The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara: Exploring Life Through a Young Black Girl's Eyes

Introduction

In the story "The Lesson," author Toni Cade Bambara shows her readers a view of life from a young black girl's eyes. The narrator, Sylvia, is a fourteen-year-old, poverty stricken girl who lives in a community just outside New York. "The Lesson" is considered by Literary Canon to be a wonderful work of fiction because of the different fictional elements used and how they are employed. The two most important elements that not only add to the depth of the story but also enhance the readers' comprehension of the narrative are Bambara's use of symbolism and setting.

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The setting is very important in "The Lesson" since it defines both the theme and characters. The story begins with the narrator and her friends standing in front of a mailbox waiting for another day of learning from Ms. Moore. Miss Moore fells that it is her duty to teach the children from her community important lessons not only for a better education but to better understand life in its entirety. Today's trip to Fifth Avenue's F.A.O Schwarz (a very expensive, upper class toy store) is more of a life lesson than educational. Ms. Moore is trying to teach Sylvia and her friends about social inequality which is the main theme of the short story.

The main theme is seen vividly through the setting. Sylvia and her friends are from a poor community and the trip to F.A.O Schwarz shows them a new life they did not know existed. The children get to learn the lesson that people from different socioeconomic backgrounds live different lifestyles and also have different opportunities. The children on getting to the toy store are overwhelmed by the expensive toys and even by a white women wearing a fur coat in summer. The children develop the general opinion that "white folks crazy" (Bambara 2). Miss Moore hopes that the children learn that although there are from a different social class from those people in Fifth Avenue, it is not impossible to break free from their social class.

The setting also helps define the characters. Sylvia is a product of her environment. Sylvia is unhappy with her surrounding and this makes her quite cynical. From the beginning of the Sylvia attitude is wanting and she sounds very unhappy. She is cynical in the way she talks about Miss Moore at a point referring to her as "nappy-headed bitch" (Bambara 1). Sylvia's language is inappropriate particularly begin that she is only fourteen. It is only logically to assume that Sylvia has learnt to spoke the way she does from her community. Sylvia's persona however changes when her surroundings change. The readers see Sylvia in a new light when she sets her eyes on the sailboat in the F.A.O Schwarz. She is not only shocked by the price of the sailboat but also stunned by its greatness. Although she is taken aback by the price of the sailboat, she starts to realize the economic imbalance that exists in the world.

Symbols are often use in stories to portray more of a literary meaning. Some of the symbolism in "The Lesson" include the paperweight and the sailboat and the names of the characters. Initially, none of the children not even Sylvia knew what the paperweight was and even when Miss Moore explained they did not comprehend its use nor its price (Bambara 2). The author uses the paperweight to symbolize importance. The paperweight is used to hold down papers that are of value. The children, being from the slums did not have or own anything that is of importance, something not worth losing. The paperweight could also represent the children's life in the slums. In this illusion, the children are the important ones under the paperweight. The slum is the paperweight that is holding them down and preventing them from reaching their full potential. A better life, a life outside the slums cost a price, one that they are not used to.

Bambara uses the sailboat to represent freedom and the journey that lies ahead for Sylvia and her friends. The sailboat although expensive was stunning and this represent the new life that the children hoped for. To attain the life and the freedom would be costly but worth it. Bambara uses the characters' name to symbols what kind of character they will be. One of the characters is Fat Butt which indicates that the kid is fat. Sylvia even says, "Fat Butt was already wasting his peanut butter and jelly sandwich like the pig he is" (Bambara 4). Another symbolic name is Mercedes which symbols wealth. Mercedes unlike other kids in her community had a desk that her godmother had bought her (Bambara 2). Mercedes family had more money than most her classmates.

Bambara uses both symbols and setting to represent the social and economic inequality faced by the children in the story. The setting, Sylvia's poor community and the uptown toy store, help develop the theme of social divide that exist in the world. It was important for Miss Moore to teach and show the children the social and economic inequalities that exist so that they would be motivated to strive for more. The symbols such as the paperweight, the sailboat and the character names also greatly helped in developing the theme.

Work Citied

Bambara, Toni Cade. Gorilla, My Love: The Lesson. New York: Random House,1972.