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The Piano Lesson Sparknotes

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This article explores the underlying elements of The Piano Lesson as a slave narrative. Using historical and African American criticisms to examine these elements, Boan shows the dual narratives that are present throughout the play. The evidence is quite compelling and Boan makes several intriguing points. The main and largest point focuses on Boy Willie and how he fits into the whole picture. The article is quick to observe the apparent dual narratives in The Piano Lesson. The first being the traditional narrative of the play and the second is the quote unquote slave narrative. By combining historical criticism and African American criticism Boan examines the slave narrative as an additional current in the play’s plot. Boy Willie being at …show more content…

He seems to be pushed around in one form or another and in the end quite literally. There is that underlying fight going on throughout the entire play. The past fighting back, so it is never forgotten. Boy Willie is trying to escape the crushing weight of his family’s legacy by trying to conquer it in one foul swoop by purchasing that land he puts his identity on that plan and the conflict between him and Berniece arises. This shows Willie being a slave to the past as well but on a different level he wants to change the past by getting rid of it entirely with the piano. Though it does not make sense because he is contradicting himself it is the psychological motives behind it that equally fascinating though Boan doesn’t go that far into it. There is a distinction that Wilson points in his play and that is the difference between the siblings fighting over the piano. They have limited vision to the others point of view and not unlike how slave narratives sometimes blur lines and males and females aren’t distinguishable. The climax being that through this distinction the slave narrative appears to push along the plot in that it makes it more obvious. The play focuses on Berniece but there is major conflict with Boy Willie, the elements of the slave narrative melting the two and the play moves onward; a seamless combination that goes almost

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Wood begins with a preface that speaks of an African American graveyard. Wood’s brings up the graveyard to make his reader’s acknowledge slavery was very real here in the United States, and the people who were enslaved were from all different background and were in fact intrinsic and unique

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His past in slavery is something he was unable to forget and believes that being a slave made him a traitor because he did not fight back. He continued to live as a slave, never once questioning the white mans authority. At the ballroom in the hotel, the boys in the battle royal are used as entertainment and the narrator realizes that his speech may not be the reason he is at the meeting. During the match, the narrator finds himself in a struggle for survival and tries to get away from participating but he must fight his way through. During his speech, the narrator says “social equality” instead of social responsibility” and the white men are quick to point out his mistake ,”We mean to do right by you, but you’ve got to know your place at all times.

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Throughout the narrative, the author includes his personal stories about experiencing the violence of slavery first-hand. For example, on page 20, he writes about the first time he witnessed a slave, his own aunt, getting the whip. “The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest…I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition… It struck me with awful force. It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery…” The author including his experience of his aunts whipping, in detail, appeals to the emotions of the reader.

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Our first reading of EN101, Fredrick Douglass’ “Learning to Read,” helped our class to better understand the privilege of being a writer. Douglass lives in Hugh Auld’s household for roughly seven years. During this time, he is able to learn how to read and write, though Mrs. Auld is hardened and no longer tutors him. Slavery hurts Mrs. Auld as much as it hurts Douglass himself. The mentality of slavery strips her of her inherent sympathy for others, making her hardened and cruel.

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American literature has always been a form of entertainment and education. When slaves were introduced as characters in books, they were always negative, stereotypical characters, but not until 1883 when Mark Twain wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was a change made. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a book about a southern white boy in the 1800’s that runs away with an escaped slave on the Mississippi River. For years, schools have been debating on if the book should be banned in schools or not, and it is already on a variety of banned lists. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn should not be banned in schools because it is an anti-slavery novel that teaches students valuable lessons and informs students of the past culture.

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Although chapter four of “The Boy’s Ambition” by Mark Twain and chapter five of Frederick Douglass's “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” were written in the 1800’s and tell about the author's childhood, they are written very differently. While Twain uses exaggeration to create humor, Douglass uses a formal diction to create ethos. The use of these writing techniques make each piece of writing believable and lasting. Although the situation for each author was very different, the similarities between the texts show the similarities in their character.

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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is an interesting autobiography of the life of Frederick Douglass, an African American who spent time in slavery, then eventually escaped. Douglass was born into slavery, and accepted it for a good while of the time that he was in slavery. Once he realized that escaping was the only option to settle for, he finally tried to escape, and succeeded. In order to get the point across that slavery is bad and that slaves are people as well as Caucasian Americans, Douglass uses several rhetorical devices including repetition, anecdotes, and imagery, as well as some others. ` By using repetition in this narrative, Douglass gets his point across by sticking specific ideas into the reader’s head.

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This book connects to black history because Frederick wasn’t only a slave but was a special one. Frederick learned how to read and write while in slavery. Frederick escaped slavery at the age twenty and went on to become a world renowned anti-slavery activist. Main Characters: The main characters

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The Piano Man’s Daughter executes all of the elements of a great book perfectly. Works Cited Findley, Timothy. The Piano Man 's Daughter. New York: Crown, 1995. Print. "

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In the autobiography Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, the author details the horrors and dehumanization of slavery in the south. Douglass utilizes paradox and powerful diction to illustrate his transformation from slave to man in mind, body, and spirit. After overcoming his oppressor, Mr. Covey, Douglass declares, “You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.” Douglass captures the reader’s attention with use of word play and allusion, he clearly indicates the turning point of the memoir and his transformation from slave to man. Douglass uses an allusion to the Bible, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away

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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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From this, derives a bond with the reader that pushes their understanding of the evil nature of slavery that society deemed appropriate therefore enhancing their understanding of history. While only glossed over in most classroom settings of the twenty-first century, students often neglect the sad but true reality that the backbone of slavery, was the dehumanization of an entire race of people. To create a group of individuals known for their extreme oppression derived from slavery, required plantation owner’s of the South to constantly embedded certain values into the lives of their slaves. To talk back means to be whipped.

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He describes his ignorance of the cruel slave system which was hidden from him when he was still a small boy. Yet, as a victim of slavery since birth he was separated from his mother and sent to live with his grandmother in Tuckahoe, Maryland. He describes those years with his grandmother as pleasant, happy years. When Douglas was of age, he was brought to the ‘old masters’ – Col. Lloyd’s house to work. Still a child, he did not quite understand slavery completely, except that all the children were kept under the care ‘Aunt Katy’ – a highly favored slave woman.

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He uses these experiences to show just how unjust the treatment towards slaves was. As a child, he was not allowed to learn like many of the white children were, they wanted to keep the slaves ignorant

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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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