The Lesson
“The Lesson” is a book written by Toni Cade Bambara. Toni Cade Bambara is an African American author, documentary filmmaker, social activist and a college professor. Her birth name was Miltonia Mirkin Cade. She changed her name in 1970 to include Bambara because of her admiration with a West African ethnic group. She was born March 25, 1939 in New York, New York. She died at the age of 56 on December 9, 1995 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She has won many awards. Toni was also a founding member of the Southern Collective of African-American Writers. Among her many awards she won the American Book Award that recognized her literary achievement. Queens College was the first college she graduated from and she received her bachelor’s degree in Theater Arts / English Literature.
“The Lesson” was written to teach children various types of lessons about how to overcome from their past even though they might be placed at a disadvantage. This book was published in 1972 about a girl name Sylvia. Sylvia is a very bitter and angry young girl. She and her family is poor and live in the slums of Harlem, New York. She had a bad attitude towards people,
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often calling them names and just being mean towards them. In the book she is described as being somewhat of a bully. One day a lady name Ms. Moore moved into their neighborhood. Even though Sylvia was a child she even talked about Ms. Moore. She called her black and ugly. Sylvia resented her. Sylvia described Ms. Moore as, “black as hell, cept for her feet, which were fish-white and spooky” (323). Reading the story leads the reader to believe that the reason she resented her is because she was well educated, dressed nice and acted differently from the people in her neighborhood. Being an educated woman Ms. Moore is an educated took special interest in the children that was in the neighborhood. This could have been because she once was young like them and lived in a slum area like they are living. After leaving the area to get an education she probably ran into many obstacles and wanted them to be more prepared than she was when having to face the real world after graduation. She wanted them to see how life was outside of their neighborhood. One day she took the children from her neighborhood to a toy store in the city (Manhattan). The prices were really high. Some of the prices were more than what some of the children family survived off for the year. This one trip sparked an interest in Sylvia. People with disadvantages, do they let the past reflect their future? Because people are treated differently, do they have to settle for less? The story was written in first-person point of view. I believe the reason it was written in first-person was to teach students about morals and lessons. This trip to the toy store in the city focused the children’s attention on the inequality among white people and black people in New York. It wasn’t meant to just focus on New York but on the country that we are living in. Sylvia didn’t want to go on the trip because school was out and she didn’t want to take these educational field trips that Ms. Moore would take them on. Ms. Moore was trying to help the children see the benefits of getting an education. She was trying to get them to see how knowledge could benefit them. She wanted them to understand that where they lived and how they lived wasn’t all that was out there. She wanted them to develop a desire to change. Not to necessarily change their location but more importantly to change their outlook on life. She wanted them to get the most out of school and to apply it in their everyday life. Sylvia was not comfortable and this made her want and search for a change. She felt that no one could beat her at anything. She had a competitive spirit and wanted to be the best. Because of Ms. Moore addressing this issue and Sylvia having the type of attitude that she did, it forced her to take a deep look at herself and eventually lead to a way for her to escape out of poverty. Toni Cade Bambara use of symbolism, characterization, and setting puts the reader in vivid, descriptive details as to why the short story “The Lesson” was written. Likewise, symbolism and characterization was used throughout her Bambara story to describe or represent something bigger than the picture.
By giving Ms. Moore vivid imagery, the reader can determine in his or her mind what she looked like. Sylvia in the story would appear to be a bully to people. She would remind the reader for experiences that could have happened in real life schools. As the reader continues to read Sylvia was Sugar’s cousin. Sugar had asked a very disturbing question to Ms. Moore. Sylvia appeared to play the role of a bully towards Sugar is because she stepped on Sugar’s foot in the story. She bullies her classmates and try to make them feel inferior of her. As for symbolism the author Toni Cade Bambara used her experiences in school to narrate the first person of Sylvia in her
story. As for the setting, it was in the store called F.A.O Schwartz on Fifth Street in Harlem, New York. From the reading, it was the side of town where the store prices are very expensive. It can be confirmed that the time of the year could have been around the 1960’s and 70’s. The toy store had expensive items in it. A microscope was very expensive back then. Toys back then was very expensive compared to nowadays. In Conclusion, “The Lesson” was written to teach lessons on how to appreciate the value of life. The story gives very figurative language which is told by the first-person narrative Sylvia. Toni Cade Bambara may have been the character Sylvia telling the story. Bambara was describing in other words how people should not let past downfalls, depict their future. No matter where a person comes from does not affect whether they can or cannot accomplish anything in life. Bambara had a lot of accomplishments, which did not affect her well-being, but made her well-known and famous for her works. Her legacy will forever live on through her works, which is inspirations on future readers’ lives.
In Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson it brings forth the lesson of perseverance. Mattie had to keep going and persevering even though her world was crashing down around her. When Mother first got sick Mattie had to look after her and attempt to care for her.
After the Civil War ended, many blacks and whites, especially in the South, continued living as if nothing had changed with regards to the oppression and poor treatment of African Americans. Narrator Grant Wiggins, of Ernest J. Gaines' A Lesson Before Dying, possesses a similar attitude toward race relations. Through his experiences with a young man wrongly accused of murder, Grant transforms from a pessimistic, hopeless, and insensitive man into a more selfless and compassionate human being who can see the possibility of change in relations between whites and blacks. Grant Wiggins, one of the few black men of the time to have a college education, lives with his aunt on a plantation just outside Bayonne, Louisiana. In 1948, he taught at the all-black school held at the all-black plantation church.
It is easily perceptible that Sylvia’s father was abusive, and “grinded her gears”, which is then revealed she is a victim of
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
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines takes place in Louisiana in the 1940’s. When a young African American man named Jefferson is unfairly sentenced to death, school teacher Grant Wiggins is sent to try to make Jefferson a man before he dies. Throughout the novel, racial injustice is shown in both Jefferson and Grant’s lives in the way other people view them.
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.
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson teaches a valuable lesson. The book is about a young girl just entering high school. It shows all her struggles and achievements as a girl recovering from being raped at a party before entering high school. Because of the strength of the lesson Speak teaches, it should not be banned.
Some short stories are designed to teach lessons to the people who read them. They teach lessons about life, love, and growing up. People can learn lessons by reading short stories where the main characters discover something about life and about themselves. Also, the Characters and the way they use actions, words, or thoughts carry throughout the story can relate to many realistic personas as in Toni Cade Bambara 's short story “The Lesson.” Bambara’s narrative diversifies any reading list with some authors, who are not so familiar, where she presents a lesson to be learned with the story of young children growing up in
Sylvia uses her daydreams as an alternative to situations she doesn't want to deal with, making a sharp distinction between reality as it is and reality as she wants to perceive it. For instance, as they ride in a cab to the toy store, Miss Moore puts Sylvia in charge of the fare and tells her to give the driver ten percent. Instead of figurin...
The books of A Lesson Before Dying, Song of Solomon, and The Piano Lesson are all classic tales of African American Literature. While written in assorted periods and by different authors, the lessons found in between the pages transcend time. They recount stories of injustice, perseverance, and success. Memory and the past play a critical role in understanding each character’s mindset. A Lesson Before Dying portrays the past as both a hindrance and a source of motivation. Song of Solomon exposes the belief that knowledge of the past is the key that unlocks the door to self discovery. The Piano Lesson introduces the idea that a person can turn painful memories into a source of motivation and pride. Although each book stresses different principles of how to handle the past, they agree that heritage awareness plays an important role in molding a healthier future.
The narrator speaks as a second person and to me Sylvia is the narrator in the
Sylvia’s being poor influences the way in which she sees other people and feels about them. Sylvia lives in the slums of New York; it is the only life she knows and can realistically relate to. She does not see herself as poor or underprivileged. Rather, she is content with her life, and therefore resistant to change. Sylvia always considered herself and her cousin as "the only ones just right" in the neighborhood, and when an educated woman, Miss Moore, moves into the neighborhood, Sylvia feels threatened. Ms. Moore is threatening to her because she wants Sylvia to look at her low social status as being a bad thing, and Sylvia "doesn’t feature that." This resistance to change leads Sylvia to be very defensive and in turn judgmental. Sylvia is quick to find fl...
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...
Being African American in America is one of the hardest things a person will ever have to endure. Luckily, those who are born in America and are able to dodge the “African American” bullet, naturally have a greater advantage than African Americans. Do not mistake this opinion as self-hate, pity, or even a cry for sympathy. In Toni Cade Bambara’s “The Lesson”, it is implied that the children of the story are wild, African American city kids who are growing up in poverty. Although I find “The Lesson” to be very interesting and full of my favorite literary devices, (such as imagery, euphemisms, and diction) I am slightly offended by the portrayal of the characters and their actions. I am bothered by the negative light shed on the issues with poverty,
One of Sylvia's students is Joe Ferone. Joe is a rebel and a hoodlum. Joe barely ever comes to class. Sylvia really wants to help Joe. Sylvia tries to schedule after school sessions with Joe, but he never shows up. Towards the end of the story I get the feeling Sylvia was starting to fall in love with him.