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 ultimate window-shopping experience. 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." 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. 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.
             Faced with a doll that is worth $35.00, a $480.00 "chunk of glass cracked with something heavy" used to weigh down papers on a desk she do
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The Lesson. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 04:26, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/23632.html