When it came to revising a plot summary of Toni Cade Bambara’s “The Lesson”, I felt that there needed to be a lot done instantly.
There were plenty of things that I felt were off for a Wikipedia article. There is not supposed to be editorializing and opinions given. It’s an encyclopedia based on facts only and not interpretations. Having to learn all of the inner workings and rules of Wikipedia was also an interesting experience. I had also studied through pages of plot summaries and trying to follow similar language as well as combining language I’ve used when writing as well.
I had tried to get a hybrid of this to ensure that it would still look and appear like a Wikipedia page but still be written as if it was me doing so and not someone generic. I had also opted to re-write the whole thing thinking that the summary was very unstructured and clumped together. My original plan was to edit it like how I previously would with news stories, but ended up changing my mind thinking it needed a complete re-write, keeping only one to two things in.
When my edits were made public, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Was someone going to completely wipe away any progress I made? After a few days, nobody would change anything. The entire Wikipedia article did still have recommendations and listed multiple issues, but I wanted to save changing all of that for someone else considering it wasn’t part of the assignment. Seeing that a page like that also wouldn’t be heavily overseen compared to more important news and newer things, I didn’t expect much to change knowing the oversight and amount of pages present on Wikipedia.
When looking back at changing the plot of the story and even thinking about it though, I was strongly opposed to doing so and would not. There was a thought experiment on if any of the plot could be changed and when I kept trying to think over ideas, I just couldn’t do it. Wording and grammar I could change, but the title and heart of the story would be completely thrown out if things were changed such as the kids getting discounts on the toys or there being a more positive ending. The story is meant to have a more serious undertone about wealth inequality especially when it comes to people of color in the United States. A change to what Toni Cade Bambara wrote here would be an insult to her legacy and whitewash the meaning completely. It’s similar to how Animal Farm by George Orwell whenever being adapted for film keeps getting botched to either support the opposite agenda or bring a more positive message. All of those adaptations are insults to the original author. You may as well write another story without Bambara’s namesake if you change anything plot wise in this story.
My Revised Summary:
