"The Lesson"

By: Toni Cade Bambara

 

The other day in my AP lit class we were put into groups and given an assignment. we were instructed to read a short story, which was assigned to us, and after reading it, to apply a certain critical approach to it and determine if that approach worked or not. My group read "The Lesson" by Toni Cade Bambara. While my group each presented their input and their approaches, I was still trying to think of what I was going to say. I had had it all planned out perfectly the day before; However, of course, I left all the notes I had jotted down at home the night before. So when everyone else in my group had finished and my turn was up, naturally, I became a little nervous. I'm not usually nervous when talking to a group, in fact, I actually like public speaking. That day though, my voice was definitely shaky. I just hate not knowing exactly what I'm going to say, in fear of sounding unintelligent. But before I get to side tracked, back to the main point of this blog, the story. So in "The Lesson" a group of kids are carted around by a character Ms. Moore, who has beaten the economic system and social stereotype of her class. She is trying to teach the kids in the story a lesson about money and how important money is, and how they, if they apply themselves, can beat the system as well and make money in life. My approach was archetypes. I said that, for this story in particular, it didn't really work. The characters, if anything, were symbols based off stereotypes. For example Ms. Moore was a symbol of success, Sylvia(the group leader) was a stereotypical symbol of failure and the fact that most of these kids simply don't even try to succeed, Sugar(Sylvia's right-hand man) is a symbol of potential because she hears Ms. Moore's message loud and clear and decides that she does not want the kind of life her parents have but a life where she can make something better of herself, and lastly a toy sailboat that the kids see in an expensive toy store, is a symbol of hope that success is possible, it is an escape out of the system. Symbols helped me view this story in a different light and it helped me provide the class with some pretty good input and I felt like most of the class understood the meaning behind our story much more clearly once I had provided them with the meanings and symbols behind each of the simple characters in this short story. For me, "The Lesson", by Toni Bambara, truly did teach me some important lessons.

Innocence of the Young

 
Innocence In Being Young

 

So my three little cousins, triplets, came over the other day. They are all in Kindergarten and the most adorable little kids ever. While they were over I noticed one of them, Tyler, drawing shapes with crayons on a piece of paper. For some reason, I thought of the Secret Agent. I know what you’re thinking, why the heck did a little kid drawing make me think of a book like that. Truth is, we have been doing the paper on Stevie and his innocence, and my little cousin reminded me of this. I did not think much into this at first, it was just a quick thought, but I ignored it, and became distracted by other things going on with the other two kids. However, in sitting here, trying to figure out what I could possibly right this blog on, I remembered the instant, and thought it might make an interesting topic to blog about. So here is what I came up with. The reason I thought of Stevie when watching my little cousin, wasn't because Tyler was sitting there only drawing circles, in fact there wasn't a single circle on the whole paper. It was the look on his face, the focus in his eyes. He was taking his drawing very seriously, in fact, so seriously that, when he would "mess up" he would get frustrated, attempt to crumble the paper, and start all over. What his mistakes were, I have no clue, every new drawing was entirely different so I really have no clue what he was going for. Whatever it was though, he was failing. Just while thinking about it now, I sort of imagine that is what Stevie was like while drawing his circles. Intently focused- on each singular circle at a time- like nothing else in the world mattered. I guess one could say that this alone is the characteristic that defines us as being young. It is a word that, while primarily associated with age, and being called "young", it can also refer to the level of our minds. Stevie may not be "young" age wise, but because of his brain, and the mental challenges he faces, he is restricted from having the ability to entirely observe what is going on around him. In a sense, he is blind. His blindness makes him innocent. And his innocence is what makes him young. My little cousins are the most innocent little things ever, they look on Ty's face when he finally felt like he had created and finished his masterpiece, all ready to show it off to the world, to hang it on the fridge like it was created by Divinci himself, that look he had, that beaming smile, that was priceless. I almost imagine Stevie having that same look when he knows he has done well, when he does something right and Verloc is happy, or at least not mad, at him. He knows Winnie will be happy as well. Making other people happy is what he wants to do, he is loyal to anyone present at the time. this makes him innocent, almost like my little cousins, and this is what makes him special, a character of importance, because when innocence is abused, when Stevie dies, a moral crime has been committed. It is as horrific as if a baby was killed instead. This is, although maybe not a main theme, in the book, definitely a theme, and definitely important

The Secret Agent

My thoughts on: The Secret Agent

A few opinions.                                 from: The Secret Agent                 by: Joseph Conrad

