РефератыИностранный языкThThe Lesson Essay Research Paper The LessonThe

The Lesson Essay Research Paper The LessonThe

The Lesson Essay, Research Paper


The Lesson


The Lesson, by Toni Cade Bambara, portrays a group of children living in the


slums of New York City around 1972. They seem to be content living in poverty in


some very unsanitary conditions. One character, Miss Moore, the children?s


self appointed mentor, takes it upon herself to further their education during


the summer months. She feels this is her civic duty because she is educated. She


used F.A.O. Schwarz, a very expensive toystore, to teach them a lesson and


inspire them to strive for success and attempt to better themselves and their


situations.


At the beginning of the story, the author gives us the feeling that a child


is narrating this story. She also shows that the child, Sylvia, is at that age


where she feels that adults are silly and she knows everything. ?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.? (Bambara 470) Sylvia also tells us about her


environment while referencing Miss Moore. ?And we kidna hated her too, hated


the way we did the winos who cluttered up our parks and pissed on our handball


walls and stank up our hallways and stairs so you couldn?t halfway play


hide-and-seek without a damn gas mask. Miss Moore was her name. The only woman


on the block without a first name.? (Bambara 470) This is our introduction to


Miss


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Moore. She is an educated, well groomed person and the children resent her


because she is different and their parents force them to spend time with her in


the interest of education.


On the day the story takes place, Miss Moore has rounded up the neighborhood


kids and is going to bring them to F.A.O. Schwarz. Sylvia has a poor attitude


toward the excursion because she feels that her day could have been better


spent. ?So this one day Miss Moore rounds us all up at the mailbox and its


purdee hot and she?s knocking herself up about arithmetic. And school suppose


to let up in summer I heard, but she don?t never let up.? (Bambara 470) Miss


Moore hailed the group two cabs, and they were off.


When they arrive at their destination, the author gives up another clue


toward the extent of the childen?s poverty. ?Then we check out that we on


fifth avenue and everybody dressed up in stockings. One lady in a fur coat hot


as it is. White folks crazy.? (Bamb

ara 471)


At the store, it is not long before the children begin seeing things that


interest them. The first of these is a microscope that costs $300. Miss Moore


comments on the educational value of microscopes but the children poke fun at


the idea. ??Hey, I?m going to buy that there.?


?That there? You don?t even know what it is, stupid.?


?I do so,? he say punchin Rosie Giraffe. ?It?s a microscope.?


?Whatcha gonna do with a microscope, fool??


?Look at things.? (Bambara 471)


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The next interesting item that the kids find is a very expensive paperweight.


While discussing it, Miss Moore is sure to convey that while the object is very


expensive, it?s purpose is very trivial. ??This here costs $480 dollars,?


say Rosie Giraffe. So we pile up all over her to see what she pointing out. My


eyes tell me it?s a chunk of glass cracked with something heavy, and


different-color inks dripped into the splits, then the whole thing put into an


oven or something. But for $480 dollars it don?t make sense.


?That?s a paperweight made of semi-precious stones fused together under


ttemendous pressure,? she explains slowly, with her hands doing all the mining


and the factory work.


?So what?s a paperweight?? asks Rosie Giraffe.


?To weigh paper down with, dumbbell,? says Flyboy, the wise man from the


East.


?Not exactly,? says Miss Moore, which is what she say when you warm or


way off, too. ?It?s to weigh paper down so it won?t scatter and make your


desk untidy.??(Bambara 472)


The last item the author comments on is a sailboat. ?We all start reciting


the pricetag like we?re in assembly. ?Handcrafted sailboat made of


fiberglass at one thousand one hundred ninety-five dollars.?


?Unbelieveable, ? I hear myself say and am really stunned.? (Bambara


472) The prices of the previous two items stunned the children, but the sailboat


really brought home the idea.


At the end of the story is when Miss Moore?s motive was revealed. She did


not want to bring the kids on a field trip. She was interested in giving them a


drive to succeed by showing them that some people are very successful and can


afford such things. She hopes that they will want to be one of those people


instead of a person that, like so many others, are just content with what they


have.


Roberts, Edgar V., Jacobs, Henry E. ?Literature.? The Lesson. 470-475.


Toni Cade Bambara. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. 2001

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