Monday, August 25, 2008

The Lesson

1. “The Lesson” is a story about a group of kids who go to F.A.O. Schwartz with Miss Moore, who is trying to teach them about the importance of money and how this country is not set up for the poor people. The narrator does not like Miss Moore and vehemently objects to her view of society.

2. Level One: What is the store that the children go to with Miss Moore?
Level Two: Why doesn’t the narrator like Miss Moore?
Level Three: What is the significance of going to the store and do you agree with the conclusion that Sugar comes to?

3. I really enjoyed this story because of the style it was written in. It was very easy to read and follow because I felt like I was reading someone’s thoughts instead of just words on a page. The narrator is a very interesting character, because she is unlike the rest of the children in the fact that she thinks for herself and internally challenges what Miss Moore says instead of just going along with it. She does seem quite bitter about Miss Moore and it makes me wonder if they have a history that we aren’t able to see because it isn’t written in the story. However, despite her defiance toward Miss Moore, she has a good concept of the value of money. This is shown in the second paragraph on the last page of the text when she remembers the clown toy. The sentence structure is simple and that made it easy to understand on the first read. I didn’t really pick up much more from the second time around. I found it interesting how the narrator plays hardball for the entire text, but when she is asked to step up to the plate and go inside the store, she gets really nervous and can’t go through with her original plan. The other kids are bolder, for once.

1 comment:

amypfan said...

I really liked this post. You hit most of the points that I was interested by too, especially where Sylvia is too afraid to walk first into the toy store.