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Toni Cade Bambara The Lesson Analysis

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Toni Cade Bambara The Lesson Analysis
The short story, “The Lesson,” by Toni Cade Bambara, portrays one of the most interesting themes in literature, the initiation story. The story illustrates a group of kids who live in the slums in New York city. They are unaware of their environment, and Ms. More is conscious of this situation. In a basis, she teaches the kids life lessons to help them strive for success and attempt to better themselves and their situations. In this occasion, she brings them to a toy story, but not just a common one. Ms. Moore is an educated woman, and she knows that going to an ordinary toy story would not make a footprint in the life of those kids. Ms. She brings them to F.A.O. Schwarz located on Fifth Avenue, the most exclusive and expensive store in the …show more content…
The protagonist lacks in all these three factors, making her stubborn, angry, and a know-it-all person. However, what she is not aware of is her family economic hardship neither the other kids. The innocence of the Protagonist is highly recognizable throughout the story, the taxi ride, the woman in a fur coat in the heat of summer, etc. The speaker has never seen someone in a fur coat during summer. She thinks is crazy, but that represents a symbol of wealth, something she was discovering through this lesson. Then they arrive at the toy store, and everyone is looking through the window amazed with the price tags. It took them a while to come inside the store, the kids know that they do not belong in there. Once inside, the speaker sees a clown, it is just $35 dollars really cheap compared to the other items in the store and pocket change for the rich folks. Going back to the slums in the train, the speaker starts to think a better use for that money, new bunk beds, food for her whole family, a trip to visit her grandfather, and even the rent and the piano bill. Through the process of analyzing, she said, referring to rich people: ” What kind of work they do and how they live and how come we ain't in on it?" Anger is flowing through her blood, and she questions herself why she cannot have a piece of the pie that represents the American wealth? Despite that other

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