The Lesson
The American Dream is an ideal to which all may aspire: that anyone who works hard can become rich and successful, and that dramatic upward social mobility will ensue. In order achieve the American Dream, one first has to become aware that there is something more, that it is missing from their life, and that they want a part of it. Children, caught up in their own small world, tend to be unaware of inequality. They come to this knowledge through life experience. "The Lesson," by Toni Cade Bambara, relates one such coming of age story through the experiences of a group of poor children from the slums of New York who pay a visit to F.A.O. Schwartz, the famous, upscale toy store.In the past, Sylvia and the other neighborhood children have reluctantly participated in field trips organized by their neighbor and self-appointed educator. The unmarried Miss Moore, who has been to college, felt "it was only right that she should take responsibility for the young ones' education." On this hot summer day they meet at the mailbox before their trip begins and Miss Moore asks them to think about what things cost and what their parents earn. The excursion commences with a taxi ride to Fifth Avenue and culminates in the ul
It becomes one more trip that reinforces the theme Sylvia hears repeated in Miss Moore's lessons, "money ain't divided up right in this country. She begins to understand the "lesson" Miss Moore is trying to teach as she becomes aware of the blinding contrast of her own bleak circumstances with the luxurious indulgences of the wealthy. Sylvia realizes that "thirty-five dollars could buy a new set of bunk-beds for Junior and Aunt Gretchen's boy" and that money spent to buy the sailboat could feed her family for a year. The complex response she has to visiting F. Miss Moore had repeatedly pointed out to the neighborhood children that where they lived determined who they were was but that it did not have to be that way. Faced with a doll that is worth $35. Sylvia's response to her new awareness of social inequality is retaliation. For her to accept that she is underprivileged is shameful, and Sylvia would rather deny these lessons than admit a wound to her pride. 00, Sylvia struggles with the "new" sense class-consciousness that is surfacing within her. "Contrasting her world with the extravagances she witnesses at the toy store, Sylvia becomes angry and resentful. " As Miss Moore introduces the group to what it is like to be a child of the rich, Sylvia begins to experience discomfort and to sense shame in poverty. To Sylvia, anyone or anything that increases her comprehension of her relative poverty is a threat.
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Acceptance Essays
