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Mercedes
Flyboy is one of the kids in Miss Moore’s group. He is poor like the other children and claims that he’s homeless, but Sylvia implies that he only says this to make people feel sorry for him. At one point in the narration, Sylvia uses a homophobic slur to describe Flyboy because he doesn’t mind the girls putting lipstick on him.
Flyboy Quotes in The Lesson
The The Lesson quotes below are all either spoken by Flyboy or refer to Flyboy. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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The Lesson Quotes
“At home, then,” she say. “Don’t you have a calendar and a pencil case and a blotter and a letter-opener on your desk at home where you do your homework?” And she know damn well what our homes look like cause she nosys around in them every chance she gets.
“I don’t even have a desk,” say Junebug. “Do we?”
“No. And I don’t get no homework neither,” say Big Butt.
“And I don’t even have a home,” say Flyboy like he do at school to keep the white folks off his back and sorry for him. Send this poor kid to camp posters, is his specialty.
“I do,” says Mercedes. “I have a box of stationery on my desk and a picture of my cat. My godmother bought the stationery and the desk. There’s a big rose on each sheet and the envelopes smell like roses.”
“Who wants to know about your smelly-ass stationery,” say Rosie Giraffe fore I can get my two cents in.
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So once again we tumble all over each other to gaze at this magnificent thing in the toy store which is just big enough to maybe sail two kittens across the pond if you strap them to the posts tight. We all start reciting the price tag like we in assembly. “Handcrafted sailboat of fiberglass at one thousand one hundred ninety-five dollars.”
“Unbelievable,” I hear myself say and am really stunned. I read it again for myself just in case the group recitation put me in a trance. Same thing. For some reason this pisses me off. We look at Miss Moore and she lookin at us, waiting for I dunno what.
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Flyboy Character Timeline in The Lesson
The timeline below shows where the character Flyboy appears in The Lesson. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Lesson
...Miss Moore word. The other kids present don’t pay much attention to the lesson either. Flyboy, Big Butt, and Junebug are distracted by what everyone has brought for lunch, while Rosie...
(full context)
...and tells her to figure out the tip for the driver. Sylvia, Sugar, Junebug, and Flyboy joke around in the car during the ride. At the same time, Sylvia is focused...
(full context)
...at home that they keep papers on, although she knows that most of them don’t. Flyboy says that he doesn’t even have a home, which is what he always tells white...
(full context)
Flyboy interrupts the conversation to show everyone a sailboat, which he stares at as if it...
(full context)
