The Idea of Innocence in Bambara’s the Lesson
During the reading of the story “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara” many thoughts have come to my mind on how to react towards the attitude and the feelings of the protagonist, Sylvia. The day starts when Ms. More brings the kids to downtown New York City in a special shop. Many things will occur at this place and one thing that we will notice is the innocence throughout the interactions of the kids. As they step inside FAO Schwarz, an important and well known store in the city, they happen to see toys, like a small toy sailboats at prices around 1000$ and other things at ridiculous prices! Not understanding how people could spend that much for such little things, the underprivileged neighborhood kids don’t seem to make such a big deal out of it, and are more amazed than anything. Except for Sylvia, she notices the reason of her trip here, and her moral innocence towards this isn’t at the same level as the others …
At first, Sylvia happens just to be a girl that does not want to go wherever Ms. Moore is going to bring them, but she is listening to her parents. This first decision just brings in her a negative effect. Even if Ms. Moore happens to be the nicest women in the world, she prefers being at the pool at this moment. The atmosphere isn’t the best, and the kids, especially her, can’t wait to get back to their houses and go play outside. Sylvia demonstrates absolutely no innocence at this moment and in fact, she tries to look at Ms. Moore from a high point view, thinking that this lady won’t learn anything to her today. “And she was black as hell cept for her feet, which were fish white and spooky” (Bambara P.116). The author used the last quote to demonstrate how she insults Ms. Moore and how since she is so black but she is wearing white, there is a connection between her and the white community at this moment. Maybe that’s why Sylvia may be the only one in the end that will understand something of this day.
As the story moves on, an evident change is
At first, Sylvia happens just to be a girl that does not want to go wherever Ms. Moore is going to bring them, but she is listening to her parents. This first decision just brings in her a negative effect. Even if Ms. Moore happens to be the nicest women in the world, she prefers being at the pool at this moment. The atmosphere isn’t the best, and the kids, especially her, can’t wait to get back to their houses and go play outside. Sylvia demonstrates absolutely no innocence at this moment and in fact, she tries to look at Ms. Moore from a high point view, thinking that this lady won’t learn anything to her today. “And she was black as hell cept for her feet, which were fish white and spooky” (Bambara P.116). The author used the last quote to demonstrate how she insults Ms. Moore and how since she is so black but she is wearing white, there is a connection between her and the white community at this moment. Maybe that’s why Sylvia may be the only one in the end that will understand something of this day.
As the story moves on, an evident change is