Theme Of Toni Cade Bambara's The Lesson
In Life, education comes in all forms. A major theme of Toni Cade Barbara's "The Lesson" is that the most valuable lessons in life are those not learned in the classroom. This story is about an educated black women, named Ms. Moore, who takes the poor and underprivileged neighborhood children to FAO Schwarz. The children don't want to go, but are forced to go by their parents. This theme is presented to us by the use of the three characters Ms. Moore, Sylvia and Mercedes. Ms. Moore is the educated women that moves into the neighborhood. She is opposite of everyone else who lives in the neighborhood. Sylvia says, "And she was black as hell cept for her feet, which were fish white and spooky." Bambara uses this quote to symbolize how Ms. Moore is black, and that she is their connection to the white community. This quote also represents how ironic it is that Ms Moore is their connection to the white community. The name Moore symbolizes that Ms. Moore is a person who wants more from her children. Through out the whole story she is trying to get through to the children, but they could care less. Ms. Moore did not think she was going to reach anyone, until at the end when she reached Sylvia. That's the whole iron
Mercedes is another character who I want to talk about. Once she see's how the upperclass community lives , she immediately wants to be a part of it. Bambara shows this when all the other children are hesitant to walk in FAO Schwarz and Mercedes pushes them all away to go right in. The name Mercedes is ver symbolic to what kind of person Mercedes is. A Mercedes is an expensive car that rich people have. She wants to be able to provide all those things for herself and her family. She is the very opposite of Sylvia. Mercedes says, " I'd like to go back there when I get my birthday money." She wants to be a person in the wealthy community, Not just be happy for what she has and who she is. It is evident that Mercedes is an outcast in the group This becomes apparent when Sylvia and Sugar push her to the mailbox to be separated from them. The major theme of "The Lesson" is how life's most important lesson are not always learned in the classroom. Bambara presented this theme by Using those three characters expecially Sylvia. Sylvia learned how she has to have pride in who she is and to succeed by being herself, not pretending to be someone else. This is "The Lesson" that Ms. Moore was trying to get through to the children. y of the story. Sylvia who least wanted to go wound up learning
Some common words found in the essay are:
Ms Moore, Sylvia Sylvia, Schwarz Sylvia, Sylvia Sugar, FAO Schwarz, Sylvia That's, Sylvia Bambara, ms moore, Barbara's Lesson, Mercedes I'd, Sylvia I'm, fao schwarz, connection white community, sylvia starts, class community, trying children, sylvia sylvia, story sylvia, connection white, white community, learned classroom,
Approximate Word count = 885
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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