The Lesson By Toni Cade Bambara

“The Lesson”, by Toni Cade Bambara is about a girl named Sylvia. She expresses her feelings over her experience at an expensive toy story that her teacher, Ms. Moore, takes her and her friends to. This trip was designed to teach them the reality of the world and to show them the things they cannot afford in life. Not only why they cannot afford them, but to show them that they can be the types of people that can. She aims towards showing Sylvia and the other students how to achieve a better lifestyle. They do not have to be limited by being black in America. To begin with, it is an extremely hot day and Ms. Moore has a plan to go to an F.A.O Schwarz Toy Store. The kids would rather go to a place that is cooler and Sylvia is already getting
Moore is trying to show the children how unfair the world is, so she tells the group to go inside of the store. Sugar, Sylvia’s cousin, and Sylvia are the first to get to the door. But, they for some reason they can’t open the door. They want to go inside and believe it is only a store. Sylvia says, “But I feel funny, shame. But what I got to be shamed about? Got as much right to go in as anybody.” It is almost as if she keeps reminding herself that it is just a store and that there is not much more to it. There is a lot more going on than physically being unable to open the door. It reminds her of the time she and her cousin wanted to cause a little bit of chaos in a catholic church. It was a dare and they were all for it until they actually got inside. Sylvia recalls, “ But once we got in there and everything so hushed and holy and the candles and the bowin and the handkerchiefs on all the drooping heads, I just couldn't go through with the plan.” The reason she could not go through what was already decided was because they felt they had no right to disrupt the church’s mass. They were not raised Catholic and they do not really know anything about the religion. The church was unfamiliar and they did not feel like they were in the correct place. They feel the same way about the toy store. They are not the type of people that carry huge amounts of money in their pocket so there should not be a reason for them to even be going inside such a place. The same goes for their
Moore asks them about how they feel after visiting the toy store. Because of the expensive price tags and the type of people they saw shopping there, Sugar says, “...this is not much of a democracy if you ask me. Equal chance to pursue happiness means an equal crack at the dough, don't it?” The lesson is revealed. This world does not divide money equivalently. The rich keep getting richer and poor continue to get poorer. The gap is expanding and Ms. Moore wants them to be the future. She looks at Sylvia as one of the smartest in her group and directly looks at her when she asks, “"Anybody else learn anything today?" Sylvia ignores her because the topic of being stuck in poverty and the thoughts of getting up to the top are not pleasing, but very disturbing. She has never thought of being poor as a bad thing and she has never thought of getting out of it. Yet, this experience led her to see the world through a new pair of eyes. A social injustice does live on Earth and she does not have to stay in Harlem for the rest of her days. She learns that Ms. Moore just wants “more” for them. She does not want to be up against them, but by their side to show them how life can be better for