The Lesson

The Lesson

Adolescent and teenage children grow up with the perception that they know everything there is to know about life. The harsh reality of the hardships of life is a lesson that almost everyone learns the hard way. Where and what someone is born into is not ever by anyone’s choice, and it‘s not always fair. Even in the worst of situations, it is up to that individual to change that, to take every blow positively, and use it to be better in life. In the short story The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara, the main character, Sylvia is a very hostile, judgmental African American girl growing up in a poor neighborhood. The author uses symbolism, and theme to enhance her clarification of her short story. In this story, Sylvia is presented with an extremely big issue; is she going to get out there into the mean, cold, world, fight with all her might to be someone remarkable and earn her keep, or not?

Miss Moore was an educated black woman in Sylvia’s neighborhood. She is always dressed properly, as if she were going to church. She wanted to put her knowledge to use, and she feels its very necessary to “take responsibility for the young ones’ education.” Sylvia was never happy about being taught lessons by Miss Moore, and hated her for it. Miss Moore decides to summon a taxi cab with the children, Sylvia’s friends Flyboy, Sugar, Fatt Butt, and Junebug to downtown Manhattan. Everything about Manhattan symbolizes wealth in this short story, from the way the people are dressed, to a magnificent toy store and the price of the items inside of it. It symbolizes everything that the children could grow up to be, and everything that they could grow up to have.

When the children and Miss Moore step out of the cab onto Fifth Avenue, they see people everywhere in stockings, and Sylvia notices a woman in a fur coat despite the hot weather. Sylvia says that “White folks crazy.” Miss Moore decides that there is a lesson to be taught today at the upper class toy store of FAO Schwartz. She asks the children to look in the windows before they go in. When they notice a microscope for three-hundred dollars, Miss Moore asks the children how long it would take them to save that amount of money. Then they notice a paperweight for four-hundred eighty dollars. The paperweight can be symbolized