Compare and contrast The Lesson with Girl - Essay Example

The generation gap is obvious by the amount of talking done by mother and the short responses of the daughter. The story also points to the start of the new era and age. All the advices of the mother are representing the previous generation suppression and hindrances. They particularly point to the sufferings of the women. “The Lesson” gives variety of themes. The most striking is the socioeconomic differences in American society. The short story shows the psychological makeup of a class because of the economic conditions and the reaction of the class when confronted with another class.

The story also tells about the relationship of children and parents. In the story this relationship is very weak; in fact parents have given the responsibility to someone else. Comparing this theme with “Girl”, it becomes clear that despite generation gap the relationship of mother and daughter is strong. It is the concern of mother which is forcing her to guide the daughter, while in “The Lesson” children are given to a cousin by parents. Another contrasting theme of these two stories is that in “Girl” the mother is trying to save conventional ways and means but in “The Lesson” Miss Moore is deliberately trying to teach unconventional ways to the children.

Although the writer of “Girl” is not intending to safeguard traditional values but there is no intent of challenging them. CHARACTERS “Girl” has two characters, Mother and Daughter. In this short story they are representing two different generations, two different points of views. Although most of the talking in this short story is done by the mother but the daughter is able to make her presence felt by two meek interruptions. “The Lesson” has many characters and they all represent same racial class.

Miss Moore is antagonist as she responsible for all the tension and drama in the story. Her name suggests different meanings for example she is more educated, she has more money, and she wants more children to get educated. Miss Moore wants to give something back to her community and the best she could is by educating younger generation. Sylvia is the narrator of the story and she is a kind of leader. She does not submit to authority easily and therefore hates Miss Moore. This feeling increases after the trip, which was intended as a lesson.

Although at the end Sylvia realizes and understands the lesson but for most of the story she is against Miss Moore. Sugar is another character of the story and like her name she is very innocent and sweet. She is the best friend of Sylvia and was first to tell what Sylvia felt and what Miss Moore wanted them to feel. Her innocent question regarding stealing at toy shop represents her inner innocence as well as the education and norms of a class. Other characters are not very active but their names are very interesting and give a very vivid picture in the mind of readers.

Flyboy, Fat Butt, Mercedes, Rosie, Junebug, Q.T etc represent different shades of a class and their name also presents to some extent their physical and mental attributes. Characterization of “The Lesson” is very strong as compare to “Girl”. The main reason for this is the length of two short stories. Despite this difference in both the stories the focus remains on two characters. The relationship between main characters in both short stories remain same i.e. one is educating or trying to