"the Lesson" Summary

Summary

 “the Lesson”  Toni Cade Bambara’s

The story is about a bunch of kids living in a lower class neighborhood.  They have a new neighbor moving in down the street. The children and their parents don’t think much of Miss Moore, the new neighbor. The parents humor her in trying to teach the children new things.

 

One day all the children met Miss Moore at a mail box. She puts them in a cab and takes them to FAO Schwarz; she has them start by looking in the windows of the store. At first they see a sail boat that costs $1,195.00. They start to wonder who could afford to buy a toy of that price. Miss Moore takes them in the store. The writer hesitates to enter the store but one of the other children, Mercedes had no problem entering.

 

The writer views the store with scorn because she can see the difference between her world and the world of the people that can afford what’s in the store. Later on they’re back at the mail box, Miss Moore asks about what they all thought of FAO Schwartz. Sugar, the writer’s friend pipes up and tells how she understands the lesson Miss Moore was trying to teach them.

 

The lesson is that there is more out in the world for them to obtain other than what they’re living in.