Wealth, Poverty, and Inequality Theme Analysis

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 homes, which Miss Moore describes as “slums,” to this center of extravagant wealth, the children must confront how different social classes have different relationships with money: in the kids’ Harlem neighborhood, money is only spent on necessities, while FAO Schwarz customers use money to buy beautiful but impractical luxuries. Sylvia is thus forced to reckon with the fact that the poverty she and her friends face is the result of a system of inequality in the U.S. that allows some people to get ahead and stay ahead, while others—like her family and community—struggle to survive and have few opportunities to better themselves financially.

Most of the people in Sylvia’s community struggle to afford even basic necessities, so the lavish items at FAO Schwarz are shocking to the children in Miss Moore’s group. Miss Moore and the children take taxis to FAO Schwarz, and Miss Moore gives Sylvia five dollars to spend on the taxi fare. But Sylvia keeps both the tip and the change, deciding that she needs the money more than the driver. Because her family has so little, even this relatively small sum of money is important enough to her to cause her to disobey Miss Moore and risk upsetting the driver. Then, when Miss Moore and the children arrive at the toy store, Big Butt decides he wants to buy a $300 microscope he sees in the window. But when Miss Moore asks how long it would take him and Junebug to save up their allowances to afford it, they realize that it would take years. While Miss Moore is excited to encourage Big Butt’s interest in science, it’s clear that his family’s finances make it difficult for him to pursue that interest. Just after this, the group sees a $480 glass paperweight in the store window, and none of the kids recognize what the object is. When Miss Moore explains what it is and asks if the kids have desks at home that they might need a paperweight for, almost all of them say no, emphasizing how little they have compared to the people who shop at this store. Indeed, the expensive items in the window make the children realize that the customers here must have enough money that it wouldn’t matter to them if the toys were lost or broken, whereas the kids from Harlem must scrimp and save to afford the simplest items.

In fact, the environment in and around the store is so different from the children’s neighborhood that it makes them feel ashamed and self-conscious of their poverty. The moment the kids reach Fifth Avenue (the street in Midtown Manhattan where FAO Schwarz is located), the environment changes. Sylvia notices that “everybody dressed up in stockings,” and one woman is even wearing a fur coat in the middle of the summer. These conspicuous displays of wealth mark the class divide between the kids and the people that surround them in this more affluent part of New York City. The wealthy people in Midtown and the expensive toys in the window make Sylvia feel self-conscious: she hesitates to go into the toy store because she feels “feel[s] funny, shame,” even though she knows she has “as much right to go in as anybody.” Then, once inside, the children “walk[] on tiptoe and hardly touch[] the games and puzzles and things.” Aware of their poverty (seemingly for the first time) in contrast to the wealthy people who shop at FAO Schwarz, the children feel ashamed and unworthy of even browsing the store.

Ultimately, the story presents this economic inequality that the children notice as part of an unjust system that allows some to thrive while others suffer in poverty. On the ride home from FAO Schwarz, Sylvia thinks about a $35 dancing toy clown she saw there and imagines all of the things her family could use that amount of money for. Notably, the purchases she imagines are all practical: they could buy new beds, visit Sylvia’s grandfather, or pay for their rent. She is angry and confused at the idea that anyone could justify spending so much money on toys, when her family barely has enough to survive. In essence, she has an epiphany that some people live totally different lives than her and possess an amount of money that dwarfs that of her and her family. Back in Harlem, Sylvia’s friend Sugar vocalizes a similar thought: she reflects on the trip by telling the group that she doesn’t see how the United States is a democracy given the huge wealth disparity between the richest and poorest Americans. She points out that poor people don’t have an “equal crack at the dough,” meaning that they don’t have as many opportunities available to them. This implies that those who are poor tend to stay poor because the system works against them. Sugar thus recognizes that there’s severe economic inequality in New York City and in the U.S. more broadly, and that their Harlem community is suffering as a result.

At the end of the story, Sugar suggests that they use the four dollars Sylvia has left from the taxi to buy some junk food. But Sylvia brushes Sugar off and lets her run ahead, resolving to go “think this day through” rather than spending her money. Finally, she reflects that “ain’t nobody gonna beat me at nuthin.” Together, Sylvia’s decision to save her money and her resolve to win suggest that she’s begun to understand that the U.S. has profound, systemic wealth inequality, which has deeply affected her life without her knowledge. And, as a result, she has decided to resist this system rather than passively accept it, which means taking any opportunity she’s given to better herself financially—she isn’t going to let the system “beat” her.