Preview

The Lesson By Toni Cade Bambara And Horatio Alger

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
277 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Lesson By Toni Cade Bambara And Horatio Alger
Success is the chance to use the resources available and take advantage of opportunities that most people do not. Usually, things can happen where advantage of opportunities cannot always be taken, but it was quite different around this time. In the stories, “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara and “Horatio Alger” by Harlon L. Dalton conveys the message that success is not always the easiest to grasp, but taking advantage of opportunities is hard especially as African-Americans. In “The Lesson”, an angered girl named Sylvia is taken on a field trip to a toy store, F.A.O Schwarz with Ms. Moore to learn a valuable lesson. The lesson was to become someone in society who is successful because that is how everything was judged. On the other hand, “Horatio
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Toni Cade Bambara The Lesson Summary
    • 210 Words
    • 1 Page

    Toni Cade Bambara The Lesson Summary

    The short story “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara is about a group of young poor children as they venture downtown to a toy store. They gaze upon all the toys in wonderment, but mostly they are shocked by the price of the toys. They feel out of place in such an upscale establishment and do not know how to act. Upon leaving the store and heading home, they reflect on how unfair society really is. There are people who are so well off they can afford toys that could feed a family for months, and other people like themselves that barely have enough money to get by. The central idea of the story is the examination of wealth and poverty in America.…

    • 210 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Summary Of The Lesson By Toni Cade Bambara
    • 268 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Summary Of The Lesson By Toni Cade Bambara

    “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara is a narrative told by a young black girl named Sylvia. The main theme of the story is social inequality for African-Americans. Miss Moore is an educated laby who lives in the same neighborhood that Sylvia lives in. Miss Moore’s intelligence and education allows her to take the children out for educated lessons. One day Miss Moore takes the children out to the city to visit the toy store F.A.O Schwartz, in an attempt to show the children something that they would not see in the projects. In the store the children discover that the cost of some of the items in the store could “feed a family of six or seven.” Miss Moore took them to this toy store so that they could realize that they could have that as well if…

    • 268 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Eliezer Wiesel's Transformation In Night And Holden Caulfield
    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Eliezer Wiesel's Transformation In Night And Holden Caulfield

    When you read pieces of literature, what do you notice they have in common? You might notice they all have lessons. Authors depict their characters to face conflicts and to cope, for example Eliezer Wiesel from the novel Night and Holden Caulfield from the novel The Catcher in the Rye. Throughout the stories the two young men experience the hard parts of life and learn how to face them. To cope with someone or something the two characters faced a transformation that would mark their lives. In the two books our protagonists learn how to approach life in the hardest moments.…

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Henry Fletcher's Luck By Horatio Alger
    • 367 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Henry Fletcher's Luck By Horatio Alger

    An Ideal American An ideal american can be viewed as someone who wants create a great life for one’s self but also to be humble in the act of doing so. The story Henry Fletcher’s Luck by Horatio Alger, describes how Henry builds his way to the life he wants to succeed in( a great life). The way an ideal american can be described as doing. Through the past few weeks, we read many text describing how the life of an american should be.…

    • 367 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Brief Comparison Between 'Ragged Dick And The Lesson'
    • 1121 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Brief Comparison Between 'Ragged Dick And The Lesson'

    In both excerpts “ Ragged Dick” by Horatio Alger and “ The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, the authors describe the life stories of their main characters and how they were trying to find a better life and achieve a good place in society. Both characters, Ragged Dick and Sylvia came from a very low class. They wanted to achieve success and feel confident about themselves. But it’s easy to notice that both characters are not doing anything for it, even though they dream about live changes.…

    • 1121 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Toni Bambara The Lesson Analysis
    • 1199 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Toni Bambara The Lesson Analysis

    The Lesson is a short story written by the writer Toni Cade Bambara in the late 1970’s. Sylvia, the narrator of the story is a young African-American female who receives a lesson in class inequality. The setting story of begin the slums of Harlem, New York and is dated as “back in the days” which is described in the opening of the story. Throughout the story Sylvia, realizes its world outside of her neighborhood, not as similar has she once thought. I chose the article, “Sylvia and The Struggle against Class Consciousness in Toni Cade Bambara's "The Lesson” this article analyzes the Sarah Wiktorski writes the article and she analyzes the struggle against class-consciousness and sets the mind of the reader to think about some of the consequences of class-consciousness. It contributes to the study of literature because it helps us understand the book, “The consciousness” by Toni Bambara changes the way the reader thinks and attempts to re-conceptualize his or her understanding of representation of class-consciousness. The writer hopes to present to the world a real picture of disadvantaged minorities and shows how on should change the world and…

