy sailboat. All the children agree that it would be easier and less expensive to build their own sailboat. When Sylvia sees a clown for thirty-five dollars she then thinks of what her mother would say if she asked for it, “Thirty-five dollars could buy new bunk beds for Junior and Gretchen’s boy. Thirty-five dollars and the whole household could go visit Granddaddy Nelson in the country. Thirty-five dollars could pay the rent and the piano bill too”( Bambara 284). Sylvia understands that the money some people can afford to spend on a toy could make a …show more content…
Miss Moore tells the children that there is a disparity between the wealthy and the poor, and that those with little income need to step up and fight for what they are owed, “…poor people have to wake up and demand their share of the pie” (Bambara 285). The setting is an important aspect for this message. Not only does Miss Moore take them to a store that is renowned for its unique and expensive toys, but it also occurs during summer. In the summer affluent people have the option to leave and go on holiday, while poor people must continue to work because they do not have enough money to take time off or to go anywhere. Miss Moore takes the children to the shop to open their eyes to how unfair the current economic system is and wants them to feel that they need to act to change it. That they should strive to make things equal. Although the children do not like Miss Moore and think the trip was a waste of time, this message is not lost on them. On the train ride home Sylvia sits and thinks, “What kinda work they do and how they live and how come we ain’t in on it?” (285), this conveys her feelings of confusion and anger at the fact that there is a social hierarchy and that they are at the bottom. Sugar also understands that they are not receiving the same opportunities when she
The idea of this essay is to explain how poverty is being represented the wrong way by nonprofit organizations here at home. The author uses the title to explain to the readers that poverty is not being represented the correct way. The way organizations represent poverty is by using images from a third world country instead of using pictures of people that live here at home that are living at poverty. The author explains how there are children here in America that need help just to get their basic needs, she explains “There are so many children like her – children that are deprived of their basic necessities right here in America” (George 668). The author is referring to “Mandy”. The picture of the girl on the Children Inc. flyer. She looks normal but she is need of help. The title gives an understanding to the reader about what is about to be
The short story is set in the period of The Great Depression, and lower classes especially struggled in this hard time. The Great Depression attacked the nation by society class. The lower levels struggled even more than usual. Lizbeth lived in a small rural town with a few members of her family. Her father and mother worked all day and Lizbeth and her brother, Joey, would hang out with other teenagers in their community to waste the daylight. The community always helped each other out but there was this one woman, Miss Lottie who played an important role in young Lizbeth’s
When the Walls family gets a ride from a stranger after their vehicle breaks down on the highway. Jeannette is annoyed how the stranger keeps on uses and emphasizes the word poor on the Walls family. And that Jeannette is not accepting reality about her family being poor.
The children in this book at times seem wise beyond their years. They are exposed to difficult issues that force them to grow up very quickly. Almost all of the struggles that the children face stem from the root problem of intense poverty. In Mott Haven, the typical family yearly income is about $10,000, "trying to sustain" is how the mothers generally express their situation. Kozol reports "All are very poor; statistics tell us that they are the poorest children in New York." (Kozol 4). The symptoms of the kind of poverty described are apparent in elevated crime rates, the absence of health care and the lack of funding for education.
But I think this book is more for those people who aren’t that aware of social class, or for the ones who feel that we live in a society that is classless, rather than the actual people who have realized the consequences that class really has on someone’s life. Many people can relate to what stories are told in the book; if not, they know of a person that can relate to these stories. As a person that grew up in the lower class, I can definitely relate to most of the stories told in this book. From experience, there is a big difference in this country between the rich, middle class, and the poorest that we see daily. Even those in the so-called working class have to make continuous sacrifices and live very differently from those positioned firmly in the middle class.
This film chose to focus on very young people struggling to survive in poverty. All three of the boys are younger than 18 years old and thus are in an important developmental stage. The film gives us a view into the effects of a disadvantaged upbringing on a child’s development. These three boys grew up in situations defined by poverty and familial dysfunction and for two of them, the after effects are clear. Harley has severe anger issues and is unable to function at school. Appachey lashes out uncontrollably and has multiple diagnosed behavioral disorders. Both boys have had run-ins with the law and dealings with the juvenile court system. This solidifies the argument espoused in Marmot’s The Health Gap that children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds face significant developmental challenges. The evidence suggests that children who grow up in poverty have cognitive and developmental delays and suffer from greater risk of mental and behavioral disorders. As shown in the film, Harley and Appachey both suffer from extreme behavioral and cognitive deficits and exhibit the corresponding poor scholastic and societal performance which will serve to further negatively affect their
Life lesson were often tough by older, wiser or formally educated people within the community. This idea still holds true today, especially in low-income communities as illustrate in the short story “The Lesson”. I am led to believe that story took place in low income community in the early sixties as African American moved to find better opportunity. Therefore, in sixties opportunity not for everyone especially low-income and color people. They are discriminated by color in the society of white people who are rich. Color people children like Sylvia, who believe that she does not belong in the society because of her family income. And her family cannot give her higher education as white family give to their children. The only possibilities she can have higher education if the communities have no race between colors also with their low-income. However, we all deserve to have equal right in United States, no matter what class we are also our color. We sh...
