Embracing their culture The playwright August Wilson once said, “Never is it suggested that playwrights like David Mamet or Terrence McNally are limiting themselves to whiteness. The idea that [by producing these plays] we are trying to escape from the ghetto of black culture is insulting.” Within one of his plays, The Piano Lesson displays a family feud that they want to escape, not an attempt to escape “the ghetto of black culture”, in fact Boy Willie wants to go back to the south after he earns enough money to buy some land. Specifically, they embrace the story of their piano and how it represents the background and the culture of their family. Boy Willie does not want to escape from black culture in fact, he wants to return to the south even though blacks in that time, are still oppressed heavily there. When Boy Willie says “you gonna come down and south and see me? Uncle Boy …show more content…
Berniece embraces her family piano because it holds a lot of value , “set that piano back other there. I done told you a hundred times i ain’t selling that piano” (Wilson 50), her ancestors died over that piano and she protects it with her life because it is a part of her culture. Boy Willie wants to sell the piano and Berniece does not want to because she knows how much value it has to he culture. She also has a lot of respect for herself and her family, and her values and morals, “ i do not allow that in my house, you gonna have to take your company some place else” (Willson 74), this quote happened when Boy Willie brought somebody home, and Berniece was not happy with Boy Willie’s actions , which shows the amount of respect she has towards her culture, it also shows that she stands by her morals and values. Berniece is not running away from her culture, but she is running away from her fears, and her family