    • 1199 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Toni Cade Bambara The Lesson Essay
    • 1096 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Toni Cade Bambara The Lesson Essay

    Sylvia’s initiation in the short story The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara, is striking because Miss Moore gives the opportunity to the children to evaluate the difference between the fifth avenue and their poor neighborhood. However, one of the story’s main themes is that innocence is a handicap and the political and moral innocence that are represented from the beginning to the end of the story brings the main character to many reflections. This idea is revealed as Sylvia’s ignorance towards the different social classes, Sylvia’s questions on the purpose of wealth and the hard realization of the true facts of inequality. Due to the children’s lack of political and moral knowledge,…

    • 1096 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How To Write An Essay On Outliers By Malcolm Gladwell
    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages

    How To Write An Essay On Outliers By Malcolm Gladwell

    A motto I got out of this book is that upbringings lead to opportunities. This means that not only do things happen by chance, they also happen because of their upbringings. Opportunities arise when you apply yourself and allow yourself to become involved. The longer you do these things, the better chance you have at growing as a person and in life. Bu not every person has the motivation to apply themselves in everyday life.…

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Changes (The Lesson By Toni Cade Barrera)
    • 2043 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Changes (The Lesson By Toni Cade Barrera)

    Some short stories are designed to teach lessons to the people who read them. They teach lessons about life, love, and growing up. People can learn lessons by reading short stories that where the main characters discover something about life and about themselves. There Character and the way the use of actions, words, or thoughts carry throughout the story can relate to many realistic personas. In Toni Cade Bambara's short story, The Lesson, the author presents a lesson to be learned. The narrator, Sylvia a young, self minded, lack of vocabulary, strong feminist African American from a poor neighborhood in New York is in for a great awakening, with her cousin Sugar always by her side their world was untouchable until a black woman named Miss Moore stepped in. They find her unusual because she is a black woman who has, "...proper speech..."(42). Miss Moore was educated and, "...been to college and said it was only right she should take responsibility for the young ones' education" (42). Miss Moore is not the typical black woman in the neighborhood. She is well educated and speaks well which can be found different in the neighborhood she lives in. Mrs. Moore climbed up against the odds in a time where it was almost unheard of for a black woman to go to college. She is a role model for the children who encourages them to get more out of life. When Miss Moore takes the children to an upper class toy store in the city the children see a, "Handcrafted sailboat of fiberglass at one thousand one hundred ninety five dollars" (44). The children are not sure what to make of the high price but they do realize that for, "That much money it should last forever" (45). They understand that people who make more money can afford higher quality things, and that in order to make more money they have to get an education like Miss Moore. They have to strive the best in life. At the end of the story Sylvia's cousin, Sugar, realizes that even though they are not the wealthiest…

    • 2043 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Comparing The Battle Royal And The Lesson
    • 628 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Comparing The Battle Royal And The Lesson

    Many of her stories are told from the point of view of young African American girls, and her essays and lectures seek racial and gender equality (Champion). Moreover, Bambara was a political and social activist, participating and leading events and organizations that aimed to promote equality in terms of gender, race, and class. Although "The Lesson" primarily explores classism, it also exposes racism and serves as a fine example of the types of political and social issues that were prominent during the time. The Lesson" is packed with social implications. One major point of the story is the criticism of a capitalist society, in which wealth is unequally distributed.…

    • 628 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Saving Mr Terupt By Gary Soto Analysis
    • 735 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Saving Mr Terupt By Gary Soto Analysis

    Have you ever been extremely determined to reach a goal, and not willing to give it up? Well, in the story Saving Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea 8 kids are trying to save Mr. Terupt´s job. Because the schools budget is low and a teacher needs to be cut, and it's most likely going to be Terupt, but the kids do everything in their power to make sure it won’t be. Also in the story “Marble Champ” by Gary Soto, Lupe the main character is determined to never give up on her goal to win the marble championship. Lupe and kids all learned a valuable on being determined and never giving up, a lesson and i'm sure you will learn to, by reading this story. As Harriet Beecher Stowe once said “Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will…

