The Lesson

The Lesson In “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, the author writes about Sylvia’s childhood experience as a student. She is a young-immature, uneducated, and naive kid who doesn’t know much about life, but her teacher tries to help her by giving her a lesson of reality as well to the rest of her students. She describes her teacher as a lady, Miss Moore, with “nappy hair,” “proper speech,” and “no makeup.” Sylvia explains how she feels when she goes to toy store in Fifth Avenue. For example, she says that she feels confused and shamed of being in the store because the writer notates that the store is made for wealthy people. Sylvia’s vocabulary in the literature is very unusual because she expresses her feelings with streets slang. Furthermore, the author explains Sylvia’s economic situation, and Sylvia’s preferences for playing on the streets with her friends instead of going to school. However, by the end of the story, Sylvia learns the meaning of self-motivation. People, things, and attitudes might help to motivate someone to become something in life, but it is up to that someone to become that something. The main character of the story is Sylvia. She is a kid who considers games the only important thing in her life. Paragraph one emphasizes some of the author’s hobbies and ethnicity. She says that she hates the winos because they cluttered up the parks where her friends and she used to play. She argues that her new teacher is black as well (462). “As well.” she refers of Sylvia as a black kid too. In paragraph three, Sylvia says that she would rather go to the pool or the show where it is cool instead of listen Miss Moore’s arithmetic lesson (463). Another main characteristic of Sylvia is her poor vocabulary. She uses slang and metaphorical language. For example, in paragraph one, she mentions that her cousin “who lived on the block cause we all moved North the same time and to the same apartment then spread out gradual to breathe” (462). She uses