"The Lesson" by Toni Cade Bambara - Response

In "The Lesson", by Bambara, the main character Sylvia and her best buddy Sugar are good friends.  Sylvia can be a bully sometimes and is somewhat controlling, but they have each others' backs and do everything together.  They are both young black girls growing up in Harlem in poverty stricken families.  Due to their living situations they don't spend a lot of time at home and are therefore always looking out for each other.  Their school teacher, Miss Moore, decided to take them on a field trip to the city to go to F. A. O. Shwarz, a very expensive toy shop and tourist attraction.  She wanted them to realize that there are very wealthy people who can afford to buy a $1000 toy not that far away from where they live.  She wanted them to think about the lives that those people lead and how it isn't fair at all that they are so poor and don't have an "equal crack at the dough" (270).  Sugar understands this concept and speaks out about it to to her teacher and classmates and exclaims that "this is not much of a democracy if you ask me" (270).  Sylvia becomes very angry at Sugar for saying that, for giving into the lesson that their teacher wanted them to learn, for admitting out loud how less fortunate they are, for being right, for maybe wanting to do something about it. 

Sylvia and Sugar are similar to Teresa and the narrator of Para Teresa from "Para Teresa".  Although Teresa and the narrator aren't friends, they are also from the same ethnic and economic backgrounds, and they attend the same school like Sylvia and Sugar did.  Just like Sylvia, Teresa is a bully.  They are both ignorant, they both decided to accept that what they have in life is all they have and that they won't amount to anything better.  They are both scared; scared to stand out, scared to try harder, scared to be better because society tells them they can't be.  Sugar and the narrator of "Para Teresa" see the bigger picture.  They know that if they work hard for themselves and for their families, they could make it somewhere and live a better life.  They are more optimistic and don't let the bullying of their peers get to them.  They want to succeed to the best of their abilities and they aren't afraid.  They are the role models for Sylvia and Teresa.