Toni Cade Bambara The Lesson Analysis

Within The Lesson, written by Toni Cade Bambara, the question of inequality and poverty arises in response to the juxtaposition of the two neighborhoods in the story, Harlem and Manhattan. Bambara introduces children as the most important occupants of a typical New York slum, mainly in regards to their ability to escape the constraints of their own environment. As highlighted in the story, the elders of this African American community have accepted the social inequality and the economic conditions without question, which only hinders their ability to break away. To contrast this complacency, Miss Moore is portrayed as an independent, educated, and liberal African American woman who not only recognizes the lack of democracy, but who also seeks
Although Sylvia cannot recognize her own neighborhood as a slum, or the occupants as poor in the beginning, she slowly realizes that everyone is not equal through the distribution of wealth. Sylvia is angered by the prices in F.A.O Schwarz because she knows that the items for sale are just toys, and that these toys would never take precedent over other things her parents desperately struggle to buy. This is apparent when Sylvia thinks of the thirty-five dollar clown in the store: “Thirty-five dollars could buy new bunk beds for Junior and Gretchen’s boy. Thirty-five dollars and the whole household could go visit Granddaddy Nelson in the country. Thirty-five dollars would pay for the rent and the piano bill too” (Bambara 94). Although Sylvia cannot directly face the injustices that surround her by speaking outwardly, she inwardly questions the frivolity of the wealthy in order to keep the realities of the situation at bay. Sylvia knows that the prices in the store are outrageous and that she could easily get the toys elsewhere, but what really bothers her is the fact that people actually have the money to buy the toys that are only imitations of the real thing. For instance, the price of the sailboat confuses Sylvia because she knows that not only can she build one herself for fifty cents, but that the toy boats costs as much as a real boat. Sylvia demonstrates a maturity that allows her to separate her wants from her needs, which is what seemingly distinguishes the wealthy from the poor in the story. Sylvia’s shame to enter the store and her inevitable jealously only fuels her desire to find out how others are able to make money and buy expensive things; she questions why she “ain’t in on it,” which is only answered by her recollection of Miss Moore’s words that symbolize the connection