Characters

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Big Butt

Big Butt likely earned his nickname due to his eating habits. Before the group heads to the toy store, he is "already wasting his peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich like the pig he is." His reaction to the toys also shows his greediness; he desires things without even knowing what they are.

Fat Butt

See Big Butt

Flyboy

Flyboy exemplifies the cunning sophistication of a child from the ghetto. He knows how to elicit pity and financial help from white people. His clear understanding of how to manipulate the monetary system makes him seem older than he actually is.

Junebug

Junebug remains relatively quiet in the store. He notices the expensive sailboat, which reminds the children of their experiences with the fifty-cent sailboats they sail in the parks, highlighting their successes and failures.

Mercedes

Mercedes differs from the other children because she aspires to emulate wealthy, white Americans. She has her own desk at home for doing homework. She feels at ease in F. A. O. Schwarz and plans to return with her birthday money to buy a toy. Unlike the other children, Mercedes is not bothered by the price tags on the toys or what they signify about America.

Miss Moore

Miss Moore is a college-educated woman who has moved to a poor, African-American neighborhood in New York. She takes it upon herself to educate the neighborhood children about the broader community and the challenges faced by African Americans and the poor. She organizes field trips to expose the children to different issues and lifestyles. Miss Moore encourages the children to think critically about what they see—such as the prices on toys in F. A. O. Schwarz—to question the status quo, and to learn more about the world. She also instills in them the belief that poor people need to demand their fair share of America's wealth.

Q.T.

Q.T. is the youngest and quietest member of the group. His main contribution to the discussion is his open longing for the expensive sailboat and his candid declaration that F. A. O. Schwarz is a store for "rich people."

Sugar

Sugar is Sylvia's closest friend and partner-in-crime. Despite their friendship, Sylvia feels a sense of competition with Sugar. When Sugar musters the courage to touch the $1,000 sailboat, Sylvia becomes so jealous that she wants to hit her. Sugar is the only child who tells Miss Moore what she wants to hear—that the toys at F. A. O. Schwarz reflect the inequities of American society and contradict the democratic principles on which the country was founded. However, she later runs off with Sylvia to spend the leftover cab money.

Sylvia

Sylvia narrates the story. She is a young, tough, and intelligent girl who is deeply influenced by her environment. She has a keen ability to perceive the truth, such as how her family treats Aunt Gretchen. However, Sylvia also engages in dishonest behavior. She talks about wanting to steal hair ribbons and money from the West Indian children, she opts not to tip the cab driver to keep the money for herself, and she doesn't return the change from the cab fare to Miss Moore.

During the visit to F. A. O. Schwarz, Sylvia becomes very angry, even though she claims not to understand the reason. Her frustration with people spending large amounts of money on trivial items prompts her to express her feelings to Miss Moore, which surprises even herself.

Themes and Characters

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Sylvia, the narrator, is the main character, and it is through her perspective that readers grasp the meaning of the title, "The Lesson." Sylvia is intelligent, assertive, and the leader of a group of friends and cousins who prefer to spend their summer days "terrorizing the West Indian kids" by taking "their hair ribbons and their money too." Although she is not quite an adolescent, Sylvia enjoys experimenting with the lipstick her friend Sugar has stolen from her mother. She appears fearless in her own environment, but she "feel funny, shame" when she finds herself out of place on Fifth Avenue.

Sylvia has always known she is poor, but it isn't until her world is contrasted with Manhattan's wealthy that she realizes the extent of her disadvantages. She has always harbored resentment towards Miss Moore, "the nappy-head bitch and her goddamn college degree," but after their trip to Fifth Avenue, her anger extends to her friends, who have admitted to Miss Moore that they have "gotten" the lesson.

Her closest friend, Sugar, breaks ranks with Sylvia by answering Miss Moore's probing questions about social justice:

"Imagine for a minute what kind of society it is in which some people can spend on a toy what it would cost to feed a family of six or seven. What do you think?"

"I think," says Sugar, pushing me off her feet like she never has before, because I would whip her ass in a minute, "that this is not much of a democracy if you ask me. Equal chance to pursue happiness means an equal crack at the dough, don't it?" Miss Moore is beside herself, and I am disgusted with Sugar's betrayal.

Sylvia's parting ways with Sugar suggests an ambiguous ending. When Sylvia uncharacteristically lets Sugar get ahead of her as they race down the block to spend the remaining taxi money they "forgot" to return to Miss Moore, she thinks, "She can run if she want to and even run faster. But ain't nobody gonna beat me at nuthin."

Miss Moore is the catalyst for Sylvia's frustration and also for her newfound determination. As all the information readers receive about Miss Moore is filtered through Sylvia's irreverent perspective, she initially appears as an uppity, quintessential busybody, "the only woman on the block with no first name." However, it is clear that the other elders respect, if not like her: "She'd been to college and it was only right that she should take responsibility for the young ones' education, and she not even related by marriage or blood."

Miss Moore has a knack for identifying teachable moments. After guiding her group into the toy store, she keeps a close eye on them, "steady watching us like she waiting for a sign. Like Mama Drewery watches the sky and sniffs the air and takes note of just how much slant is in the bird formation." She steps back as Sugar and Sylvia examine the price tag on a $1195 fiberglass sailboat. "Looking closely . . . like maybe she planning to do a portrait from memory," Miss Moore waits for the girls to naturally understand her lesson. Although Sylvia grasps the point ("Where we are is who we are Miss Moore always pointing out. But it don't necessarily have to be that way . . ."), she "won't give her that satisfaction" of admitting it aloud. Sylvia's refusal to publicly acknowledge Miss Moore's lesson on class-consciousness highlights Bambara's theme of generational conflicts within the black community.

Other characters—Big Butt, Rosie Giraffe, Flyboy, Q.T., and Junebug—mainly provide comic relief. Upon first seeing F.A.O. Schwarz, one child asks, "Can we steal?" Junebug finds joy in making jokes about bodily noises and humorously twisting Miss Moore's phrases such as "naked eye" into sexual innuendos. However, Mercedes serves as a contrast to the others, emphasizing the theme of unequal income distribution. Unlike the rest, Mercedes remains serious throughout the trip, unfazed by the wealth around her, perhaps because her home is more affluent: "I have a box of stationery on my desk and a picture of my cat. My godmother bought the stationery and the desk. There's a big rose on each sheet and the envelopes smell like roses." Despite this, Mercedes seems to miss the lesson about economic disparity. When she expresses a desire to "go back there again when I get my birthday money," the others "shove her out of the pack so she has to lean on the mailbox by herself."

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