“The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara is a short story that portrays and discusses the social issue of inequality in America. Throughout the short story, Bambara focuses on teaching and showing inequality by portraying how characters relate in an improvised neighborhood. To better understand how Bambara achieves to get her theme home to the audience, comparing the experience of Miss Moore and Sugar when they visited the toy store will be vital to enhance how the theme of inequality is arrived at. Miss Moore is presented as a woman well-educated with a college degree and perceived of a higher status in the neighborhood (Bambara, 1972 pp. 1). She is aware of the community’s inequalities as she acknowledges that money is not equally distributed in America (Bambara, 1972, pp. 2). However, she sees the trip to the toy store with the children as an opportunity to expose them to a world different from their neighborhood. By encouraging them to calculate the cost of the toys they are interested in and compare them to the limited resources of their family, Miss Moore hopes the children will understand some people exist with such potential and see the inequality that exists. Conversely, Sugar is a young girl from an improvised neighborhood who is impressed by the toy store’s products, costs, and elegant wealth. However, she is later disappointed and frustrated since she cannot afford to purchase one and asks if they can steal (Bambara, 1972 pp. 2). Sugar is also perplexed with what some individuals could spend on toys alone that could feed a certain family of seven(Bambara, 1972 pp. 6). In summary, the conduct and experience portrayed by Miss Moore and Sugar reflect the social and economic inequality that people encounter daily on the grass root. The author exposes the gap between those […]
Daily Archives: February 17, 2023
The two characters I pick are Mercedes and Sugar these characters both had two very different experiences at the high end toy store. In the story Sugar seems like a mischievous young child mostly following her friends lead I even think Sugar and her friend thought about stealing from the Toy Store when they first arrived they were probably joking i dont know. Mercedes acted different from Sugar and her friend Mercedes acted more conceited than her peers and acted like her father would buy her anything she wanted this made her unpopular with Sugar and her friends. The Characters in this story was mostly poor coming from the working class in society Miss Moore was trying to open their eyes on money because Miss Moore thought that working class people should want more of the “pie”. At the start of the story Sugar and her friend was eager to buy or obtain everything in the store until they seen the expensive price tag which led them into a Miss Moore lecture with the store clerk. While Mercedes entered the store window shopping while also bragging to her friends that her father could afford her anything she could want in the store that quickly made the other children not like her and they tried their best to shut her up quickly.
In “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, the two characters that i would compare are Sylvia and Miss Moore on visiting the FAO Schwarz toy store because Sylvia is from a poor family and a neighborhood that has low income, she is excited to visit the store but when she sees the high prices she becomes distressful on the prices of the toys and their value and on the fact that neither her or her friends can afford a single toy from the store. After visiting the store she realizes the fact that how much discrimination exists in the society and she cannot do anything about it.Sylvia does show signs of frustration and stress and is not interested in listening to Miss Moores lesson about economic inequality. On the other hand Miss Moore is a college educated women, who want to empower kids so takes them on a trip to visit the toy store because she thinks that the children should be aware of the privileges that exist in the society and want. the children to realize the economic issues and inequality issues that they are facing. So while comparing Sylvia and Miss Moore we can see that Sylvia is frustrated with the fact that she cannot buy any thing from the store while Miss Moore is trying to educated the children to think critically about the world around them.
