The Lesson

Written during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Toni Cade Bambara's short story "The Lesson" tells the story of a young African-American girl named Sylvia and the important life lesson that she learns one day while on a trip to a toy store in New York. Her neighbor, Miss Moore, brings Sylvia and a group of her friends to F.A.O. Schwarz and while there, they come face to face with the injustices they face because of their backgrounds. Miss Moore does this to teach them a lesson, one that she feels that they need to learn in order to succeed in life and overcome any obstacles they may face. Bambara identifies with race through class and demographics, using a trip to a pricey New York toy store to expose Sylvia and her group of friends to the reality of their classed society. Sylvia tells us "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. White folks crazy." (89). She discovers that the rich, upper class whites don't dress like African Americans, even though the weather is the same. She realizes that they have money and a tendency to flaunt just how wealthy they are. "'Must be rich people shop here,' say Q.T. 'You are a very bright boy,' say Flyboy. 'What was your first clue?'" (92). One of the children in the group was able to identify with the demographic of the area, recognizing that only people with status and wealth would be able to buy the expensive toys in the store. Bambara gives the reader an insight about the 1970s and what life was like in both societies. White people (those in the upper class) could easily afford the costly toys at FAO Schwarz, while the African American society (including Sylvia and her friends) could not. Sylvia herself recognizes a certain aspect of behavior in White society as she compares being inside the toy store to being inside a Catholic church. She says "...everything so hushed and holy...Same thing in the store. We all walkin on tiptoe and hardly touchin the games and puzzles and things" (93-94). This toy store in Manhattan was nothing like the one in her neighborhood that she and her friends were used to, where things were cheap (affordable to them) and could be quickly and easily replaced. To Sylvia, this toy store was almost a holy place -- too pure for a person of her status to touch anything, too precious a place for her to even be in because it "belonged" to those of wealth, not people of her class or status. Throughout "The Lesson", economic class is explored among the children in the group at the toy store. Sylvia mentions what her teacher, Miss More, had said about the economic barrier between different races, "...how money ain't divided up right in this country. And then she gets to the part about we all poor and live in the slums, which I don't feature." (89). Even before the group arrived at the toy store, they were experiencing that same economic gap -- one in which some had more money than the others, a harsh reminder of how different their circumstances were compared to the upper class. One of Sylvia's friends (Mercedes) seems better off -- she says "I have a box of stationary on my desk...There's a big rose on each sheet and the envelopes smell like roses" (91) -- while others are more in the same boat as Sylvia (Junebug says he doesn't have a desk and Flyboy says he is homeless (91)). Sylvia deals with her feelings about economic class when the group enters the toy store for the first time. She feels like she's not allowed to go in, or that she shouldn't even though she knows that in reality, she can, saying "...but when we get there I kinda hang back. Not that I'm scared, what's there to be afraid of, just a toy store. But I feel funny, shame. But what I got to be shamed about? Got as much right to go in as anybody" (93). After seeing some of the prices in the store and the white patrons shopping there, Sylvia begins to feel unworthy of even being around the toys because of her current economic situation -- she could never afford any of them. But she begins to realize that even if she or her parent could afford any one toy, they wouldn't buy it, simply because that amount of money could be better spent. "I could see me askin my mother for a $35 birthday clown. 'You wanna who that costs that?' she'd say, cocking her head to the side to get a better view of the hole in my head. Thirty-five dollars could buy new bunk beds...Thirty-five dollars and the whole household could go visit Granddaddy Nelson in the country...Thirty-five dollars would pay the rent and the piano bill too" (94). Bambara clearly shows just how large the economic deficit is between the classes with this -- illustrating those with more money spending it as freely as they like on things of little to no importance while others (like Sylvia and her family) value what money they do have and only spend it on the necessary things. After spending some time in the toy store, the group leaves and the children, having been confronted with the realization that they were lower class (not upper as they had thought back in their own neighborhood), become somewhat angry and frustrated at Miss Moore for taking them to a toy store where she knew they wouldn't be able to purchase anything. Sugar states, "'You know, Miss Moore, I don't think all of us here put together eat in a year what that sailboat costs...this is not much of a democracy if you ask me. Equal chance to pursue happiness means an equal crack at the dough, don't it?'" (95). Sugar has realized at this point that a democracy can never be a true democracy unless each person has been given a fair shot, the same resources and opportunities as everyone else. It also dawns on her that one's ability to pursue their own version of happiness depends on their financial situation. In learning this same lesson, Sylvia experiences an epiphany of her own. After Sugar asks her question, Miss Moore looks at Sylvia, probably for a response. She doesn't say anything aloud, only thinks "something weird is goin on, I can feel it in my chest" (95). Although she's hesitant to admit it openly to her teacher and friends, Sylvia understands the situation that was presented to her -- she understands the lesson that Miss Moore was trying to teach. The things that Miss Moore spoke of became much more real once Sylvia experienced them first hand in the toy store. She makes the connection, now knowing that if she ever wanted anything in her life, she'd need money to get it. And in order to get that money, she'd need knowledge to do so. At the end of the story, Sylvia decides to let nothing or no one stand in her way of getting what she wants out of life, saying "ain't nobody gonna beat me at nuthin" (96). Throughout "The Lesson", Toni Cade Bambara illustrates how education can be used to rise above any of life's challenges. Miss Moore's lesson was not taught in a classroom though; it was taught on a sunny afternoon trip to a toy store, one in which the children were confronted with the harsh reality of the time era. Some of them weren't interested in learning anything on what was supposed to be a trip to the toy store, but as they found themselves wishing for the toys around them, they began to realize just what Miss Moore was trying to get them to learn. The extremely high price for the toys was an amount that their families could use for much more than just buying a toy. Each child was put in a place where they had to examine his or her self, their social conditions and their future. Bambara used race through social status and economic inequality to identify the hidden realities in each child's life.