Knowledge and Poverty in The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara Essay example

Toni Cade Bambara addresses how knowledge is the means by which superstar can bunk out of poverty in her tale The Lesson. In her story she identifies with race, scotch inequality, and literary epiphany during the early 1970s. In this story nipperren of African American number come face to face with their hold poverty and reality. This realism of lodges friendly standard was made known to them on a buoyant afternoon field trip to a toy investment company on twenty percent Avenue. Through the use of an African American lifter Miss Moore and antagonist Sylvia who later becomes the sub protagonist and uncontaminating troupe the antagonist the lesson was ironically taught. Bambara identifies with race through class and demographics in her story The Lesson. The African American children come to terms with their classed rescript while visit a pricey, Manhattan toy store. Sylvia states Then we checked out that we on Fifth Avenue and everybody dressed up in stockings. One lad y in fur coat, hot as it is. White folks crazy (643). Sylvia discovers that White pot dont dress like African Americans, hitherto if they share the same type of weather condition. She recognizes that they save money and they have a tendency to lapse you an idea about how wealthy they are. essential be rich people shop here, say Q.T.(645). One of the children on the trip was able to get wind with the demographic of the area. He acknowledged that people who had status and wealth were the one most likely to buy toys and things that expensive. Bambara give readers an insight about the 1970s and what life was like for those of status in white society. How Whites could afford costly toys while those of African American society could not. Sylvia also recognized behavior patterns in a White atmos... ...he refused to allow white society stand in her way. Sylvia made up her genius and would strive to get what she wanted.Throughout The Lesson Toni Cade Bambara illustrated how educatio n is the means by which one can escape out of poverty. This was not done in a classroom structured environment it took place on a sunny afternoon field trip in which the children on the trip was confronted with their own deficiency. There was resistance but as each individual longed for a toy in the store the apparent realism displayed itself. The extremely towering price for the toys was an amount that their families could live on for a while. Each child was put in a place where he/ she had to examine themselves, their social conditions and their future. Bambara used race through social status, economic inequality, and literary epiphany to identify the hidden realities in each child life.