Even though we covered the theme of this short story in class a little, I wanted to give my opinion on it. I believe that there were many things the author wanted us to take from her story. For example, there may have been many themes. I think there were two.
The first one is, obviously, that people who spend their riches on trivial items such as material goods, are undeserving of their wealth. Like in the story, the children gawk over the price of a paperweight- $400- when they themselves don't even have a desk or paper to put a weight on. The children also obsess over a $1,000 sailboat, that may or may not have been equipped with a motor. They muse over their own homemade sailboats, resolving with the statement "white people crazy."
Before they enter the store, however, one girl stops the teacher and asks, "can we steal?" I find this to be another underlying theme, one that people aren't supposed to notice as much as the main one. Of course, Miss Moore, the teacher, blanches in horror and immediately says no. However, the fact that this child would have the nerve to ask such a thing to an authority figure tells something about the environment she grew up in. An environment where it was okay to commit criminal acts, just so long as they weren't caught. Perhaps the author is trying to say that the environment children grow up around hinders there responses to moral situations. Or that the ghetto is no place to live. Either one, really (I like the first one).
Yeah, I definitely agree with both of these, especially the first. They talk a lot about how unfair it is that rich people have so much extra money to spend but they have none.
ReplyDeleteI don't have any doubt that Bambara would agree with your first theme. However, I think the story is less about rich people, and more about the poor kids visiting the story. That's why I like your second theme better. Sylvie and the other kids can't do anything about how rich people might choose to spend their money. However, they can take the experience of visiting the store and use it as motivation to change their own lives.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the themes-both of the ones you mentioned. I liked that you found that statement ("Can we steal?") as gawk-worthy as I did! No one really seemed to pay any heed to it in class. Ive noticed that in several of the stories we've read have had a focus on how environment can affect morals.
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