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The protagonist and first-person narrator of the story, Sylvia is a young Black girl who lives in Harlem and resents having to go on Miss Moore's educational trips. Much of her family lives in the same neighborhood, which she describes as a smelly, inhospitable place for children. Headstrong, bright, and rebellious, Sylvia appears to have adopted a blunt practicality as a result of her environment and upbringing. She bullies other kids when they don’t appear to agree with her, but she is hardest on her cousin Sugar, who is also her closest friend. She knows the unspoken rules of the world in which she lives and is clever enough to work them to her advantage, and she doesn’t appreciate her perspective being challenged. Her admission that the price of the toy boat stuns her therefore represents a shift in her character's worldview, and it’s one that makes her both angry and uncomfortable. Sylvia does not understand, or doesn’t wish to understand, the point of the trip to the toy store, and grows increasingly frustrated as most of her valid questions go unanswered by Miss Moore. She knows that seeing the decadent toy store makes her angry, but she hasn’t quite worked out why. In the end, Sylvia is frustrated both by Miss Moore’s patronizing attitude and by the lesson in general; she feels powerless and condescended to, and she feels that Miss Moore only helps the kids see the problems in their community without giving them clear answers on how to fix them.

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