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Slavery In August Wilson's The Metano Lesson

480 Words2 Pages

In August Wilson’s The PIano Lesson , Boy Willie, struggles with his family past and history with slavery which reveals to let your past go or it’ll consume you and take over your life. Throughout the whole novel we can see how angry and eager her is to sell the piano and his hatred towards his family’s ex owner during times of slavery and oppression of African Americans.

Throughout the whole play Boy Willie is on a mission. He is attempting to sell his family’s piano in order to buy land and make a living out of the land. However his sister Berniece attempts to stop him and tries to reveal to him the importance of the piano not only to her but the family’s future. They go on to have constant arguments and obviously do not share the same beliefs throughout the play.

The family has had a part in history called slavery. A few generation ago they were owned by a white slave owner named sutter. Some people in town believe he was the one who set fire to a box car killing Boy WIllie and Berniece’s dad. Legend also said he was killed by the ghost of these people when he was pushed into a well and drowned. This is the person's …show more content…

He was a believer, he believed that Sutter did kill his father and it would have been a great honor to buy the land off the family who had enslaved his family a few generations ago. At the end of the story as soon as Boy Willie was going to take the piano and sell it a mysterious force stops him from doing so. This mysterious figure is none other than his family's ex slave owner Sutter. Berniece and the people and the people around at the time realize this happened were terrified. Everyone but Boy WIllie this is where the reader sees his hatred towards Sutter. He goes around with a pot full of water taunting Sutter's ghost and eventually ends up fighting him. At the end of the epic battle Sutter’s spirit is released from the house and Boy Willie has had a change of mind and leaves the

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