The Lesson is a short story written by Toni Cade Bambara. It tries to tell us about a little girl named Sylvia, when someone tries to show her and her friend another lifestyle other than the one they have, to change their way of thinking. In this story, the author tries to critic the society by bringing up the inequality issue towards minority she found reflected in the society around her through the eyes of a black little girl.
Sylvia is an interesting girl. She and her friends seem to be growing up in an environment where the parents are too busy working to look out for their children other than to give them food, thus the children have to look out for themselves. Sylvia especially feels like it is her duty to look out for her friends, and her friends also seem to look up to her, like they need her guidance for everything.
So when one day an outsider that has just moved to their environment, in this case Ms. Moore, tries to teach them all kind of things even in the summer holiday, or any little things like that, she actually feels threatened, because she feels there is something more to the lesson that Ms Moore is trying to teach them, something that will tip the balance of her environment, and her suspicion is proved when one day Ms Moore brings them to the city.
They see all kind of things in the city, useless-looking expensive things that they won’t be able to afford, like paperweight or sail boat that will cost more than the cost of food for seven people in a year in their family. Sylvia knows what Ms Moore trying to tell them right then: about democracy and equality and that kind of things. She knows, but she will never acknowledge it, because if she acknowledges it, she is afraid everything will change, and she will lose her control towards things and won’t be able to look out for her friends again. And another reason she won’t acknowledge it is because she doesn’t want to face the harsh reality of their life, of the discrimination towards them, towards her people, that she thinks won’t end soon and will always like that whatever they do. Her friends are clueless about all that, and she likes to keep it that way. What they don’t know won’t hurt them, or so she thinks. So of course she dislikes Ms Moore that doesn’t know anything about them, and just trying to clue her friends in without knowing what would happen if her friends finally realize their condition. She also knows that Ms Moore intention is good and everything, but it doesn’t stop her to dislike her, because she thinks Ms Moore has no right to tell them anything, because she is too afraid to acknowledge the reality that Ms Moore seems to embrace.
From the first sentence, we could guess that Sylvia is a black girl, or an African-American little girl, by the language she uses to narrate the story. It is a common fact that the blacks in American have their own way of speaking that often regarded as improper and inappropriate when compared to the usual daily language people tend to use. Also, the way Sylvia describe Ms. Moore’s language as “proper speech” also indicates that Ms. Moore uses proper English, and definitely different from the way Sylvia and her friends or the people around them talk, which make people laugh at her behind her back. Sylvia also describes Ms. Moore as an educated person who has gone to college, and the difference in which they deliver their speech emphasize the difference between a person who is considered as an educated person and a person who is not, because people have a tendency to think that if one use proper English, then he/she is a proper person, and vice verca.
Being a black herself, Mambara is able to describe the life of a black girl and the environment she seems to grow up in vividly. Her description sounds real, stay in real fact and does not exaggerate anything. Her choice of using a girl, a black little girl as the main character and the narrator is interesting. Sylvia is not like any other girls her age or her friends, with the way she thinks and the way her friends always seem to cling to her and look at her for approval before doing anything, just like Sugar does when she is about to say something but when she notices Sylvia seem to disapprove it, she holds herself back. Compared to her friends, Sylvia does sound smarter and has a faster understanding than her friends. But why using a girl? Why doesn’t the author use a boy as the main character instead? Most people always assume that boys have cooler heads than girls, and that they also tend to think using their brains and logical explanation, so why does the author choose a girl as the main character? Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to use a boy if the author is trying to tell the reader about the objective condition of the society, for boys are assumed to be more objective?
The reason, from what little the author implies in the story, seems to be because the author was trying to project a feeling to the reader, not a thought. The author is trying to get the reader to be involved in the story, to feel what Sylvia feels. Another reason for that is because women, at the time, was mostly seen as a minority – as in they didn’t seem to be taken seriously, that man were superior to them – just like blacks were. Sylvia is not a weak little girl. She is described as a girl who is witty and daring and she is not someone that would easily obey other people. She would think and analyze it first before deciding to agree on something although she seems like she does it unconsciously and not really aware of it herself. But the author doesn’t let the reader forget that Sylvia is still a little kid by showing us her fear when she realizes the real reason why Ms. Moore takes them to the city. She feels insecure, unsafe, when realizing what an unfair place the world could be seeing the difference between her people and those white people, and all she wants is to get away from there and for Ms. Moore to never talk about ever again.
As a minority, one couldn’t help but feel rather insecure and wary when they are about to enter a majority’s place. This is what Sylvia feels when she is about to enter the entrance to the toy shop. She feels hesitant, afraid, out of her element in that place, even as she doesn’t know why.
So me and Sugar turn the corner to where the entrance is, but when we get there I kinda hang back. Not that I’m scared, what’s there to be afraid of, just a toy store. But I feel funny, shame. But what I got to be ashamed about? Got as much right to go in as anybody. But somehow I can’t seem to get hold of the door,…
In that passage, we could sense Sylvia’s anxiety about getting in to the store, even as she knows that she has as much right as anybody else to get in. but something holds her back and makes her pause on her track. There is wariness there. A caution. Blacks have always been the minority and the victims of racialism, and even a child as she is, she has learned to be careful when she is not among her people, and especially when she is in the presence of white people.
Authority figures also was never that helpful toward minority there, despite the equality and democracy the government always boasted about. This is seem to be the reason why Sylvia hates or dislikes Ms. Moore, because she sees her as an authority figure, a symbol, even when Ms. Moore is just another one of blacks just like her. Even from the first paragraph of the story, we could already see how much Sylvia seems to dislike her. She swears and uses some informal or improper words to describe Ms. Moore, and she also just couldn’t stop antagonizing her in her head. There is defiance there, almost as if Sylvia is saying, ‘Who do you think you are for trying to teach us anything?’ to Ms. Moore.
In a way, this is really a heartbreaking story. The way the writer sees things through Sylvia’s eyes, a little girl that just afraid of anything that might change her surrounding, and the way Sylvia copes with Ms Moore’s advances – to push the outsider away – is really something that I think a child like her will do in a situation like this. Also, the way the author relates the real condition and portrays it into the story is simply amazing, because the reader wouldn’t realize what this is about until the last scene, where it would catch them off guard and would render them speechless about the depth hidden there, and leaving a lasting impression in their memory.
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