Discussion 4 Nicholas Martinez

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 a critique of it. When it came to the microscope she said that by the time Junebug and Big butt to save their allowance to get it, she remarked that they would out grow it. As each kid found a gift that they would like to get Sylvia was unable to see why they would want it. She thought that it would be a waste of money or by the time someone saved up for it they would no longer even want the thing. She thought about saving as much money as possible when it came to a sailboat that costed a lot of money she could not believe the amount that it costed. When she read it again she became angry “Who’d pay for all that when you can buy a sailboat for a quarter at Pop’s”. Mercedes had a completely different view on the boat and most of the items the kids wanted to get. She thought about the quality of the item and if it would take water. She asked everyone about what happened to their sailboats one keeled over and sank and the other sailboat string broke. Mercedes had a much more appreciative outlook on the item and thought beyond just the price of the item. I believe what helped her have a less negative approach to these items than Sylvia is that Mercedes seems to be a bit better off than the other kids. When they were all talking about the paperweight many of the kids did not have a desk the only exception was Mercedes.