In the story, The lesson by Toni Cade Bambara, Miss Moore who is a African American women that lives in Harlem, takes a group of African American children who live in her Neighbourhood to a toy store called F.AO. Schwarz in Manhattan. Though there are many lessons that Miss Moore teaches the children, by specifically focusing on residential segregation, social economic inequality and the fact that the children do not really think much about the discrimination African Americans face as it is something that they grew up with, will further expose and make the children more aware of what African Americans are facing.
Taking the children to F.A.O Schwarz teaches them a lesson regarding residential segregation between the African Americans …show more content…
F.A.O Schwarz located in Manhattan on Fifth Avenue is considered to be the part of New York where a lot of rich people live as the people there are described as being dressed up in stockings and this one particular lady is dressed up “in a fur coat” which symbolizes wealth as a fur coat is normally considered to be expensive. When the children are at F.A.O Schwarz, they come to realize that “the amount of money charged for the toys at F.A.O Schwarz is astronomical”(Smith, 174). One toy in particular is “a sailboat that costs $1,195”(Smith, 172) which is hand-crafted and made of fiber glass. The expensive price of the sailboat makes the children (who come from poverty) realize how there is injustice in society. Sugar realizes the injustice in society when he says “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?” Unfortunately though, there is no democracy and equal chance for African Americans as they will always be considered second class citizens to the whites which means that they don’t get an equal crack at the dough. In this case, the equal crack is the toy sailboat and how the white children will have a crack at it as most of them could afford it where as the African American children will never have a crack at …show more content…
As mentioned before, the children live in a ghetto(Harlem) where many African Americans live because they could not afford to live elsewhere and were also not allowed to due to the whites as they did not want any interaction with them so they essentially pushed them into living together. The children are not able to see the discrimination actually being faced by African Americans because there are only black people around where they live. By taking the children out and into a different area especially one where a lot of white people live, it will open their eyes and make them more aware as to what really is happening between the whites and African Americans and how the discrimination the African Americans face is more serious than what they’ve come to
Taking the children to F.A.O Schwarz teaches them a lesson regarding residential segregation between the African Americans …show more content…
F.A.O Schwarz located in Manhattan on Fifth Avenue is considered to be the part of New York where a lot of rich people live as the people there are described as being dressed up in stockings and this one particular lady is dressed up “in a fur coat” which symbolizes wealth as a fur coat is normally considered to be expensive. When the children are at F.A.O Schwarz, they come to realize that “the amount of money charged for the toys at F.A.O Schwarz is astronomical”(Smith, 174). One toy in particular is “a sailboat that costs $1,195”(Smith, 172) which is hand-crafted and made of fiber glass. The expensive price of the sailboat makes the children (who come from poverty) realize how there is injustice in society. Sugar realizes the injustice in society when he says “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?” Unfortunately though, there is no democracy and equal chance for African Americans as they will always be considered second class citizens to the whites which means that they don’t get an equal crack at the dough. In this case, the equal crack is the toy sailboat and how the white children will have a crack at it as most of them could afford it where as the African American children will never have a crack at …show more content…
As mentioned before, the children live in a ghetto(Harlem) where many African Americans live because they could not afford to live elsewhere and were also not allowed to due to the whites as they did not want any interaction with them so they essentially pushed them into living together. The children are not able to see the discrimination actually being faced by African Americans because there are only black people around where they live. By taking the children out and into a different area especially one where a lot of white people live, it will open their eyes and make them more aware as to what really is happening between the whites and African Americans and how the discrimination the African Americans face is more serious than what they’ve come to