Literary Analysis The Lesson Essay

The predominant theme in The Lesson composed by Toni Cade Bambara is creating an sympathy to adolescents of all the opportunities life has to offer a lesson on social class and having a choice which federation you choose to live in. look out on. Moore who takes on the responsibility to educate the young ones has intentions of more than just taking the children to the storage for am functionment. Miss Moores informal lessons be aimed at educating the neighborhood children about how their lives differ from those of rich snowy children, nonetheless Miss Moore wants the children to see they can live the life of the rich and high society.An essential division that adds to the depth and enhances a readers comprehension of The Lesson is the authors use of symbolism end-to-end the story. Sylvia, the narrator of the story, is a born leader. She is apply to being in charge of what the rest of her whizs think and do. Sylvia resents the sort of Miss Moore in her life. Miss Moore is a new kind of black woman. She has no outset abduce but is al paths addressed with her title. She has nappy hair and proper speech and no makeup(Bambara 98).The neighbors are not quite sure how to respond to her, which is illustrated by the way Sylvia describes her as someone to laugh at, the way we did at the junk man, (Bambara 98) who is considered arrogant and acting above his place. Sylvia also describes Miss Moore in terms of being an unpleasant obstacle, like the winos who cluttered up our parks and pissed on our handball walls(Bambara 98). Clearly the author shows the utmost of which Sylvia dislikes Miss Moore. Although the people in the neighborhood are unsure of Miss Moore the parents of the children allow her to take them on an outing.Miss Moore, the childrens 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 amend. She used F. A. O. Schwarz, a very expensive toy store, to tea ch them a lesson and inspire them to strive for success and search to better themselves and their situations. The extreme differences between the childrens neighborhood and the neighborhood of the toy store are first illustrated by the fact that the white people on Fifth highroad wear furs and stockings all the same on a hot summers day.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(Bambara 99). The children are thrown off balance in this neighborhood, as if it were a foreign country where even the approach to temperature is different. To Miss Moore, education is the key to more money and improved social conditions. To Sylvia, being educated means seeing things as they are. Sylvia and Miss Moore both keep back a considerable amount of pride.Sylvia thinks Miss Moore shows slackness when she describes their neighborhood as a slum and their families as poor. Bambara has indicated that Sylvias family is striving for better conditions with the mention of the piano rental. Miss Moore views the childrens acceptance of their economic condition as ignorance and their ignorance as disrespect for their race. Miss Moore wants to change this attitude and encourages the children to demand more from the society that keeps them down. By the end of the story, both of these characters have made their points.Sylvia realizes that she feels in competition not only with Miss Moore, but also with her good friend Sugar, who is ready to slide back into their usual behavior after having had some surprising insights about the day. rather than accompany Sugar, Sylvia decides to go her own way and makes a promise to herself that no one will rile ahead of her in the future. Miss Moores character, with her emphasis on education, is the symbol of one way to excite the usual, fatalistic acceptance of economic conditions by the poor The Lesson is a wonderful work of fiction because of its use of language, humanisti c theme, and symbolism.