Curso Monogrfico de Literatura Norteamericana

Sheila G. E.
THE LESSON
African-American Literature
The term African-American literature refers to the literary works written in the
United States by writers of African descent. Among them we find important writers such as
the pioneers Phillis Wheatley and Olaudah Equiano, or more recent authors such as Toni
Morrison and Walter Mosley.
African-American literature has gone through different periods and thus, we can
distinguish among Early-American literature, slave narratives, works which belong to the
post-slavery era, Harlem Renaissance literature, Civil Rights Movement era writings, and
works from a recent history. In the last decades African-American writers have achieved
great prestige and they have become best-sellers and have won many awards. The most
frequent topics of their works are the position of African-Americans in the American
society; slavery and racism, social status and inequality, etc. They transmit the feelings of
the Negros living in a country where they had to suffer oppression from the whites and
their struggle to being respected and have the same rights than the rest of people.
In the last period we find Toni Cade Bambara. She was born in New York City and
grew up in different areas of the city, including Harlem, and in New Jersey. She began
writing at an early age and after graduating from Queens College she studied in France and
Italy. Apart from her writing career, Bambara was a documentary-film maker, a social
activist, and a university professor.
A distinctive feature of her works is the incorporation of dialectal forms and slang
words that make her stories and characters more realistic. Her work was explicitly
political, concerned with injustice and oppression in general and with the fate of AfricanAmerican communities and grassroots political organizations in particular. Female
protagonists and narrators dominate her writings. She was always influenced by the people
of Harlem and by her mother, who urged her and her brother Walter (an established
painter) to be proud of African American culture and history.1
The Lesson
Even though on the surface The Lesson deals with a teacher and a group of children
who go to the centre of New York in order to visit a famous toy shop, actually the story is
an analysis of the American society from the point of view of a young African-American

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girl. It deals with serious topics such as the differences between the whites and the
Negros and the unfair sharing out of money in the United States.
The story is set in a period of time in which many African-Americans moved
northwards escaping poverty, in search of a better employment and a better life in general.
As Sylvia says, they all moved North the same time and to the same apartment. The
result of this migration was the creation of city areas inhabited by groups of AfricanAmerican people, who generally lived under bad conditions. This image is perfectly
portrayed at the beginning of The Lesson, when Sylvia is describing her neighbourhood:
We [] hated the winos who cluttered up our parks and pissed on our handball
walls and stank up our hallways and stairs so you couldn't halfway play hide-andseek without a goddamn gas mask.
In that way, she depicts the living conditions of the black community, which differ
considerably from the environments of the rich whites. This dualistic view of the world is
present throughout the story; blacks and whites seem to live in two completely different
worlds. Moreover, this division is not simply a question of race but also a question of
money. In fact, wealth and race are intimately linked in The Lesson. Although it is not
mentioned, the childrens neighbourhood is likely to be Harlem, and the store they visit is
on the Fifth Avenue, the most expensive area situated on the centre of New York City.
Even though race is not explicitly mentioned, it lies underneath the narration. For
Sylvia, the real world is her neighbourhood, inhabited by black people like her, and where
money is too tight. For that reason, when the girl goes to F. A. O. Schwartz she is reluctant
to believe that white people can afford those expensive items, and what is more, that they
are willing to waste their money in toys, which after all are useless items. A relevant
passage in the story related to this idea of race is the moment when Sylvia sees a woman in
a fur coat. She exclaims: White folks crazy, since she does not understand how a person
can wear such a piece of cloth in summer.
Another remarkable aspect related to money is the astronomic prices of the toys and
how the children compare them with their familys status. Apart from being amazed by the
great amount of toys they encounter, what surprises them the most is its prices; a
microscope which costs $300, a paperweight for $480, a $1,195 fibreglass boat. As one of
the children points out, he would have to save up money too long in order to could afford
them. But there is an item in which Sylvia especially thinks about on her way back home, a
clown that costs $35. She thinks about all the things her family could do with that money,
from visiting her grandfather on the country to paying for the rent. This leads her to

