This short story tells about a group of black kids, probably living in the poorest part of Harlem, New York City, and an educational outing they are taken on by a concerned neighbor. The story is told from the viewpoint of one of the children, Sylvia, so we really only see her reaction. However, it is not the reaction of the children to the sociology lesson that is the most important, but the reaction of the reader instead. The story tells of a lesson about poverty and democracy and plants the seed for political action, but it is a lesson to the reader about all of that and about why we should all care.
The story is told from Sylvia’s viewpoint and in the language, she would have used at the time it took place. Though it is conceivable that she still uses language in the same way, the thing which she knows and understands and those which escape her are distinct clues that the voice is Sylvia, the child. Sylvia describes Miss Moore as, “The only woman on the block with no first name.” What Sylvia understands is why their relative let Miss Moore take the children on outings and teach them things. It is a matter of cultural behavior. The mothers of Sylvia and her cousin, Sugar, foist them off on Aunt Gretchen for daycare, because Aunt Gretchen cannot say no to anyone, including Miss Moore. “You got some ole dumb shit foolishness you want somebody to go for, you send for Aunt Gretchen. She has been screwed into the go-along for so long, it’s a blood-deep natural thing with her.” Here we see that Sylvia absolutely has a solid grasp of how people use each other. We see that, even though she seems to have a low opinion of everyone except herself and maybe Sugar, she has acquired a deep understanding of why they do things. Miss Moore puzzles her, though, because she cannot figure out the woman’s motivation. She doesn’t place her higher than anyone else, since we see that she notes that they (the kids) hated her, and compares her with the junk man and the winos. She gets in the way of what Sylvia and Sugar would prefer to do. She’s a bother.
We know that the grown-ups talk about Miss Moore behind her back, specifically that she does not go to church, and this is seen by Sylvia as a lack of respect. However, she also mentions that Miss Moore is educated and says that it is only right that she take responsibility for the education of the children. Sylvia clearly does not know what is meant by that, though she does mention instances of the actual teaching of mathematics and such. Still, it is important that we know that Miss Moore went to college. This makes her a very curious character indeed since she is living in Harlem too, right on the same block with the narrator. Sylvia never tells us any more about Miss Moore, so we have no idea if she works, if she is retired, rich or poor, or why she lives in Harlem. All of that is left to speculation, which is possibly important in itself since it reminds us that Miss Moore should be living in better circumstances.
The story, itself, is very simple. Miss Moore takes a group of about a dozen children in taxis from Harlem to Fifth Avenue to show them the contrast between their lives and those of white rich people. She takes them to a very upscale toy store, F.A.O. Schwarz, where one toy costs more than what their families spend in a year. We can guess from the toys and the prices mentioned for ordinary things in the story that it takes place sometime in the 1920s 9r 1930s. The biggest tipoff is the junkman with a horse and wagon, but the 85 cent taxi fare and the 10% tip could pinpoint the year more closely if it were researched. In some ways, the story tells too little because people who were not even born then have a hard time putting it in context. I think maybe the part at the end where Sylvia suggests what the left-over $4 can buy for them is supposed to tell the reader more, but it really would work better for me if I did not have to do a lot of research to figure it out.
The lesson in the story to the children is about how there is really too much difference between the rich and the poor, especially the poor minorities, specifically black in this context. Miss Moore is trying to get this group of children to think about this subject and she is planting the seeds of political action. However, the author really is talking to us, the audience. By using the vernacular that was common in Sylvia’s social group, we are drawn into that group, to see these things that she talks about almost from the inside. We even understand on a subliminal level about the packing order, how these children pick on the East Indian children, how older or larger children pick on smaller ones, how rich and powerful people pick on poor and powerless.
The story is very successful in communicating its lesson. By understanding from an inside viewpoint of a child who seems to be simply communicating what she really thinks and feels, the audience gains an understanding of the culture of which Sylvia is a part. More is communicated by simple clues, like vocabulary and simple descriptions of how they live with violence and filth as part of their every-day environment. Finally, the mention of anger as Miss Moore notes that she hears it in Sylvia’s voice is just enough to remind us where it leads when too many people are “have-nots” in close proximity to the “haves”. We understand why “white folks” were seen as all different from the black people, why they were grouped together as all alike, which is how they groups blacks. We see the differences and the similarities between the two cultures very clearly, seeing that some of the black children were very smart, some were very abused, some privileged by comparison with their peers and so on. We are almost drawn in close enough to feel like Sylvia’s peer, and that is probably one of the most important things in the story, because it does not preach or lecture, but only shows. We walk in Sylvia’s shoes for a day. The lesson of this story is communicated by the whole story, and absorbed by the reader on a subliminal level. Reading about such situations in a history book gives us information. Reading a story like this gives us understanding.