Jontay Beckles

“The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara is about a well educated black woman named Miss Moore who takes a group of kids from the neighborhood to experience new things. Miss Moore takes the children to a toy store on the wealthy side of Harlem, to expose the kids to social inequality and the income gap between them and the rich. One of the main character’s, a young girl named Sylvia, shows her pushback towards Miss Moore and her trip throughout the story. Sylvia felt like Miss Moore made things worse in a way because she talked about all these problems but never gave them clear solutions or answers on how to fix their situations. Sylvia also expresses her dislike towards Miss Moore throughout the story because of her tone of voice and the way she carried herself, this wasn’t something any of the kids were used to seeing in a person, especially where they lived in Harlem. The main conflict in the story started when Sugar, Sylvia’s cousin, agreed with Miss Moore’s lesson and showed understanding in what was being said. Sylvia also showed some understanding in the lesson, but gave pushback because she didn’t like Miss Moore and the topic was probably uncomfortable for her. At the end of the story, Sugar sided with Sylvia, but we can infer that’s not what she really wanted to do and this may start a split between the cousin’s relationship in the future. “ Literature adds to reality; it does not simply describe it”( C.S. Lewis). The quote is embodied in the story in many ways. The first way is having the story told in first person by Sylvia, giving us more of a connection to the kids and how they felt. Also throughout the story Toni uses slang as it’ll be told from kids during this time period. The setting of the toy store also plays a big role in the story, not only exposing the kids to a different environment, but helping them understand the lesson better. All the kids realized a bigger picture for the money spent on the items in the toy store. For example, many thought the paperweight would be useless because they didn’t own a desk or the price of the sailboat and other items in the store could’ve gone towards paying their rent. The setting of the toy store opened up the eyes of the kids and how wide the inequality gap was between their communities. They started to realize they wanted more for themselves to be able to live just like the wealthy, buying things they wanted instead of struggling for the things they needed.