According to Teri Ann Doerksen writing in The Dictionary of Literary Biography, Toni Cade Bambara’s first short story collection, Gorilla, My Love, ”celebrates urban African-American life, black English, and a spirit of hopefulness inspired by the Civil Rights movement.” By 1972, when the collection was published, Bambara had already established herself as an advocate for…
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The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara – Setting
The Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s African Americans began taking a more active stance in the 1950s to end discrimination in the United States. The 1952 Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education ofTopeka successfully challenged segregation in public schools. Then civil rights leaders launched the Montgomery bus boycott to end segregation on…
The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara – Literary Devices – Point of View – Racism
Point of View “The Lesson” is told from Sylvia’s first-person point of view. This means that all the events are perceived through Sylvia. Despite this potentially restrictive viewpoint, Sylvia is able to present a wider view of her community. She compares Miss Moore to the rest of the adults. Not only does this show how…
The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara – Themes – Racism – Conflict
Poverty and Wealth The children in “The Lesson” all come from poor families. They live in apartment buildings where drunks live in the hallways that reek of urine; they live in what Miss Moore terms the “slums.” The children’s families, however, exhibit somewhat varying degrees of monetary security. Mercedes, for instance, has a desk at…
The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara – Characters
Big Butt Big Butt most likely derives his nickname from his eating habits. Before the group leaves for the toy store, he is “already wasting his peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich like the pig he is.” His response to the toys also reflects this rapaciousness. He wants things without knowing what they are. Fat Butt See Big Butt …
The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara – Summary
In “The Lesson,” Miss Moore has moved into the narrator’s—Sylvia’s—neighborhood recently. Miss Moore is unlike the other African Americans in the neighborhood. She wears her hair in its natural curls, she speaks proper English, she goes by her last name, she has attended college, and she wants to teach the neighborhood children about the world…
Leaving the Yellow House – Analysis
Saul Bellow’s “Leaving the Yellow House” is one of his most frequently anthologized and discussed pieces of fiction, yet in many ways it is atypical of his body of work. It is set in the western desert, not the city, and its protagonist is a woman disinclined to intellectual or spiritual matters. However, the story…
Leaving the Yellow House – Setting
A Prosperous Nation? For many Americans, the 1950s was a decade of economic prosperity. Unemployment and inflation remained low, usually below five percent. By the middle of the decade, more than sixty percent of Americans earned a middle-class income, which at that time was a salary between $3,000 and $ 10,000 a year. The number…
Leaving the Yellow House – Literary Devices
Narration ”Leaving the Yellow House” is told chronologically. The beginning of the story gives relevant background about Hattie, and then the story shifts to an unfolding of the plot—Hattie’s breaking her arm, her need for assistance, and her feelings of isolation. At the end of the story, Hattie seems about to embark on a crucial…
Leaving the Yellow House – Themes
Identity The theme of identity is important in ‘ ‘Leaving the Yellow House” as Hattie strives toward some sort of self-understanding. Hattie has lived for decades under a cloud of self-deception. For instance, she pretends that her drinking is not as problematic as it is, and she pretends to care for India when she really…