Wealth, Poverty, and Inequality
In “The Lesson,” a group of Black children and Miss Moore, their self-appointed mentor, take a trip from their poor Harlem neighborhood to FAO Schwarz, an upscale toy store. Here, Sylvia (the narrator) and the other kids are both fascinated and baffled by the exorbitant prices in the store, and they also become aware of their own poverty in contrast to the wealthy people who can afford to shop there. In moving from their…
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Education and Anger
In “The Lesson,” a woman named Miss Moore moves into a poor area in Harlem and begins teaching a group of neighborhood children about a wide range of subjects, from basic skills like arithmetic to social issues like poverty. The narrator, Sylvia, is initially angry at Miss Moore because she finds the lessons boring and patronizing. She is particularly upset when Miss Moore takes the children to FAO Schwarz, an upscale Manhattan toy store…
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Race, Identity, and Social Division
Toni Cade Bambara’s “The Lesson” takes place in New York City sometime in the mid-20th century. The narrator, Sylvia, is a young Black girl whose family moved to Harlem from the South, where it’s likely that they lived under Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation. And although segregation was never legally mandated in northern states like New York, race is still a point of conflict in the story, reflecting the overall atmosphere of…
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