Toni Cade Bambara "The Lesson"

In “The Lesson” a group of young African American children that are involved with a women from the neighbor hood that wants to take them on a trip to learn arithmetic. The crew is rowdy and ill behaved, they don’t want this trip but would much rather be in a pool on that hot summer day. Miss Moore gives the kids $5 and tells them to get in a cab and tip 10%. The fare comes out to .85 cents and the children don’t tip him. Once at the destination “FAO Schwartz”, the children window-shop and are amazed to find that prices can exist that are so high for toys. This alternate universe that they have never experiences opens an eyes to their real position in the world. The rowdy children that seem to have no apprehension about any behavior are hesitant to walk into the store. Once inside they find that the cost of some toys rival that of a some of their parents yearly salaries. The only child that seems unaffected is Mercedes, ironically named so; she seems to come from a better off family then the rest of the group. Sylvia the protagonist of the story is changed the most. At the end she realizes that life is a competition and that she was going to have to be better then others to succeed. 

John Updike "A & P"

The protagonist, a young boy who works as a cashier in the A & P, is brought to witness an event that bring the store to life. In the middle of a boring day, in boring Middle America, three young girls enter the supermarket dressed in only bathing suits. Never has anyone seen this occurrence, and the store is entranced by their appearance. Weather the young girls know the attention they are causing or not, the entire store awaits to see what isle they will come out from making it to be like “a pinball machine”. The girls walk barefoot through the store, and eventually find the item they are looking for. Once they come to the young boys register, the manager notices that the young girls are no dressed appropriately for his environment. He comes over and gives the girls a hard time. They seem unaware of the inappropriateness of the situation. As this story was written in the 60’s this event was probably the 1^st in a lifetime to witness of the scantily glad girls. The difference in the authority’s attitude and that of the girls and the young boy is that of not only a generation gap but also a revolution gap. The boy furious at the manager’s treatment of his young idols quits his job to support the unfair treatment of the girls. However once he is outside the store, the realization sets in that the world is going to be a hard place from thereon. 

Alice Walker "Everyday Use"

The small African American family of a mother and two girls evolves thought time. The two sisters are as different as could be, one who is a wallflower, with scars from a house fire many years back, while the other seems to be aggressive, over confident, and conceited. The mother is on the heavier side. The mother reminisces over Dee’s longing for the finer things in live, and her desire to dress more stylish, perhaps more “white”. After her graduation she moves and on this particular return home, her attitude is complete altered. She comes home changing her name to Wangero, insisting that Dee is a slave name. She is all about her heritage, and the importance of all the handmade items at the house. After dinner she starts summoning various items from the house, the mother is ok with it until she asks for a particular set of quilts that she promised to give Maggie the other sister. Wangero wont be putting them to everyday use but hanging them. Maggie has no problem complying for she believes that sacrifice is godly, only then does the mother snap, and tell Wangero, the daughter who never hears ‘NO’ that she in fact cannot have these particular quilts. Perhaps the mother felt that like the “white” people around her, Dee was used to getting everything she wanted, and that now when she had priorly rejected her heritage, and refused the quilts, now she decided she wanted them, and maybe that reminded the mother of a similarity to a “white” person in her eyes.