The Lesson

One of the recent stories that we read in the Lit text book was The Lesson. This story was particularly interesting to me because it explored the value of money to two different classes, the wealthy and the poor. It was amazing to see how special five dollars was to a kid in poverty, and the mountains of possibilities that came with it. The kids went to window shop at a very expensive toy store in the heart of NYC, and they were stunned by the high ticketed prices. The kids began to discuss with their teacher about the value of a dollar and how each class' viewpoint drastically contrasted. To the kids, seeing a toy sailboat priced at over a thousand dollars was outrageous. They began to think about how many families a thousand dollars could feed, and they came to the conclusion that they were perfectly happy with the five dollars that they had. This brings up the stereotypical statement of "Money doesn't buy happiness" with applies to this story. Just because the kids’ couldn’t buy the expensive toys, that didn’t mean that they were unhappy. I think that this statement should be applied to everyday life because many morals can come from it. Materials can only satisfy happiness for a brief amount of time until something bigger and better comes out. Also, materials are only temporary while relationships and bonds with people can bring everlasting happiness. I think that the world should look at five dollars like those kids did; they didn’t think about the things that they couldn’t buy with it, they thought about all of the possibilities that it held.