    • 735 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Lesson By Toni Cade Bambara
    • 1181 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Lesson By Toni Cade Bambara

    “The Lesson”, by Toni Cade Bambara is about a girl named Sylvia. She expresses her feelings over her experience at an expensive toy story that her teacher, Ms. Moore, takes her and her friends to. This trip was designed to teach them the reality of the world and to show them the things they cannot afford in life. Not only why they cannot afford them, but to show them that they can be the types of people that can. She aims towards showing Sylvia and the other students how to achieve a better lifestyle. They do not have to be limited by being black in America.…

    • 1181 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Toni Cade Bambara's The Lesson
    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Toni Cade Bambara's The Lesson

    This story revolves around a trip taken by five young children, accompanied by a woman named Miss Moore, to Fifth Avenue in New York. Miss Moore takes these young children to this precise location in order to teach them a lesson regarding the invisible privileges and vastly greater possibilities of wealthy individuals living in America. Although main character Sylvia does not strongly or outwardly express a will or newfound desire to change her currently low economic status for her future self, the reader is able to interpret by a specific line in this short story that she has undergone a significant transformation. Towards the conclusion on this publication, the reader can observe Sylvia's interest in overviewing what she had learned earlier that day. Sylvia mentally states, “Ain’t nobody gonna beat me at nothin,” which suggests that her stubborn, hardheaded resistance to see the truth in front of her has been transformed. Her transformation will perhaps drive her will to succeed financially in the future. This fiery, young lady certainly seems to be expressing a different outlook not only on the leader of the field trip, Miss Moore, who she formally resented and ridiculed, but also on her future aspirations to become successful. The reader may be able to infer that young Sylvia has learned the lesson of social inequality and her discovery of such an existence, motivates her will to one day become educated and financially stable. Even though the entire short story does not revolve around Sylvia expressing an acceptance or reason to change her once ignorant outlook on society, she certainly gives sufficient reason through her actions and her mental thoughts that she is going to strive to make a difference in her current…

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Dalton Summary
    • 267 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Dalton Summary

    In "Horatio Alger" Harlan L. Dalton challenges three profound messages that are found in the Alger myth stating that, "hard work, persistence, initiative, and daring invariable [manage] to transcend [people's] station in life"(Dalton 150). Dalton initially emphasizes how we are being judged on different scales and how there is a race based advantage for success in life. He contends that Blacks know what it feels like to be scrutinized based on race and how many times they can only be acknowledged as "the best Black" as opposed to the best student. He suggests that White people question what has come from their favored social status at the same time feeling partly responsible for America's race problem. Furthermore, Dalton alleges that while hard work and merit are crucially important they do not ensure success. Additionally, he suggests that we don't all have the same chance at reaching our full potential due to the lack of effort to create our own opportunities. Dalton acknowledges the fact that we are all trying to achieve success or our own true paradise, but he realizes that true accomplishment isn't as practical as portrayed in the Alger myth. Dalton advocates that all American's strive to achieve life success but at the same time he sees our struggle to find paradise the origin of our eventual demise. This based on the idea that we can only climb so high. All in all, Harlan L. Dalton implies that we no longer live in a world with infinite possibilities, but of one filled with less potential and harder…

    • 267 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    This I Believe
    • 938 Words
    • 4 Pages

    This I Believe

    The first story that I enjoyed from This I Believe II is “Failure Is a Good Thing” written by Jon Carroll. In the first story Carroll is talking about his granddaughter starting her first day of kindergarten. Carroll says, “as is conventional, I wished her success.” “I was lying.” He also says later in the story, “Success is boring.” “Success is proving that you can do something that you already know you can do”, I like these quotes because you would never think of success as being a bad thing. I think Carroll was trying to say that doing something you already know isn’t something you fought for to achieve. I also believe Carroll thinks that if you don’t try to do something and work hard at it, you shouldn’t be awarded for it. Most of my life I’ve seen success as a good thing, to fail was always bad. The way Carroll put failure as being a good thing makes me realize that failure is healthy to your learning process in life, it can help you come back stronger the next time you try to achieve what you failed at doing the first or even the second time around. You should try to do things you know you are not good at, and yes you may fail the first few…

    • 938 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics