The Lesson

The narrator of this story is, by her own admission, brash and nervy. Speaking of her reluctance to enter the Fifth Avenue toy store—which recalls to her how intimidated she was by a long-ago Catholic church service—she says of herself, “I have never been shy about doing nothing or going nowhere” (93). She is, however, made shy by silence and formality, as these qualities are alien to her nature and her upbringing. This is what she confronts at the toy store and also in the person of Miss Moore.

Beneath her brashness, the narrator is sensitive and astute. This is why she is deeply troubled by the outing to the toy store, which the other children on the trip—including her cousin and best friend Sugar—seem to more or less shrug off. It is significant that at the story’s end, the narrator does not follow Sugar to their usual neighborhood store to buy candy with her stolen money. While this is partly because the narrator is angry with Sugar for what she perceives to be her minor treachery, it is perhaps also because the outing to the toy store has made her weary of the whole trap of consumerism and instant gratification.