The_Lesson

The Lesson The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara People come in and out of the life of a person each and every day leaving lasting memories and lessons learned. With these people the basis of a relationship is formed. A person’s relationships, whether good or bad, affect their opinion, reveal truth, and teach life’s confusing lessons. In the short story, “The Lesson,” Toni Cade Bambara focuses on the relationships of a young indigent black girl, Sylvia, with her schoolteacher Ms. Moore, her best friend Sugar, and her fellow classmates to reveal the nature of economic inequality in American society while on a class trip to F.A.O. Schwarz, and expensive toy store. As Sylvia encounters the material wealth represented by the toys, her anger becomes a cover-up for increasing feelings of envy, as she is the first to uncover the day’s lesson. Initially reacting to Miss Moore's teachings, Sylvia denies the importance and truth of her words “[when] she gets to the part about how we [the children] all poor and live in the slums, which I don't feature" (308). Convinced Ms. Moore was only rubbing it in her face “that all of [the children] put together couldn’t eat in a sylvia, ms, moore, sugar, lesson, reveal, poverty, miss, learned, [the, world, truth, toys, toy, toni, story, store, result, relationships, relationship, people, own, new, moore’s, lessons, inside, friend, equal, democracy, day’s, consciousness, come, class, children], can’t