question the kind of world we live in Who are these people that spend that much for
performing clowns and $1000 for toy sailboats? What kinda work they do and how they
live and how come we ain't in on it?
The money differences are not only to be seen between blacks and whites but they
also exist within the children themselves. Even though they all are poor, a certain degree of
comfort can be seen in some characters. Thus, when they are in front of the toy store
talking about the paperweight Mercedes affirms that she has got a desk at home, a present
from her godmother, in contrast to Junebug who does not and to Flyboy, who remarks: I
dont even have a home.
Education also appears as an important theme in the story and the character
identified with it is Ms Moore. She is described by Sylvia as a lady with nappy hair and
proper speech and no makeup, the only woman in the block with no first name. The
young girl seems not to like the woman; she thinks she bores the children with things they
do not care about and what is more, even though she is African-American too and lives in
the same neighbourhood, she is somehow different from the rest of the community.
However, Ms Moore is more than that. As the narrator says, she went to college and then,
she is the right person to take responsibility for the young ones education. In a hidden
way Ms Moore tries to make the children aware of the problems African-Americans and
poor people face and to help them realize that there is a world outside their current
environment that they can aspire to, that they have a right to enjoy everything they have
been deprived from. This can be clearly seen in the following quotation:
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.
Sylvias opinion is reinforced when, at the end of the story, Ms Moore complains
about this kind of society in which some people can spend on a toy what it would cost to
feed a family of six or seven.
Not only does Ms Moore attempt to show them the real world, but she also wants to
demonstrate to them the importance of education. She tries to put into practice the
knowledge they learn at school. For example, when they take a taxi to the Fifth Avenue, the
teacher asks Sylvia to calculate the 10 percent of $5 in order to give the driver a tip.
Something similar happens when they are in the store talking about boats. Sylvia is curious

about how much a real boat would cost and so, she asks Ms Moore. The woman replies:
Why dont you check that out and report back it the group?
After all that has been said, the important question now is: What does the lesson of
the title refer to? When the children go back to their neighbourhood not all of them seem to
have understood what Ms Moore wanted them to learn and her reactions are quite different.
Though they are not mature enough, some of the children show a deep concern about the
issue but others don not. While Mercedes is just fascinated with all the things she has seen
and wishes to go back again, surprisingly Sugar gives a critical reflection:
You know, Miss Moore, I don't think all of us here put together eat in a year what
that sailboat costs. [] I think that this is not much of a democracy [] Equal
chance to pursue happiness means an equal crack at the dough, don't it?
On the other hand, we have Sylvias reaction. She is angry during the whole visit to
F. A. O. Schwarz and, even though she is unwilling to accept it, she is really concerned
about the worlds inequality. Unlike her friend Sugar, who leaves the issue aside, Sylvia
seems to be terribly upset. Somethin weird is goin on, I can feel it in my chest, she
finally admits to herself, and while Sugar is thinking on spending the four dollars on some
food, Sylvia is going to think this day through
A reflection on the story
Bambara perfectly reflects the thoughts and feelings of the children through the
story, especially Sylvias. At the beginning the reader can see a child who is a bit unruly
and who does not like going to school, instead she prefers playing and having fun with her
friends. However, as the story goes by, Sylvias transformation can be appreciated. This
transformation begins to be noticed the moment the children are about to enter the shop.
The girl expresses her feelings through the following words:
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 shamed about? Got as much right to
go in as anybody. 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. I mean, damn, I have never ever been shy about doing
nothing or going nowhere.
As it can be observed, there is something preventing Sylvia from entering the store.
She is not comfortable with the situation and that is something she has not experienced

before except for that time when she and Sugar crashed into the Catholic Church, as
she explains later in the story. She feels she does not belong there, we can even say that she
feels somewhat inferior to the rest of the people, to those who can afford the toys.
From their innocent point of view, the children try to understand the way society
works. How is it possible that there are people who can spend a lot of money in toys and,
on the contrary, people who can hardly maintain their family? They are still children, but
after Ms Moore shows them the real world, they begin to be aware of the kind of the dark
sides of that society in which they live in.
It seems obvious that Barbaras main objective was to the show readers how
difficult life is for some people, to demonstrate the unfairness of this world, and to make
them reflect on the issue. These children have to face racial discrimination and oppression
since they are born and this will probably mark the rest of their lives. For that reason, it is
really important that they are conscious of that situation and struggle to change it. No
matter what the privilege and powerful insist on telling them, they are human beings with
the same rights than white people.

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