Economic Inequality in Toni Cade Bambaras The Lesson Essay examples --

Sylvia and The Struggle Against Class Consciousness in Toni Cade Bambaras The Lesson The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara is not just a spirited story about a low girl out of place in an expensive toy store, it is a social commentary. The Lesson is a story about one African-American girls fence with her growing awareness of class variation. The character young woman Moore introduces the facts of social inequality to a distracted group of city kids, of whom Sylvia, the main character, is the most cynical. Flyboy, plunk Butt, Junebug, Sugar, Rosie, Sylvia and the rest think of Miss Moore as an unsolicited educator, and Sylvia would rather be doing anything else than listening to her. The conflict between Sylvia and Miss Moore, This nappy-head bitch and her goddamn college full stop (307), represents more than the everyday dis comparable of authority by a unexampled adolescent. Sylvia has her experience perception of the way things work, her own world that she does not like to have i nvaded by the prying questions of Miss Moore. Sylvia knows in the back of her brainiac that she is poor, but it never bothers her until she sees her disadvantages in blinding contrast with the luxuries of the wealthy. As Miss Moore introduces her to the world of the rich, Sylvia begins to attribute shame to poverty, and this sparks her to question the lesson of the story, how money aint divided up right in this country (308). Sylvia uses her daydreams as an alternative to situations she doesnt want to bed with, making a sharp distinction between reality as it is and reality as she wants to perceive it. For instance, as they ride in a cab to the toy store, Miss Moore puts Sylvia in charge of the fare and tells her to depart the driver ten percent. Instead of figurin... ...siting F.A.O. Schwarz awakens in Sylvia an internal struggle she has never felt, and through criticizing Miss Moore, Sylvia distances herself from realizing her poverty. In her responses to the toys, their price s, and the unseen people who buy them, it is unmixed that Sylvia is confronting the truth of Miss Moores lesson. As Sylvia begins to understand social inequality, the realization of her own disadvantage makes her angry. For Sylvia, achieving class consciousness is a painful enlightenment. For her to accept that she is deprived is shameful for her, and Sylvia would rather deny it than admit a wound to her self-esteem aint nobody gonna beat me at nuthin (312). Works CitedBambara, Toni Cade. The Lesson. Eds. Hans P. Guth and Gabriele L. Rico. Discovering Literature Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Upper load River, NJ Prentice Hall, 1997. 307-12.