                If I had to describe how I felt about the book the Secret Agent in just a word or maybe two, it would be mind-numbing. I could use slow, or drab, or tedious; but mind-numbing has somewhat of a more accurate approach to how I felt about the book. It refers to the style: the overly complicated sentences that make speed reading next to impossible. It refers to the plot: the fact that a sequence of events can be delayed in happening for so long, that, the intensity of the scene, the moment you have been waiting for is delayed out still, even longer, and the entire intensity of the scene is nearly lost in the process. The process being: the unfolding or over revealing of the here and now. It refers to the deep description of setting, how the trivial matters, like the color of a lamp or a patch of dirt on a wall, can somehow or another drag on for paragraphs on end. These are the inconsequential instances as to why I refer to the story as mind-numbing. However, I also choose this word in particular because it has somewhat of a chilling effect to it. That is exactly how I felt during particular parts in the story. For instance, the last part of the book (the part where Winnie, in my opinion, nearly loses her mind.)-That part, in itself, is what I would call a mind-numbing scene. I just remember putting down the book after I was done reading, and being like, “oh?” Like I just felt terrible in general. The entire family was basically wiped out, Stevie, Mr. Verloc, and assuming the woman in the paper was Winnie, then her too. I was literally “numb” in the mind. So right after I put the book down,(it was a Saturday night) I immediately had to put in Call of Duty and start slaying Zombies to comfort myself and get my mind off the way the book ended. I’m kidding about that, but in all honesty, I really was sort of struck with awe during the last part of the book. I had no clue what I felt, or why I felt it, but I definitely felt something. I don’t even know if that something was even towards the characters in the book, I think it might have actually even been towards the author himself. Thinking about it now, I would almost call the feeling I had-disgust. I think I was just plain generally disgusted, and not even at the characters themselves but at the situation in general, that Conrad just had to go ahead and right this terrible book with this terrible ending that I just so happened, by no choice of my own, have to read for my AP Lit class. So I feel obliged to personally and sarcastically thank Mr. Conrad for writing a book that made me feel no joy or happiness whatsoever. But then, I stop, and I realize that the book is written about an even that really happened, that these were times that people really lived in, and decisions people had to really make and struggle with, and I find myself back to square one where I am not really sure how I feel about all this..yet I know I feel something, and it’s just not good.

Thoughts on: The Secret Agent

Thoughts on:  The Secret Agent

A scene that moved me.     From: The Secret Agent      By: Joseph Conrad

To me Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent is a book filled with misery and suspense at the same time. In re-reading the first half of the book I came upon a section that I remember struck me as personal the first time I read it and it so happened to stand out when I read it once again. The part that, for some reason, was of some significance to me was the scene where Mr. Verloc goes up to bed the night he had been chewed out by Mr. Vladimir earlier that same day, and he is tired, and he feels ill, and he is starting to realize that, maybe just maybe, this life isn't what it once used to be, and that he does not really feel like giving up the comfort of his family for the safe keeping of his job. It is a very dramatic scene in which the conflict that man struggles with is against man, and himself. To provide some more background into the situation, Mr. Verloc is an undercover agent for a Proletariat group he belongs to. For a long time, his job was relatively easy, However, Mr. Verloc is given the task of blowing up a public building, to make a statement and to get the group back on task. This task is by no means something that Mr. Verloc wishes he had to do, and he goes home that day, after being assigned the mission, and finds himself in a state of lethargy or stupor.        

All in all it is easy to say that Mr. Verloc feels the exact same feeling we as teenagers, and we as humans, always feel, when faced with an ultimatum. That being, conflicted. Mr. Verloc feels this so much in fact that he is noticeably quiet and unusual at dinner that night. Even his wife, who is used to his soundless presence, can tell something is up. He stays up for a while after dinner, sitting exhaustedly, simply thinking, wondering why he must be faced with such a task.  Mr. Verloc, who is is truly good at heart, must now commit an act of violence against humanity which could possibly render the style at which he is living his life, irreversible.

After a long while sitting and thinking, watching Stevie, his Wife’s younger brother who has some type of mental challenge, the sullen Mr. Verloc is compelled to go up to his bed and get to sleep. When he goes up his wife shows some slight affection towards him, although an almost superficial affection, she does her job as a good wife to make sure her husband is taken care of and stays in good hands. If I had not known that Mr. Verloc and his wife had a strange relationship I would have sensed no awkwardness in the conversation they had before bed that night. However, I did know, and I did sense that presence of awkwardness immensely. The scene felt awkward to me because, as Winnie talks to Verloc, she seems to be very animated in her defense of Stevie and his actions, while Mr. Verloc simply seems to want her to stop talking and go attend to her brother so he can go to bed. At least that’s the remark he seems to give her, that’s the remark his body gives off, however in his head, through his thoughts provided in the lines of the book Mr. Verloc seems to wish he could have a connection with his wife but nearly grunts at all her remarks. I think this is because he doesn't really know what to say, so he says nothing. Also because he has no emotion towards Stevie and finds him a burden financially and in other ways, and feels that if Stevie wasn’t there then he might be able to have a better relationship with his wife.

 I believe what strikes me as personal, or that I can relate to about this scene, is that it feels real, it feels awkward, it feels like you want to fast forward just so you don't have to have that same feeling Mr. Verloc is feeling. It was the first time in the book I saw Mr. Verloc as a human with real conscious thoughts, feelings, emotions, and struggles. It made me want to find out where he would go from this point on, whether he would make the heroic choice to pack up, to leave, take his family with him, and escape having to perform the task that would eventually lead to his inevitable doom, or would he stay and be the tragic failure of a “would be” hero who causes the death of the innocent and the death of himself.