Toni Cade Bambara’s short story, “The Lesson.”

Remember when your world was small enough to know everything? Remember the day your world grew? The reality of life is that in order for us to grow we must learn lessons on many levels. Sometimes the lessons we learn show the harsh realities of the world in which we live. In Toni Cade Bambara’s short story, “The Lesson” written in 1972, she uses the harsh realities of the world to enlighten others. Through her use of diction, plot, and symbolism, Bambara shows how learning difficult lessons requires one to have an experiential as well as conceptual understanding. Mr. Kercheval adds that a good plot must use characters that the reader can “…identify with in some way, whether it be by empathy, anger, frustration, happiness, in some way a successful plot must engage the reader’s emotions.” (Kercheval, 246).

Bambara establishes the children’s ignorance, anger, & frustration through her use of vulgar diction. Sylvia, a young black girl telling the story, uses vulgarity throughout this short story. Sylvia, talking about her Aunt Gretchen, stated in paragraph 1 that, “She been screwed into the go-along for so long, it’s a blood-deep natural thin

g with her.” This statement illustrates Sylvia’s frustration over how easily her Aunt can be talked into things. This also demonstrates the anger Sylvia feels towards people who take advantage of others. The culture in which these people live is also illustrated in the way Bambara uses the “voice culture”. Voice culture is the “….culture embodied by the essence of speech, patterns of speech, voice level, words used to speak in normal and abnormal situations, and voice inflections.” (Mayer, 179). This statement also indicates the importance of theme and symbolism together. “Symbolism alone means little unless used in the integral style of the story, the symbolism must fit into the character’s language and lifestyle to make the story work.” (Block, 198) Sylvia states in paragraph 2, ”And the starch in my pinafore scratching the shit outta me and I’m really hating this nappy-head bitch and her goddamn college degree.” Here, Sylvia’s vulgarity is aimed at Miss Moore, who knows just how ignorant the children really are, is desperately trying to teach the children. Sylvia’s ignorance, born out of fear and frustration, shows that she is not on a high enough level to learn Miss Moore’s lesson. Bambara is using elements of social work by using Miss Moore’s specific educated approach in engaging Sylvia. “Social work is a subjective work at best, attempting to assess the way others interpret instruction and guidance and then attempting to modify behaviors based on those interpretations,” according to H. Goldstein. (Goldstein, 164). When she states in paragraph 44, “But it don’t necessarily have to be that way, she (Miss Moore) always adds then waits for somebody to say that poor people have to wake up and demand their share of the pie and don’t none of know what kind of pie she talking about in the first dam place.” Sylvia does not understand that the pie Miss Moore is talking about is a metaphor. “….and while metaphors and similes and other forms of symbolism work well for authors, symbolism can be as simple and a statement made by a character indicating a preference or belief that makes a point

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