I feel that the story “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara has many similar qualities to the film “O” by Tim Blake Nelson. The book and the movie are about two different people who grew up in similar neighborhoods, are the same race, and both characters had very disrespectful attitudes towards their elders who they should have learned to respect. Over the course of this story and the film, both main characters end up learning a very substantial lesson. Sylvia, the protagonist of “The Lesson”, learns to be grateful for what she has and not to take anything for granted. Oden, the main character of the movie "O", learns that he shouldn't take advice from someone he can't trust. While both the film and the story teach lessons, the lessons Sylvia and Oden learn are very different lessons and have different impacts on Sylvia and Oden's lives. Both Sylvia and Oden grew up in the city. Oden often refers to where he grew up as "the hood." Both of these characters have different issues in their lives that made them who they are. The biggest similarity I can see in these characters is that they are defiant towards their elders and both have attitude problems. Although they are both rude and provocative, they each have their own way of doing it. When Sylvia behaves rudely and provocatively towards others, she says it out loud and does not hide what she is thinking. An example of this is when she was at FAO Schwartz with Miss Moore, who is her neighbor, and she asks her out loud what she is doing there. Sylvia is showing that she has no respect for her elders and doesn't care if they behave rudely. Instead of being calm and trying to see what Miss Moore is looking for... middle of paper... he gets sucked into peer pressure and ends up taking his own life for a girl, and something that was isn't really happening. [Word Count: 1091] Reason behind my article I decided to compare and contrast Oden and Desi because I feel they have many similar qualities, but they also have many differences. I like that they both learn valuable lessons throughout the story and in the film. I decided to use these two characters due to the fact that they come from similar backgrounds, and by comparing the two the reader can tell that Miss. Moore had a lasting impact on Sylvia's life, while Oden was not lucky enough to have someone like that in his his life until it was too late. Sylvia also learned to appreciate what she had in her life, while Oden ended up taking his own life before having the chance to learn this valuable lesson from anyone..