Thematic analysis of The Lesson

Toni Cade Bambara's "The Lesson"

Theme in Bambara's "The Lesson"

Toni Cade Bambara's "The Lesson" is a short work of fiction about a group of children in a working class African-American neighborhood who learn a valuable lesson. Through her descriptions and use of dialect, Bambara establishes the nature of her characters, especially the narrator, Sylvia, and the outsider, Miss Moore. Bambara then places the characters in a situation that showcases the chasm between the children, who live in poverty, and the world just blocks away from their homes on Fifth Avenue in New York City. The distinctions the author draws between her characters and those with money create the story's theme. Yet, Bambara does not let it rest there; she makes the message clear to readers that the children in the story can improve their lot in life.

The narrator and primary character is Sylvia. She is a young lady with an attitude as evidenced by her descriptions of other characters and her observations of the world around her. "Arrogant, sassy, and tough, with a vocabulary that might shock a sailor, Sylvia is also witty, bright, and vulnerable" (Hargrove). She appears to be a leader of the group of kids, but she is frequently in opposition to and critical of them. The characters called Mercedes and Big Butt take the brunt of the narrator's abuse.

Mercedes is interested in the finer things in life, which may be how she earned her nickname. Mercedes possesses "a box of stationery on (her) desk...There's a big rose on each sheet and the envelopes smell like roses" (Bambara 7). Sylvia mocks Mercedes for this and Mercedes's attempts to behave in a more dignified manner; yet, there is a sense that the narrator would like to be more like Mercedes in ways. Mercedes represents a behavior Sylvia will have to master in order to be successful in the white world (Korb).

Big Butt's unintentionally shows interest in education. This is the other key component to success the narrator must master in order to be among the haves of the world. While looking in the window of the toy store, Big Butt spies a microscope and is fascinated with it despite its three hundred dollar price tag. Miss Moore takes the opportunity to explain the value of a microscope for educational purposes regardless of age, and the narrator wants "to choke Big Butt for bringing it up in the first damn place" (Bambara 5). Nevertheless, the concept of the microscope lays the seed for Bambara's purpose in the story about education being the way to improve one's lot in life and reinforces the theme of the gap between the two worlds.

Miss Moore with her explanation of the necessity and value of education irritates the narrator who is already disposed to dislike "the only woman on the block with no first name" who is "always planning these boring-ass things for us to do" (Bambara 1). Miss Moore "is a symbol of changing times" (Korb). She has "nappy hair and proper speech and no makeup" (Bambara 1). The author makes Miss Moore both physically and intellectually different from other people in the children's neighborhood. A clear line is drawn between what African-Americans living and working in Sylvia's neighborhood are like and what they can become. Much of that line is economic, but it is also in the minds of the characters.

Nowhere is the dividing line between the haves and the have nots more apparent than when Miss Moore tells the children to enter the toy store. Sylvia and Sugar become bottled up on the threshold to this other world and reluctant to enter (Hargrove). Making the transition between their existence and the existence of people who could pay over a thousand dollars for a toy sailboat is a difficult endeavor. "But somehow I can't seem to get hold of the door, so I step away from Sugar to lead. But she hangs back too. And I look at her and she looks at me and this is ridiculous" (Bambara 10). Although Sylvia knows it is "ridiculous" to hang back, she feels "angry not only at her own deprivation but also at Miss Moore for making her aware of it" (Hargrove).

It is that awareness that is so painful and disconcerting for Sylvia. Bambara's short story serves as an example of where many people in the African-American community were in the early 1970s when the story was published. The author wants the reader to understand the inherent discrimination existing between Sylvia's world and the world of Fifth Avenue. A short taxi ride can accomplish the physical distance between the places; however, the economic and social gulf is enormous. Additionally, she wants to persuade readers about the value of education and the opportunities to improve a person's situation. The author explicitly states her purpose when she has the narrator paraphrase what Miss Moore has said in the past:

Where we are is who we are, Miss Moore always pointin' out. But it don't necessarily have to be that way, she always adds then waits for somebody to say that poor people have to wake up and demand their share of the pie and don't none of us know what kind of pie she talking about in the first damn place. (Bambara 11-12)