Hope for Sylvia
In The Lesson,
Toni Bambara, a social import is placed on the children. The story
is told through the eyes of Sylvia, who relays what it is like to come to
terms with the divided classes around her. Two lessons are parallel in the
story. In one lesson, Bambara demonstrates the effect of high poverty
and poor education on children by showing how each individual deals with
the circumstances they are in. The other lesson, taught by Miss Moore, teaches
the children about the circumstances they are born into.
Bambara gives the reader insight to the world Sylvia and
the other children live in. Miss Moore tries to show the children
the unfairness of the society around them. When Sylvia talks about
Miss Moore saying, “Someone should take responsibility for the young one’s
education,” it seems that both the teacher and Bambara are speaking.
How the children react to Miss Moore’s lesson is a way for Bambara to get
her point across.
Sylvia shows a confusion in making sense of the tangible
community around her and the intangible society pressing upon the community.
Sylvia compares the world she doesn’t know or has even been exposed to, Miss
Moore’s world, and the slums she is used to: “And we kinda hated her too,
hated the way we did the winos who cluttered up our parks and pissed on our
handball court.” These comparisons show the child searching for
someone to blame. For Sylvia, finding the guilty party could give a
temporary sense of relief because she could act out against what makes her
live in these conditions, in these circumstances. On the other hand,
Miss Moore being introduced in such a harsh way raises the complications
of capitalism and the classes it divides. Those like Sylvia dislike
Miss Moore because she represents what they can’t have, or could have but
don’t have the means to get or initiative to go after it.
Later in the story,
like Bambara, Miss Moore tries to teach this idea of hope to the children.
But Sylvia doesn’t contain hope, or hopelessness for that matter, because
at first she refuses to recognize that she is poor. Sylvia states,
“which I don’t feature,” in response to Miss Moore’s saying that the children
are poor. Throughout Miss Moore’s lesson, Sylvia reacts with anger,
shame and treachery.
Sylvia is angry because the money used to buy an overpriced sell boat could
pay rent or buy new bunk beds. Behind this anger, confusion surfaces.
As she hazily peers into a different life style she doesn’t know or even
believes is out there, Sylvia states, “For some reason this pisses me off.”
Again, Miss Moore tries to push the idea of equal distribution of wealth
by saying they should “wake up and demand their share of the pie,” but Sylvia
says “don’t none of us know what kind of pie she talkin about in the
first damn place.” It’s not that Sylvia does not have the ability to
understand, but lacks the understanding of how a capitalistic class system
works. The idea of “none of us know” portrays how easy it is
to assume everyone is in the boat. Saying “us” gives Sylvia a
sense of unity amongst the community. By the end of Miss Moore’s lesson,
though, Sylvia realizes, maybe half consciously that her and her peers are
not in the same ship.
From the constant and general irritation of her disposition,
a new emotion enters her realm when she enters the toy store: shame.
She is up in arms thinking, “But I feel funny, shame. But what I got
to be shamed about?… this is ridiculous. I mean damn, I have never
ever been shy about doing nothing or going nowhere.” Instead of dealing
with what revelation may occur within her ,she resorts back to anger, partly
due to her youth but also due to how she has been taught to deal with situations
like this one. She puzzles over the fact that “I’m jealous and
want to hit her. Maybe not her, but I sure want to punch somebody….” Sylvia
is seeing the lesson Miss Moore is trying to teach, but she refuses to learn
it. Bambara uses this to point out how hard it may be for a child to
recognize and overcome or grow up and go beyond the social limitations they
are forced to face.
Through out the story, Sylvia puts up the front of us
vs. them, trying to keep a control over Sugar so Sylvia won’t have to be
the only who doesn’t believe they are poor.
When Miss Moore asks what everyone thinks of F.A.O Schwartz, the feeling
of treachery swells into Sylvia’s focus. Sylvia is surprised that Sugar responds
at all, and when Sylvia states, “Only I’m standin on her foot so she don’t
continue,” and “… Sugar pushing me off her feet like she never done before,
cause I whip her ass in a minute,” gives the sense that perhaps Sylvia
wants Sugar to stick by her, not to succumb to Miss Moore’s lesson about
social and economic inequality. Sylvia doesn’t want Sugar to admit
they have the short end of the stick.
Sylvia feels Sugar is treacherous for admitting that perhaps they are poor
by saying, “that this isn’t much of a democracy…” alluding to the fact that
they may not have an “equal crack at the dough.” This shows Sugar’s
understanding of Miss Moore’s lesson. Sylvia’s disgust with Sugar
borders Sylvia’s realization and the loss of control she has over Sugar.
By Bambara describing Sylvia having the feeling of treachery after being
fully submerged in Miss Moore’s lesson, shows exactly how a child, or any
person for that matter, can deal with social class differences.
The great contrast between
Sugar and Sylvia’s reactions suggests that Bambara does not want Sylvia to
be a spokesperson for everyone. Bambara teaches her reader that in a social
class, each person has different experiences and perceptions of the circumstances
around them. By the story being told through the eyes of a child
and Miss Moore teaching what Sylvia and the others will eventually learn
at such a young age, Bambara makes a statement that children can teach adults
a lesson or two.