A great deal of symbolism can be found by simply examining the name Ms. Moore. Marital status does not define her - notice the Ms. Quite frankly, the reader is not even informed if she is married or even if she has children of her own. She is a very independent woman. Not only does the prefix of Ms. Moore represent that she is independent, but her last name also shows the she wants more for the children, because, according to her, they deserve more. Her purpose is to help the children realize that there is a world outside of Harlem that they can aspire to. Although F.A.O. Schwartz is just a small part of that world, the trip here with Ms. Moore shows the children a great deal about what the outside world is like and how anyone can have that piece of the pie. Even though the children could never afford the toys, Ms. Moore brings them to the store to show them they have just as much right to be there and just as much right to live the rich life as anyone else. Sylvia, the narrator, is upset by the inequality. She is jealous of the life she can't have and is angry that Ms. Moore would expose her to these facts. Although, Sylvia would never let her know this.
"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 nappy-head bitch and her goddamn college degree" (307), represents more than the everyday dislike of authority by a young adolescent. Sylvia has her own perception of the way things work, her own "world" that she does not like to have invaded by the prying questions of Miss Moore. Sylvia knows in the back of her mind that she is poor, but it never bothers her until she sees her disadvantages in blinding contrast with the luxuries of the wealthy. As Miss Moore introduces her to the world of the rich, Sylvia begins to attribute shame to poverty, and this sparks her to question the "lesson" of the story, how "money ain't divided up right in this country" (308).
In Grace Stone Coates’ “Wild Plums” the reader is presented with two disparate families: one of class and privilege, an unnamed family of the story’s protagonist, and a family of meager farmers, the Slumps. The Slumps find themselves often living off of the land which includes plumming, a task that involves the collection of plums. The story’s protagonist, an unnamed little girl, always asks her family if she can join the Slumps but both her father and mother refuse to allow her to spend time with such a modest family. Because children lack class consciousness, one should be allowed to enjoy all that childhood offers despite who it’s spent with.
The narrator of the story is a young, black girl name Sylvia and the story is also told from her perspective. The setting is not clear. Perhaps it started in Harlem and then to downtown Manhattan on Fifth Avenue and the time of the story took place is also unclear. Bambara uses a great deal of characterization to describe the characters in the story. For example, Bambara describes Miss Moore as “black as hell” (Bambara 330), “cept her feet, which were fish-white and spooky” (Bambara 330), and “looked like she was going to church” (Bambara 330). She later tells us that she’s been to college and her state of mind is she believes it’s her responsibility for the children’s education. The plot started when Miss Moore rounded up all of the children by the mailbox. Then she gets the kids in a cab and took them to Fifth Avenue to a big toy store where the rich people would shop. The story then continues with the children and Miss Moore in the toy store and the kids looking around and noticing they can’t afford anything. Which will soon end the plot with a lesson that society is not fair, “that this is not much of a democracy if you ask me. Equal chance to purse happiness means an equal crack at the dough, don’t it?”(Bambara 330). Hence, the lesson Miss Moore is trying to teach these
George Saunders, a writer with a particular inclination in modern America, carefully depicts the newly-emerged working class of America and its poor living condition in his literary works. By blending fact with fiction, Saunders intentionally chooses to expose the working class’s hardship, which greatly caused by poverty and illiteracy, through a satirical approach to criticize realistic contemporary situations. In his short story “Sea Oak,” the narrator Thomas who works at a strip club and his elder aunt Bernie who works at Drugtown for minimum are the only two contributors to their impoverished family. Thus, this family of six, including two babies, is only capable to afford a ragged house at Sea Oak,
“All Kids Should Take Poverty 101” could have been a wonderful piece if the age of those taking Poverty 101 had been older, and if the focus had been more on how those in poverty can end the cycle on their own. However Beegle’s desire to teach children empathy and awareness is a noble
The story Little Women takes place at a time when women were taking on uncustomary roles like physical laborer, family protector and provider, and military volunteer while their husbands served during the Civil War. Keeping within the boundaries of the time, Louisa May Alcott uses herself and her own three sisters to create this classical novel from personal experiences. Each sister is different. They each set goals and dreams for their selves whether it goes along with their contemporary society or not. With the assistance of their mother, friends and experiences, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy struggle between their personal expectations and society’s expectations as they plan for their future and choose their destinies.
The marxist lens reflects the gap between the rich and the poor during the 1920’s through the glass ceiling effect and female economic status. The glass ceiling is an unseen and unbreakable barrier that keeps one from rising to the upper class regardless of their qualifications or achievements. The different settings in the novel represent this effect: East Egg, the Valley of Ashes, and