In the short story “The Lesson” we learned that Ms. Moore’s goal was to inspire and motivate these young girls but also shed light onto economic inequality going on. It seems to be that without teaching these kids about wealth, they would have never really imagined a life that has more to offer other than living in poverty. I loved Ms. Moore’s as their role model, she is educated, well spoken, patient and very caring. Ms. Moore was determined from the start about influencing the kids, she didn’t lose sight of her goal. Sylvia was a carefree girl that is used to living a limited lifestyle with zero ambition. She doesn’t seem to have much knowledge about the outside world in terms of wealth. Her character changes dramatically from bravery to shame. She felt as if she didn’t belong, she felt threatened about entering such an expensive store that didn’t align with her lifestyle.
Daily Archives: September 17, 2022
Ms. Moore is a representation of a new future, “a symbol of changing times” as it was described in the critical essay on “The Lesson”. Ms. Moore stood out in the neighborhood and was different from all the parents not only because she had a college degree but with her outlook on life and her understanding of justice, unlike the rest of people in the community she disdains the church and even her physical appearance highlights her being different “she has nappy hair” and she “wears no makeup”. When Ms. Moore brought the kids to the F.A.O Shwarts toy store it opened up a curtain into the world they didn’t know of and we could clearly see a difference in kid’s reaction. While Sylvia, who is usually so confident and bossy in her hood, for the first time feels shy and ashamed, scared to go into the store. Finally “tumbled in like a glued-together jigsaw done all wrong”, getting everyone’s attention at the store and being out of place. Meanwhile Mercedes acts like she belongs to that world unlike the rest of the kids in the group she confidently squeezes past them “smoothing out her jumper and walking right down the aisle”. She was the only one to have a desk at home and proudly comments that her father would buy the sailboat toy for her if she wanted it. Mercedes feels proud to belong to this “white world reality”. The only lesson she takes home with her from this field trip is that she would like to come back there again with her birthday money. Meanwhile Sylvia’s vision of the reality has been shifted significantly and she is going through a rollercoaster of emotions that challenge her perception of the world she’s been living in up until now. She […]
In the short story “The Lesson” by Toni Bambara you are introduced to a wide variety of characters. There are 3 characters that stand out to me for how much they contrast in the toy store. Sylvia, Mercedes, and Miss Moore all stood out to me. Sylvia stood out for how headstrong she is always wanting her 2 cents in every conversation, wanting to be the leader and drag Sugar with her to any event that Sylvia had planned for the two. She has a very negative view of the world due to the environment that she is growing up and seems to not care much about others and only cares for herself and Sugar since she was “just right”. Miss Monroe was an educated woman who graduated from college and took it upon herself to look after the young ones’ education. Mercedes as she contrasted Sylvia as she seemed the nicest and most caring out the bunch. Miss more decided round up all the kids by the mailbox and wanted to take them on a trip down to the toy store. Once they got into the cab and started making their way to the store Miss Moore decided to hand Sylvia a 5 dollar bill and told her to give the cab driver a 10% tip of what the total come out to. Once they got to the destination the meter came to 85 cents and for a while Sylvia tries to calculate the 10% until Sugar tell her to give the cab driver a dime. Sylvia thought to herself that the man didn’t need the tip and kept it for herself. Once everyone got out the cab they decided to look into the windows before heading into the store. For every item that each kid wanted Sylvia had […]
