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The Piano Lesson By August Wilson

622 Words3 Pages

Whether it's a lightsaber passed down from father to son in Star Wars, or a beautiful musical instrument, heirlooms have great significance in works of fiction and literature. Many authors use heirlooms as a reminder of the past, enabling the reader to see the reaction of the inheritor. While the younger generation's reaction may be good or bad, it is always significant as a marker of how the characters deal with the past. In the play, The Piano Lesson, August Wilson, through the use of an heirloom piano, studies the effect of the past on different characters as they try to move into the future Berneice, the current possessor of the piano, a symbol of the past rejects her past by refusing to play the piano. Berneice is a character who is constantly …show more content…

Bernice rejects the lessons of the past by trying to remain stagnant. Her rejection of her past leads to her rejection of her future, as she refuses to date the preacher, who is highly interested in her. Thus, Berneice's resolution in the story is embracing the piano, calling on the help of her ancestors to help her. Before the play ends, she is warned to keep playing the piano, or her past will once again come back to haunt her. Berneice's brother, Boy Willie, contrasts with Berneice's reaction to the piano in that in his anger, he can only see the power that the piano offers him. Boy Willie, unlike Bernice, actively remembers and talks about his past, and is willing to play the piano. However, his telling of his family's story is filled with anger as Boy Willie spitefully thinks of his father as weak. For him, the piano is a ticket away from the injustice in his life. Boy Willie wants to use the piano to buy his family's former owner's land, escaping the oppression he found in his past Boy Willie's resolution is wrestling with a ghost over the sale of the piano, eventually leaving empty

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have a great relationship with Boy Willie. Once Lymon notices the piano and tells Boy Willie, this is where the drama begins. Boy Willie tells Lymon that he wants to sell the piano because he thinks it is worth a lot of money. Doaker already knows that Berniece will not let him sell the piano because of the significance it has within the family. Another reason Berniece does not want to sell the piano is because her daughter, Maretha, is learning how to play it.

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In this play, Wilson illustrates the current generation that is struggling to hold on to their ancestry. He exposes the audience to two such characters named Berneice and her brother Boy Willie, who tell the history of the piano. When he saw the painting of Romare Bearden, he was influenced by it to make this play. “The Piano Lesson is a painting of a little girl at the piano with her piano teacher standing over her and in my mind, I saw Maretha and Berniece” (NY Times). The piano is carved with the faces of their ancestors in slavery, the piano represents a valuable piece of history that the family fights over. In Bearden’s collage he shows a figure playing the piano with a woman that is standing above her trying to teach her how to play.

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Just after Reconstruction, life for African Americans began to go downhill as all of their newly gained rights became suppressed because of the new laws and systems that were put in place. Many African Americans that stayed in the South did so because they wanted to continue working in agriculture, and, therefore, had the end goal of getting their own land, which let them fall into the trap that was sharecropping. Africans Americans would rent small plots of land from a landowner, and pay their debts in the form of a portion of their crops. There was also the vagrancy law, which caused any African American that was not working and had no proof that they had a job to be arrested. This leads to the convict lease system, in which wealthy, usually Caucasian American, people rented out prisoners for labor.

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August Wilson’s play, The Piano Lesson, expresses the idea that African-Americans must embrace where they've come from before they will truly be able to move forward with their life. In relation to this the piano in the play represents the Charles families years of slavery to the Sutter family, as well as a symbolic representation of the strength and resiliency of the family. Music serves the function of representing the past, present, and the future, through the family piano. The music in “The Piano Lesson” serves as a solution to the characters’ problems and an escape from their hardships. The characters were able to reconcile their pasts through the illustration of music.

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“Papa Boy Charles brought that piano into the house. Now I’m supposed to uild on what they left me”(Wilson 51).If Boy Willie purchases the land he will be able to do more and help his family because he will prosper if he sell it instead of having it sit in Berniece’s house. Boy Willie wants to avoid an argument with Berniece so he decides to take the piano while she is at work. “Come on,let’s get it loaded before Berniece come

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Which made June for shame and reject her mother for making her to do things she didn’t want to. With that June was about to go on her call to adventure to realize that her mother was just trying to do what was best for when she a child. June learn to come to terms about her when she revisit her mother before her death. She had felt like that there was a shiny trophy in the parent’s living room. The shiny trophy was the piano which you could in apply that she no longer saw it as an object of her mother disappointment but as her mother pride.

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This novel To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee, is about a family in the depression time in Maycomb Alabama in the early 1940s narrated by a main character Jean Louise Finch. The Finch Family, ran by Atticus Finch who is not just a father but a lawyer with very high morals. Jean Louis Finch tells the story from a child’s mind and much mature mindset of it, since Harper lee is trying to prove that Jeam and Scout are immature. Jean Louis Finch quoted, “Maturity is the ability to reap without apology and not complain when things don't go well.” Harper Lee indicates several internal forces that leads up to why Atticus is representing Tom Robinson in his trial of accusing of raping a white lady.

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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.

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There is a sentimental value that is attached to every families’ collection of heirlooms and keepsakes. No matter how long these items remain in storage or are hidden away; their representation always stays the same, they keep people connected to their family roots. Author John Updike’s short story, “The Brown Chest” uses symbolism and imagery and sensory writing to focus on the idea that family memories never fade away and material things can maintain a deeper meaning no matter what they endure. John Updike appeals to the reader’s senses to allow them to connect with what is occurring in the story on a more profound level. He begins the story by writing from the main character’s childhood perspective.

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This fifteen-year-old girl was willing to remove herself from her social life, free time activities, and even her family in order to further her piano career and thus earn the coveted respect of her Tante. That requires an immense amount of devotion, likely even more than some adults have. Hannah was so absorbed in her piano studies that “sometimes it seemed that there was nothing else in the world but Tante Rose and me and Tante Rose’s piano” (3). She saw nothing but what was necessary for her goal of becoming a concert pianist. Her devotion to the piano, and by extent Tante Rose, overwhelmed all other aspects of her life.

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Legacy has an important part in the memories and outlooks of Berniece. The pictures and carvings on the piano remind Berniece of her mother and hardship the family has gone through living as slaves under Sutter’s family. In The Piano Lesson the main theme is allowing the past to be present in life. During the play Berniece and her brother, Boy Willy, argue about whom the family piano belongs to and what they should do with it.

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In order to show this, I will analyse two fostering aspects which play a big part in his development and setbacks, these include punishment as well as encouragement. We get to know characters through scenes and descriptions, as well as speech and actions. We get to follow Willies mental state as well as his physical development through these aspects. Willie is the protagonist of the story; he is the main character the plot is addressing. His mother in London is depicted as the antagonist who causes him pain as she believes he needs to be punished for his many sins, which consequently seems to relate to her own mental issues.

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