Point of view is an essential element in the reader's understanding of a story. Point of view shows how the narrator thinks, talks, and feels about a particular situation. In "The Lesson" by Toni Cade Bambara, events are told through the eyes of a mischievous young girl named Sylvia who lives in a lower-class neighborhood. The reader has a limited point of view because the events are strictly narrated by Sylvia. This fact can influence the reader to see things just as she sees them. The strong language provides an unfamiliar reader with an illustration of how people in the city speak. Bambara does this to show the reader that children from lower class neighborhoods are affected by their environment due to lack of education and discipline, that how different one part of society is from another, and that children learn from experience. We also get a sense of Sylvia's feisty, rebellious nature and her lack of respect for people with education. To begin with, the reader gets a sense of Sylvia's personality at the beginning of the story as she talks about Miss Moore. Miss Moore is not your typical black woman in the neighborhood. She is well educated and speaks well. She fought against all odds during a time when it was almost unheard of for a black woman to go to college. He is a role model for children who encourages them to get more out of life. Sylvia's opinion of her is not one of affection. He says he hates Miss Moore as much as the "drunks who pissed on our handball walls and stood up on our hallways and stairways so you couldn't play hide and seek without a damn mask" (357). hate with something she likes, we'll see what a kid in the slums does for fun. Sylvia feels that... middle of paper... she won't beat me at anything" (362). She understands that even if she has something, she has to work hard to get more and succeed. It also means that there is no obstacle that can prevent her from achieving her goals. She wrote it from this point of view, so that people can see what it's like to grow up without a formal education and the difficulties that these kids have to overcome. She also wanted to show the personalities, the characteristics and the distinct habits that arise from their environment. He uses to contrast different social classes. Bambara also included Sylvia's resentment towards Miss Moore to show how people of a lower social class are disrespectful towards educated people in the end, she felt confident that she could achieve her goals no matter where she came from, although she didn't expect Miss Moore to teach her a lesson..