The two characters from “The Lesson” I’ll be comparing their response to the experience of the FAO Schwarz toy store is Sylvia and Mercedes. Sylvia was taken out of her comfort zone, the ghetto, to get a first look at what the different experiences in the upper class could feel like. Sylvia seems to be a kid that speaks her mind with no apology behind it. Sylvia was exposed to how minorities and the more privileged were treated, which was unfair and unequal. An example from the story states that Ms. Moore expresses how money isn’t divided equally in this country. And I agree with her statement from centuries ago and still today, minorities, especially women and women with children, are underpaid. It also goes by where you live; some women barely make the minimum wage and make ends meet for their families. Sylvia questioned, “who are these people that spend that much for performing clowns and $1000 for a toy sailboat? What kind of work do they do and how do they live, and how come we aren’t in it? Once the community you are living in is underdeveloped immediately, you are looked at differently. You are paid the same way and looked at the same. The trip Sylvia was experiencing could be a learning lesson for her and her friends, for them to take their schoolwork seriously and attend college to have some degree so that people don’t look down on her because she is from the ghetto. After all, it’s not where you’re from; it’s where you’re going. Sylvia’s demeanor and outspokenness can be a future advocate for her community. Sylvia has the power to lead her destination if she takes all the pieces of advice she got from Ms. Moore. Mercedes didn’t feel how the other […]
In the story “The Lesson” By Toni Cade Bambara, a group of kids take a trip to the toy store with Miss Moore, their adult supervisor. On their way to the store, Miss Moore is lecturing them about life as usual, and just like every other lesson Miss Moore tries to drill in their heads, it goes through one ear and out the other, especially Sugar and Sylvia. When they get to the toy store, they window shop and marvel at the expensive toys until they lay their eyes on the $1000 toy boat. At this point, their astonishment turns into confusion. They ask who even purchases these toys when there are cheaper alternatives. Sugar starts to compare the price of the toy to how much her family spends on food and realizes it’s not even close to the price of a meaningless toy. Sylvia is almost uncomfortable with this harsh truth as she tries everything in her power to stop the discourse between Sugar and Miss Moore. Earlier that day Miss Moore tried to tell the kids about how the current state of the economy makes it unfair for people like them to get ahead, and since Sylvia dislikes Miss Moore, she hates the fact that a lesson is actually starting to resonate with her when she initially disagreed with her theories, but sugar was more understanding.
This story directs a deeper meaning in regards to inequality and how minorities may experience the same situation differently. Ms. Moore brings the children into the toy store and begins to look around. However, the main two characters in focus would be Sugar and Mercedes because of the fact of how different yet similar they can be at times throughout the story. Ms. Moore took the children to the toy store to show how different socioeconomic and financial factors can alter the experience for someone, most vulnerable being children who grew up not having too much. For instance, as stated in the story, it states, ” “This is the place, “ Miss Moore say, “Can we steal?” Sugar asks very serious like she’s getting the ground rules squared away before she plays. “This quote portrays the sense that Sugar wasn’t brought up with too much money and her family came from the struggle. The text emphasis “serious like” to illustrate to readers on how significantly she wanted a toy that she would just maybe steal one instead if she didn’t have enough money. On the other hand however, Mercedes experience in the toy store is a little different than rest of the pother children. She doesn’t seem to mind the prices too much when looking at them compared to the other children. For example, it states, ““I don’t even have a desk,” say Junebug. “Do we?” .“And I don’t even have a home,” says Flyboy. “I do,” says Mercedes. “I have a box of stationery on my desk and a picture of my cat. My god- mother bought the stationery and the desk. There’s a big rose on each sheet and the envelopes smell like roses”. This quote shows readers on how Mercedes was more fortunate then the re3st of […]
.Two characters that stood out to me was specifically Sylvia and Mercedes. The comparison between these two characters are completely different in how they act towards the lesson Miss Moore is trying to teach these group of kids on a trip to the toy store. Miss Moore is attempting to show these young kids the economic and social impacts on prices and the economic system issues generally. Mercedes is the only child who is different from the rest. The others kids truly come from and know what it’s like to not have rich privileges or rich things. However, Mercedes is well familiar and expresses that throughout the story. She seems to be proper and unbothered or unshocked by the pricing of the toys and does not show she has learned anything from Miss Moore’s lesson in the end. Sylvia is quite the opposite. She is well aware of the lesson that is trying to be given by Miss Moore. In fact she is more angry throughout this trip and she shows her hatred and attitude toward Miss Moore any chance she can get. She fights and battles with Sugar over which toy they want. Sylvia does not want to give in to Miss Moore’s lesson and what she is trying to show these kids from this trip. However, Sugar betrays her friend by agreeing with Miss Moore and showing her true potential by not letting Sylvia take control of her.
