Toni Cade Bambara's The Lesson is a very well written piece of history. This is a story from yesterday, when Harlem children didn't have good education or the money to spring for it. Bambara's tale tells about a little girl who doesn't really know how to take it when a good teacher finally does come along. This girl's whole life is within the poverty stricken area and she doesn't see why she must try hard. The teacher, Miss Moore, shows them what it is all about by taking them to a rich toy store, one in which a single toy costs more than year's supply of food.
We immediately learn that Miss Moore is not the average Harlem teacher. She is educated herself, along with being very opinionated. The children explain that she has nappy hair and no makeup, probably signifying that she was a...
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.
The central issue with the general education classroom teachers and Ms. Isabelle is that they were so willing to push Juanita onto Ms. Isabelle and not put any real effort or make changes themselves. That dealing with Juanita was a hassle that they were overall not willing to put up with, and that Juanita be put in special education even though she did not fit statistically wise.
On page 6, Lauren Tarshis writes that in the Southern Plains, “nature had existed in balance” for thousands of years. What role did prairie grass play in maintaining that balance? (key ideas) The prairie grass supported the ground. It kept the dirt and dust together so that it didn’t blow away and cause dust storms. What Tarshis means by this is that the nature had kept everything in balance by keeping it in place.
However, what Toni Cade Bambara actually wanted to tell the readers was the importance of an education and the value of thinking, by showing the contrast of educational background between Miss Moore and Sylvia, and the process that Sylvia gets into the knowledge of the world.
The Piano Lesson written by August Wilson is a work that struggles to suggest how best African Americans can handle their heritage and how they can best put their history to use. This problem is important to the development of theme throughout the work and is fueled by the two key players of the drama: Berniece and Boy Willie. These siblings, who begin with opposing views on what to do with a precious family heirloom, although both protagonists in the drama, serve akin to foils of one another. Their similarities and differences help the audience to understand each individual more fully and to comprehend the theme that one must find balance between deserting and preserving the past in order to pursue the future, that both too greatly honoring or too greatly guarding the past can ruin opportunities in the present and the future.
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...
Mrs. Brown, the first schoolteacher on the island, most clearly demonstrates the theme of national ignorance. Mrs. Brown focuses on old-fashioned, and worthless teaching methods to educate her students. She very strictly follows the curriculum of the government, regardless of whether the students understand the content at all. She lacks caring and belief that the students will succeed. She just continues teaching her class according to the law, which in itself has ...
from the teachers point of view; she tries to judge the Cunninghams and the Ewells from
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...
Toni Cade Bambara’s "The Lesson" revolves around a young black girl’s struggle to come to terms with the role that economic injustice, and the larger social injustice that it constitutes, plays in her life. Sylvia, the story’s protagonist, initially is reluctant to acknowledge that she is a victim of poverty. Far from being oblivious of the disparity between the rich and the poor, however, one might say that on some subconscious level, she is in fact aware of the inequity that permeates society and which contributes to her inexorably disadvantaged economic situation. That she relates poverty to shame—"But I feel funny, shame. But what I got to be shamed about? Got as much right to go in as anybody" (Bambara 604)—offers an indication as to why she is so hard-pressed to concede her substandard socioeconomic standing in the larger scheme of things. Sylvia is forced to finally address the true state of her place in society, however, when she observes firsthand the stark contrast between the rich and the poor at a fancy toy store in Manhattan. Initially furious about the blinding disparity, her emotionally charged reaction ultimately culminates in her acceptance of the real state of things, and this acceptance in turn cultivates her resolve to take action against the socioeconomic inequality that verily afflicts her, ensuring that "ain’t nobody gonna beat me at nuthin" (606). "The Lesson" posits that far from being insurmountable, economic and social injustice can be risen above, but it is necessary that we first acknowledge the role that it plays in our lives, and then determine to take action against it; indifference, and the inaction that it breeds, can only serve to perpetuate such injustices.
"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).
The lesson that I really liked in ”Song of the Hummingbird” is how one should stay true to one’s beliefs. I really liked this because Huitzitzilin kept her beliefs even though the Spaniards tried to convert her to Christianity. After the Spaniards baptized her and gave her a new Christian name, she was not happy. In fact she hated the Spaniards for that. She did not want to give
Adolph Myers, a kind and gentle man "[ is] meant by nature to be a teacher of youth"(215), however, the towns' people can not understand that the male school teacher - a not so common phenomenon at the time--spoke soothingly with his hands and voice only to "carry a dream into the young minds" (215) of his students. The young school teacher was wrongfully accused of doing "unspeakable things" to his students, and as a result was beaten and run out of town without being given a chance to explain the his love for the children was pure, and that he had done nothing wrong. Therefore, as young Adolph Myers, whose only crime is of being a good and caring person runs out of Pennsylvania, old Wing Biddlebaum, the lonely and confused victim of a close-minded society walks into Winesburg Ohio.
“The Lesson” and “Gorilla, My Love” were written in the 1970’s by Toni Cade Bambara, a female African American writer. In both “The Lesson” and “Gorilla, My Love” the stories are told in first person narration by young black girls who tell the story of their struggles. Sylvia in The Lesson is about twelve or thirteen years old. She comes from an urban neighborhood in Harlem and is being raised in a single parent home, as her mother finds more interest in hanging out with her friends leaving Sylvia to raise herself with guidance from the streets. One summer day Miss Moore, an educated black woman in the community who believes in the value of education takes the children on an educational outing to F.A.O Schwartz in hopes of teaching them the importance of education, economic inequality, socioeconomic class and the value of working hard to achieve their goals in life. On the other hand, Hazel in “Gorilla, My Love” is about a eight or nine years old. She comes from a middle class neighborhood and is being raided in a two parent home. Hazel hits a hardship when she is betrayed, once by her uncle as he decides to no longer be referred to as Hunca Bubba, but instead by his given name Jefferson Windsong Vale, and secondly when she anticipated seeing a movie called Gorilla My Love which had nothing to do with gorillas, instead what was playing was King of Kings a movie about Jesus.
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