Toni Cade Bambara explains how knowledge is the means by which one can escape poverty in his story The Lesson. In her story, she identifies with race, economic inequality, and the literary epiphany of the early 1970s. In this story, children of African American descent find themselves confronting their own poverty and reality . This realism of society's social norms was revealed to them during a sunny afternoon excursion to a Fifth Avenue toy store. Through the use of an African-American protagonist, Miss Moore, and the antagonist Sylvia, who later becomes the sub-protagonist and society's white antagonist, the "lesson" was ironically taught. Sylvia belongs to a lower economic class, which affects her view of herself and highlights the economic difference created by classism. Life lessons were often difficult for older, wiser, or formally educated people within the community. This idea is still relevant today, especially in low-income communities, as illustrated in the short story “The Lesson.” I am led to believe that this story took place in a low-income community in the early sixties when African Americans were looking for better opportunities. Therefore, in the sixties, opportunity is not for everyone, especially low-income people and people of color. They are discriminated against by color in rich white society. Children of color like Sylvia, who believe she has no place in society because of her family income. And his family can't provide him with a higher education like white families do for their children. The only possibilities for her to have a higher education if the communities do not have race between colors, even with their low income. However, we all deserve to have equal rights in the United States, regardless of what social class we are in and what color we are. We sh...... middle of paper ......den realities in every child's life.Works CitedBambara, Toni Cade. "The Lesson. Literature: A Portable Anthology, 3rd Edition. Eds. Janet E. Gardner, Beverly Lawn, Jack Ridl, and Peter Schakel. Boston: Bedford/St.Martin's, 2013. 335. Print."US History:Society of the 1960s." United States History: Society in the 1960s. May 11, 2014. Lichter, Daniel T., and David J. Eggebeen. 1987. “Rich Kids, Poor Kids: Changing Family Structure and Income Inequality Among American Children." Paper presented at the Annual Meetings of the American Sociological Association, August 23-27, Cincinnati, OH, May 12, 2014. Lichter, Daniel T. and David J. Eggebeen 1991. "Race, Family Structure, and Evolution of Poverty among American Children. “Department of Counseling Psychology, Lewis & Clark College, Poland, Oregon, USA, June 25, 2010. Web.. 2014.