Toni Bambara The Lesson Essay

Deeply rooted in the American dream is the impression that anyone who works hard can move up economically regardless of his or her social circumstances. Author Toni Bambara uses her story The Lesson, to demonstrate these social inequities among a group of African American children who live in New York. She underlines the problems of economic inequality and social injustice, while empowering a group of young children, who are “all poor and live in the slums” (Bambara 457), to realize their full potential. Miss Moore, a college educated black woman, attempts to teach the children basic life lessons about equal opportunity, but does not teach them using conventional methods; instead, she uses real world experiences to show the children another

side of life, and to show them that education is necessary if they want a better quality of life. Bambara uses unmistakable elements throughout the literature such as symbolism, dialogue, and devolvement of characters to illustrate the lack of quality education, and to demonstrate the unfairness of socioeconomic status that the children are suffering from.
Bambara specifically uses the character Sylvia, a young black girl, not only as the first person narrator and protagonist of the story, but also to reveal the struggle and disadvantage that young children face growing up in poverty.

Sylvia displays her bitterness and hate towards anyone, or any situation that aims to make her come to terms with reality. Instead of being receptive to Miss Moore’s lesson that “poor people have to wake up and demand their share of the pie” (Bambara 461), Sylvia uses her pessimistic attitude, “I’m really hating this nappy-head bitch and her goddamn college degree” (Bambara 457), as a way to escape from dealing with the present situation. Furthermore, Bambara’s use of her character’s dialogue and diction throughout the story symbolizes the lack of education that exists within poor black communities; for instance, the intentional words and statements such as “it’s purdee hot” (457), and “the somethinorother in a speck of blood” (458) indicates the set back that Sylvia suffers from because she is poorly

educated.
It is not until Miss Moore takes the children to F.A.O Schwartz, an expensive toy store, that Sylvia and her cousin, Sugar, actually begin to realize that they are growing up in poverty.

The purpose of the toy store is to teach Sylvia, and her friends, a lesson about how money is valued differently in varying communities. As the children “just gaze at the prices tags” (Bambara 461), they are surprise to learn how much money some people spend on toys. However, when they all enter the toy store, Sylvia decides to “hangs back” (Bambara 460). This is because, for the first time, she “feels funny”; she feels “shame” (Bambara 460). Sylvia begin to connect her feelings to reality and starts to question “who are these people that spend that much for performing clown and $1000 for toy sailboats?” (Bambara 461). Sylvia also uses the experience of the toy store to become more aware of herself; thus, wondering “what kinda work they do and how they live and how come we ain’t in on it?” (Bambara

461).
Although Sylvia realizes that “something weird is going on” (Bambara 462), as she feels it in her chest, she does not quite grasp the entire message, whereas Sugar does. Once they return home from their toy store field trip, Miss Moore asks the children what they learned. Sugar is the only one who speaks up and says, “I don’t think all of us here put together eat in a year what that sailboat costs” (Bambara 462). Again, Sylvia wants avoid the situation so she stands on Sugar’s foot “so she don’t continue” (Bambara 462), but Sugar ignore her continues anyways. By Sugar becoming conscious to the idea “that this is not much of a democracy” (Bambara 462), it proves that she is the one who fully understands the concept of “equal chance to pursue happiness means an equal crack at the dough” (Bambara 462).
When Miss Moore asserts, “where we are is who we are…but it don’t necessarily have to be that way” (Bambara 461), she is subtly telling the children that they can rise above the current conditions of their community and make a change to economic inequality, instead of conforming to the social norms of society. The lesson that the children gain from the 5th avenues toy store, exposes them to the value of quality education and the drawbacks of growing up in poverty-stricken communities. The children, especially Sugar and Sylvia, go from being close-minded about real world issues, to realizing the unfairness and social inequalities that they should be concerned about. Readers of the story are reminded through Bambara’s development of character, and through her unique use of symbolism, about the challenges of oppression, self-determination, and unfair distribution of opportunity that poor black communities suffer from.