In an essay on “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara that is less about socio-economic issues I would write about the importance of Miss Moore’s role as a teacher. Throughout the story Miss Moore’s intentions were to be a good mentor for the students as should any teacher, though the children didn’t see it that way. Their interactions with Miss Moore can show that Sylvia and the other students may not be used to a good mentor or a positive leading figure. Instead of Miss Moore wanting the students to criticize their own background she may have wanted to shift the students thinking and allow them to have an open mind and see a different environment or perspective. It wou This gives more detail into a different perspective on Miss Moore rather than her pointing out socio-economic issues. I would name my essay “ A Guiding Figure” as it describes Miss Moore’s role as a teacher and mentor for her students.
Daily Archives: February 11, 2025
After reading Toni Cade Bambara, I was struck by Sylvia’s complex response to the world around her. She carries an intense resentment toward Miss Moore, not just for the lesson she’s teaching, but for disrupting the comfortable ignorance that shields her from fully acknowledging economic inequality. Sylvia’s defensive and judgmental nature seems like a coping mechanism, a way to deflect the discomfort of realizing the systemic forces that keep her and her peers in a cycle of poverty. Rather than directly engaging with the lesson, she chooses to focus on the personal gain she managed to extract from the day—Miss Moore’s money. This irony reveals the tension between her disdain for wealth and her own desire for it. If I were to explore this theme in an essay, I might title it Sylvia’s Defiance: Between Awareness and Denial. Ultimately, her refusal to discuss the lesson outright suggests that, despite her resistance, Miss Moore’s words have left an impression she isn’t yet willing to admit.
For the Week 1 Activity 10 prewriting assignment we are to review the Part 1 directions, Student Sample Directions and the Student Sample Essay. From reading the Part 1 directions, it was made clear that there was no writing needed at this time, but the prewriting assignment itself involves a lot of reading and learning to prepare us to write! This assignment helps to get us familiar with reading a primary source and a secondary source, and to further understand thesis statements and using MLA format quotations. Reading the Student Sample Directions and Student Sample Essay are preparing us for our Essay 1 assignment. Essay 1 is an evaluation of the Student Sample Essay, utilizing the Student Sample Directions to guide our assessment. I think that this is a great assignment because it gives us a perspective of the person grading a paper, and points to accuracies and inaccuracies that we can keep in mind when writing our own essays. I am excited to delve into writing Essay 1 so that I can learn from the mistakes in the sample, and understand the viewpoint of an analyzer of an MLA format essay.
After reading “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, I am left with a strong idea of Sylvia’s personality and her perspective of the world around her. She is bitter about her circumstances, and points a lot of that bitterness at Miss Moore for forcing her to take off her blinders and recognize the injustices that are forced upon her. These feelings about her reality then actualize as harsh judgements for the people, places, and things around her. I personally believe that Sylvia places these judgements so that she can feel better about herself and her situation amidst her anger and disdain. If I were writing an essay on this concept, I would name it “A Slighted Sylvia”. At the end of the day, Sylvia’s expressed interest lies in what she personally has gained from the excursion, which is Miss Moore’s money. The coincidence here is that there is a judgement and jealousy of people with money, but for her, getting this money overshadows any outward commentary on the lesson that she learned from Miss Moore and their day at F.A.O Schwartz.
When I read the story, I do have a feeling what the reader what going through. At first, I thought she was talking about history. She was talking about her time at school. She was talking about school life, meeting her friends at the cafeteria and all the teachers she met through classes. The only teacher she talked was Miss Moore. She was the only black teacher in her school and she doesn’t have a first name. Also, she was wearing different clothes than most others don’t. Maybe, she might be different from other teachers. Secondly, I thought she was going through segregation. .I don’t want to go off topic but, I believe this is what she going through. In the second part, she was wondering to get some snacks for her students. But in real life, stealing is really wrong. At dismissal, the students were parting ways for their own future. This story might be related of how the author had experienced her life at school. Maybe I should renamed the story “Lesson: Toni Bambara’s True Story.” This story relates what the author had gone through at school along with her friends.
In an essay on Toni Cade Bambara’s The Lesson, I would look at the narrative strategies and character growth that contribute to the story’s overall impact. I would prefer to specifically investigate the usage of viewpoints, focusing on how Sylvia’s first-person narrative influences our understanding of her character.The first-person viewpoint is significant because it allows us readers right away access to Sylvia’s thoughts, showing her early resistance to Miss Moore’s teaching. Her tone gives an in-depth and versatile view of how she views the events around her, revealing her internal struggles and increasing awareness.I would additionally look into the setting’s importance, particularly how the difference between the community and the journey to the shop serves as a context for Sylvia’s shifting perspective.The combination of youth and spending delivers an understated but powerful indictment of current standards. The title of this essay might be “Understanding Past the Surface: Character and Perspective in Toni Cade Bambara’s The Lesson.”
