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Analysis Of The Lesson By Toni Cade Bambara

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In Toni Cade Bambara’s “The Lesson”, a young girl named Sylvia who lives in a poor neighborhood is taken on a field trip to a nice part of town with some other kids in the neighborhood by a lady on her block, Miss Moore. Sylvia, who is authority on the block, feels her authority slipping away as Miss Moore shows that the world is bigger than the neighborhood. Sylvia tries to fight back by keeping the change from the cab ride, not taking part of the conversation taking place in front of the toy store, and trying to control what the other kids say at the mailbox. But throughout the lesson, the other kids are slowly slipping away from her authoritative grasp. By allowing the kids see the expensive toys in the toy store and realize their own financial situation, Miss Moore is teaching a lesson. Sylvia tries to fight against the lesson, but in the climax and denouement, she is the only kid who has learned it. The climax starts when the kids go on the train to go back home after seeing expensive toys. Throughout their …show more content…

While it seems like none of them do, Sugar comes out and talks about how the sailboat costs more than what all of the kids could earn in a year. Miss Moore pushes her to go on while Sylvia steps on her foot, hoping to stop her from talking. But Sugar continues on by saying “Equal chance to pursue happiness means an equal crack at the dough, don’t it?”. Here lies the lesson that Miss Moore wanted the children to understand. While these children have only know the poverty they have grown up in, they can have a chance to have wealth. America is the land of opportunity, all these kids have to do is take a step to make their own situation better. Sylvia subconsciously learns the lesson when “somethin weird is goin on, I can feel it in my chest”. She doesn’t want Miss Moore to get the satisfaction knowing that this girl who has been fighting the lesson understands

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