The protagonist of Toni Cade Bambara's "The Lesson" is Sylvia, a preadolescent black girl living in poverty in New York City. As a way of coping with the world around her and her troubled environment, Sylvia has shaped herself into a know-it-all who resists the influence of Miss Moore, a black woman who attempts to teach the local children about the unequal distribution of wealth and the life that exists outside their impoverished neighborhood. 

Sylvia is a dynamic character because she experiences a profound intellectual and emotional change over the course of her field trip with Miss Moore (despite her initial resistance). Miss Moore's trip to the toy store inspires anger in Sylvia as she considers her sudden insight into her own economic circumstances as compared to the wealth of others; rather than spending the extra money from her cab fare on sweets, she chooses to set off alone, determined to think about the events of the day.