Miss Moore, a well-educated black woman, wants the
children in her neighborhood to be exposed to the more cultural aspects of life.
Supported by the local parents’ group, she takes on the challenge of teaching the local
kids about life outside of the projects. Toni Cade Bambara uses the story
“The Lesson” to expose the African-American problem of social inequality
and the lack of quality education for the black
children.
Theme
The
author uses the lesson by Miss Moore of poverty of the
impoverished children of New York City’s ghetto. It is apparent that all of these black
children have hopes and desires just like other kids their
age.
Poverty does not mean stupid or lacking in desires.
The teacher wants to empower the students to make a change in their future by seeing the
importance of education and what their lives could be like instead of the poverty in
which they live.
Protagonist and
Narrator
At the center of the story is
Sylvia, a young black girl, who serves as the protagonist and narrator of the
story:
Back
in the days when everyone was old and stupid or young and foolish and me and Sugar were
the only ones just right, this lady moved on our block with nappy hair and proper speech
and no makeup.
Sylvia’s
cynical attitude make her an unreliable narrator. Everything is tainted by her
bitterness and defiance. She does not need Miss Moore or her fancy ideas. To Sylvia,
Miss Moore is the enemy who prevents the students from having
fun.
Using the point of view of the sassy Sylvia makes the
story fun despite the seriousness of the subject. Eventually, Sylvia understands what
Miss Moore wants and looks at her as the teacher not the
enemy.
Today’s
Lesson
The important lesson for this day
centers on a trip to FAO Schwartz Toy Store in downtown Manhattan. Miss Moore hopes to
show the students another side of life and point out that the education is important if
they want the better lifestyle.
Miss Moore has the students
use math skills in figuring tips, the cost of cab fares the prices of the toys, and
most importantly, the uselessness of some of the items. From this, hopefully the
students will understand the difference between their lives and the people who can
afford these toys.
The students see a paperweight that is
useless in their lives. A sailboat that costs $1,000 makes the point that the price of
some of the toys could feed a family of six or seven. Some of the children get the
message that there is social inequality, and they want to change the course of their
lives.
Sylvia fights to accept the lesson of Miss Moore.
She gets mad at her cousin for taking part in the discussion with the teacher. Despite
her hard façade, Sylvia may be the only student that actually gets the
lesson.
What
kinda work they do and how they live and how come we ain't in on it? Where we are is who
we are... But it don't necessarily have to be that way, Miss Moore always adds then
waits for somebody to say that poor people have to wake up and demand their share of the
pie and don't none of us know what kind of pie she talking about in the first damn
place.
Despite her cynicism,
Sylvia gets it. Something has clicked in her. At the end of the story, she wants to be
by herself to think over what she has learned. Still cynical and bitter, Sylvia is at
the edge of change.
No comments:
Post a Comment