The Role Of Miss Moore In Toni Cade Bambara’s The Lesson
The Lesson is a short story by the writer Toni Cade Bambara that includes different themes, such as the theme of appearance, discrimination and inequality, and the lack of good education for African American children. The story is narrated in the 1st person point of view by a young African American girl growing up in Harlem, called Sylvia. The beginning of the story is exploring the theme of appearance by describing Miss Moore’s appearance and some of her characteristics. Sylvia believes that Miss Moore, who has a college education, is different from all the people who live around her. Since Miss Moore went to college, she believes that it is her responsibility to educate most of the children in the neighborhood, although they are not related to her by marriage or blood. Miss Moore tries to reveal and explain to the children the inequality and the discrimination that is happening between white and black people. Black people are treated more as lower-class citizens, not belonging to the same class as white people, which is something that can be realized due to the conditions that the characters are living in. They live in a housing provided by the government that is cheaper to rent, while white people are spending large sums of money in F.A.O. Schwarz, a toy store!
Miss Moore stops two cabs and splits the crew in half. She hands Sylvia five dollars and tells her to pay the driver and to calculate a ten percent tip. Sylvia pays the driver the eighty-five cents for the trip and decides that he does not need the tip as bad as she does, and eventually, Silvia ends up keeping Miss Moore’s four dollars. Some might suggest that Sylvia keeping the money from Miss Moore is considered stealing, but it’s more likely that now she is more understanding or aware of the true value of money while before going in the taxi and then to the toy store, apparently, she had no idea about how to deal with money. Taking Miss Moore’s four dollars is a valuable lesson for Sylvia, since it made her to think about what the true value of money is, while her friend Sugar can only think about buying sweets and candies with these four dollars.
At F.A.O Schwartz, each of Sylvia’s friends was appealing for something from the store. Bambara is proving the concept of how similar all children are, no matter what the color of their skin is or how rich they are, and how equality should take place in the society. The lack of equality by dividing people into different classes is clearly shown in this story, since only the wealthy or the white people were to shop in F.A.O. Schwartz.
The story shows how children can feel ashamed of who they are, since the fact that they are poor and black, the fact that neither Sylvia nor Sugar walks into F.A.O. Schwartz because it makes them feel as if they were out of place according to their “class” or the color of their skin. In their own eyes, they are not rich enough to shop or to even enter the F.A.O. Schwartz toy store. They both stand by the door unwilling or too scared and ashamed to open the door and walk into the store. The other children came in rushing, pushing Sylvia and Sugar so that they ended up entering the store. The action suggests how someone can feel uncertain of themselves, needing another person to push them into the path. The writer, Toni Bambara is delivering a message within that action, that shows how or to what extent children could be innocent, that they believe that they are in a lower class from the people surrounding them, making them consider every action before it is done. The fact that most of the children are not aware what a study desk or what a paper weight is, due to the fact that they have not seen them before can be a message from the writer indicating or symbolizing how children are not provided with any education due to poverty and inequality. Perhaps this is just what Miss Moore is trying to prevent.
Miss Moore, who as said, is not related to them in anyway, is clearly trying to benefit those innocent children by showing them what the real word is by providing them with some education. Toni Bambara may be suggesting that change can be possible not only from helping each other but by being practical too. Religion does not have to a factor of success, nor used as a tool for achieve success in life. Miss Moore does not even go to church so that it can be possible to say: she is helping the children for religious purposes. It rather is her education that pushes her to help those children, even though the children show no appreciation for her help. Toni Bambara can be trying to say that people should help each other go through what they go through. Black people must help each other overcome the discrimination that is happening.
The children may not be old enough to realize what Miss Moore is trying to provide them with, but it is clearly noticeable that this visit to the F.A.O. Schwartz store has indeed affected one of them. Sylvia, who still needs time to realize and truly understand the lesson given to her, has started to think differently and to look at things from a different perspective.
