Comparing John Updike And Toni Cade Bambara's The Lesson

What if a person were to learn that their perception of reality is wrong? Would that person defend their pride? Would they choose to accept the knowledge given? In Toni Cade Bambara's "The Lesson", a poverty-stricken girl is faced with the reality that she lives in a time where racial and economic inequalities exist. This short story tells how a young girl named Sylvia and her friends leave their neighborhood in the projects and take a field trip with an educated African American woman, Miss Moore, to a toy store in the rich part of the city.

In the beginning of the story Paul is portrayed as a stereotypical high school teen: causing trouble in the classroom. However, as the story progresses, the reader sees Paul develop into a rather withdrawn character. Paul is bothered by the dullness of his home and school life, and would much rather be spending his time at Carnegie Hall with the actors and actresses. For this reason, Paul can be described as a round and dynamic character. Paul is happiest in his fantasy world than the realities of the real world, which “represent his idea of beauty and personal brilliance” (Saari 389).

He quit his job wishing to be noticed by Queenie. Sammy protest his opinion of the matter to Lengel by stating,” You didn’t have to embarrass them” (Updike 4). Right then, the reader knew that Sammy felt a bit emotional concerning Queenie. He wanted to, in a sense, protect Queenie from the judgement of Lengel.

Moore has a college degree she feels that it is her responsibility to educate the children in her neighborhood. “She’d been to college and said that it was only right that she takes responsibility for the young one’s education” (Bambara86). She will show them that there are other parts of the world than the ghetto and let them observe the inequality of the society. Ms. Moore scheduled a trip for them to go to a toy store called F.A.O Schwarz in the higher class area of New York where all of the rich people lived. The children did not like that idea.

Cheever then finds a poppet in the house and Elizabeth says that it is Mary’s and Mary put it in here. However, Elizabeth is getting accused of having this poppet with a needle in it and then she throws Mary under the bus. In the end, it was actually Abigail’s poppet. An example of this situation in the real world is when someone in school says that they didn’t copy their friend’s homework but the friends says that they didn’t copy the homework either but in the end they both copied the homework from a person that wasn’t even mentioned.

Not only does this affect these students, but can also affect the other students by taking away their chance to build social skills and other important life skills. Alix Spiegel uses more examples such as a conversation that took place between a mother and her son. Within this conversation, the mother goes on to tell her son that smart adults talk about books. This was her response to the comment that was made about him and his friends talking about books during recess.

Some people think he is a hero because he took up for the girls. By quitting his job he took up for them? I don't think that's taking up for someone, that's stupidity. Sammy didn't have to throw out his job like trash when he could've easily have kept his mouth shut, or just have said “you didn't have to embarrass them like that”. He necessarily didn't have to quit.

Paul uses the disconnect between the Upper East Side couples and children to get his way. Throughout the play, Paul is able to figure out what makes people tick and exploit it. For the Upper East Side families, he’s able to give the parents the perfect child that they never had—and never deserved. He is able to shed light on the image of their perfect lives, and show the reality that their kids really hate them. In the play’s first scene, Louisa talks about elephants—everyone knows they exist but there’s an agreement not to discuss them.

A strange and stalker wanders up to a fifteen year old girls house, trying to convince her to come along for a ride. The girl does not want to go, and knows it can only end in doom. Temptation is a part of the evil. “‘Now, these numbers are a secret code, honey,’ Arnold Friend explained. He read off the numbers 33, 19, 17 and raised his eyebrows at her to see what she thought of that, but she didn't think much of it.”

I asked, scanning the never ending shelves on either side of us. “Well Ms.Aubrey said we should only check-out books levels three to seven. Harry Potter is a hard book,” she said, emphasizing the word ‘hard’. “Haven't you seen the movies anyway?”

The story “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara illustrates how a young girl of the name Sylvia decides to ignore the help of her new neighbor Miss Moore. The little girl and her fellow childhood friends get the opportunity to take a field trip to a toy Museum; Miss Moore is the host and her intentions are to expose the isolated kids to show them that there is more to life than living in poverty. Bambara’s word choice portrays the vocabulary that the little kids possess, and they do not know nearly as much information as Miss Moore does because she has a college education. She attempts to educate the kids with numerous facts, but the kids disregard it because they are too fascinated at what the museum has to offer. Sylvia has a foul attitude and

Jeannette Walls’ Memoir, “The Glass Castle”, tells a story of a dysfunctional family who uses magic, fantasy, and life lessons to get through their hectic lives. Jeannette starts off her book with such a story about seeing her mother ramming through garbage in New York City. Jeannette feels a sense of shame about her Mom’s life and begins to reflect on her childhood and how her parents’ choices affected her. If you ask me I would say it was very dramatic, which grabs your attention knowing someone is telling about their own life intrigued me to keep reading.

1. Based on the dialogue Sammy uses, one can suspect he does not take himself too seriously. He speaks from a first person point of view which portrays him as a quiet observer. Sammy also seems to be slightly shallow because when he is referring to the girls in bathings suits inside the store he notes, the girl that initially caught his attention was the “chunky” girl in plaid. In addition to his shallowness, Sammy uses harsh words such as “the fat one with the tan sort of fumbled the cookies.”