When writing an essay about Toni Cade Bambara’s story “The Lesson”, I would focus on Sylvia’s strong opposition to Miss Moore’s lessons. I would try to connect her feelings with the broader socio-economic issue of black children’s relationship with education during that time. When Sylvia described Miss Moore’s educational background, she spoke about her being a college graduate with disdain. When she briefly described Miss More’s relationship with the community, she notes that her neighbors spoke about Miss Moore “behind her back like a dog”. They spoke about the fact that she didn’t go to church but would feel shameful when she brought them gifts. To me, this speaks to the testament of how black people disregarded education because it was unattainable. This might be the reason why Sylvia treats Miss Moore and her lessons with open hostility; her lessons remind her of the education that Sylvia knows deep down how hard it would be for her to achieve. Throughout the story, Sylvia is depicted as a little girl with immense pride and a strong sense of independence. She marches to her own beat and drags along her friend, Sugar, for the ride. The combination of her pride and independence mixed with her socio-economic background is something that a lot of black people during that time period used to disparage education.
Jayda Fairbairn
The prewriting assignment focuses on this week’s topic, which is identifying literary devices such as a thesis statement and being able to distinguish between primary and secondary sources. The prewriting assignment helps us to understand the topics we are going to write about and also familiarizes us with the literary devices we are expected to use. It is understood that we have to read, “The Most Handsome Drowned Man” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which is a primary source. Then, we have to read “Overview of “The Most Handsome Drowned Man”” by Dean Rider which is a secondary source that analyzes the story by Marquez. Eventually, we will have to evaluate a student sample essay to identify if the essay has a strong thesis statement, and if the student was able to effectively use both the primary source and secondary source, to discuss and analyze an idea expressed in the secondary source. This will then strengthen our own ability to be able to utilize strong thesis statements and analyze a secondary source using a primary source.
