Pulitzer Prize for Drama Essays

Piano Lesson" this movie or play was written by American Playwright August Wilson. Wilson was born with the of name Frederick August Wilson and born in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The "Piano Lesson" was ward with the Pulitzer Prize for Best Drama. When Wilson started writing about this play he created a strong female character African American. This play "The Paino Lesson" it was most like in 1936 when United Stated was going thru the struggling with the Great Depression, and a

“The man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead” (33). In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller uses foil characters to elucidate Willy’s flaws that ultimately prevent him and his family from succeeding. The contrast between Charley and Willy and Bernard and Biff serves to highlight how Willy’s obsession with achieving his version of the American Dream impacts both his life and his children’s. His poor values are passed on to his

The Great Depression was not easy for anyone, but there were certain aspects that made life a little bit more tolerable, such as friendship, or hope for a better future. The strong tie between Lennie and George, the main characters in Of Mice and Men, was illustrated throughout the story. Lennie had a difficult time realizing what was going on around him, while George did his best to steer him in the right direction. The two of them spent their life traveling around California, jumping from job to

Introduction William Faulkner is one of the eminent southern writer and the winner of the Nobel Prize in 1949. He is skillful in his “ stream of consciousness” and his Gothic style in his numerous short stories and novels. By applying Gothic techniques to his creation, he expresses his deep emotion toward his spiritual home, the American south, where he draws nutrition for almost all his writings. Grotesque and horrible in style, his Gothic fictions set up in Yoknapatawpha County impress reader with

“Home Burial” by Robert Frost and “Mid-Term Break” by Seamus Heaney are both poems that contain death of a child, pain, and grief. By the title of “Home Burial” it gives the reader an insight that someone has been buried. However, in the poem a couple suffers from the loss of their child. The husband has buried their child in the graveyard behind their house. Furthermore, it demonstrates how one disaster can lead to another when his relationship with his wife is unstable. “Mid-Term Break” focuses

Act two, scene four, of Fences by August Wilson and the poem An Agony. As Now, by Amiri Baraka both contain a common concept, that isolation is both self inflicted, and avoidable. Both pieces of literature were written to show the attitude of broken men. Both authors created characters that had been through tough time, and who had grown into self loathing people who took no responsibilities for their actions. Each text showed how over the years both characters had slowly isolated themselves, and

Legacy In August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, Berniece struggles with the piano and it’s memories brought on by her mother. During the play Berniece argues the piano’s importance to Boy Willie. However, she has a shift in attitude. Berniece doesn't really interact with the piano or want anything to do with it but when Boy Willy mentions selling it she defends the piano. It’s like she is “freezing” the past and not allowing it to come into her life. She refuses to accept her past and live with

Sing Us A Song, Piano Man Music is a key aspect of August Wilson’s play The Piano Lesson. The title alone could draw in music lovers as well as readers. Throughout the play the piano itself represents the history of the Charles family, but that isn’t the only example of how music shapes the story. The songs in The Piano Lesson play a key role in the Charles’ family history, acts as a coping mechanism for the characters, and serves as a vital component of the ending of the play. It is no secret

In The Piano Lesson, a play by August Wilson, the characters create conflict over a piano. Boy Willie and Berniece, two 1930’s African American siblings, each own a half of the piano. Because Berniece and Boy Willie’s ancestor engraved images of their family’s history into the piano, this instrument holds great importance to them. Despite this shared agreement, Berniece and Boy Willie hold different opinions about the piano’s true value and purpose. While Berniece wants to keep the piano for its

False accusations can ruin someone’s life and their reputation. In the short story Doubt, written by John Patrick Shanley, a nun, sister Aloysius, accuses a priest, Father Flynn, of sexually abusing a young boy named Donald. It is never confirmed whether the accusations are correct. I believe that this accusation of Father Flynn’s sexual abuse is not true. The author persuaded readers that Flynn is not guilty because Flynn is confused by the accusations, Flynn is trying to protect Donald, and readers

In August Wilson’s Fences, it should come as no surprise that the fence Troy is building throughout the course of the play holds multiple points of symbolism and importance, from Troy’s innate need to keep things at arm’s length, to an overarching symbol of Rose and Troy’s marriage, to a subliminal motif of the boundaries that kept Troy from his dream of reaching the Majors. For Troy, the fence is viewed as a chore and a nuisance at the beginning of the play. Troy shirks the chore to go “listen

What extreme measures would you take to keep a symbolic family heirloom's legacy alive? The Piano Lesson, by August Wilson, is a play that is based on conflict between two siblings and how they are haunted with past trauma over a piano that was passed down to them from their parents. Berniece’s family's past reveals her relationship with the piano. The piano meant a lot of things to a lot of different people over the years. Opposing siblings Berniece and Boy Willie struggle to come to terms with

Betrayals are a natural part of life. In the play Fences, August Wilson creates a narrative about a man named Troy who struggles to connect with those close to him. Troy doesn't realize the damage he inflicts on others when his actions betray them. Wilson uses characterization to develop the theme of betrayal to show how a person’s self-centeredness can lead to deterioration in his relationships. Troy’s characterization towards his son shows his protectiveness but also his lack of nurture. He doesn't

Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, set in post World War II America, tells the story of Willy Loman, a struggling, aging, salesman desperate to achieve the “American Dream.” Willy battles with the false promises of success in a merciless, capitalist, society, in addition to strained relationships with his wife and sons. In Death of a Salesman, playwright Arthur Miller illustrates the negative effects of favoritism within familial expectations, illuminating the importance of self acceptance in

Summer Reading: Fences 1. What do fences have to do with the play? Are there fences in the play that aren't related to backyards? Throughout the play characters’ lives are impacted because of the Fence-building project. Relationships are made and destroyed in the backyard. Fences also come between a relationship between Rose and Troy. In the play, Bono realizes Rose wants the fence built to keep her loved ones tight. The symbol fences exploit her loving character trait. There are fences inside

The Seeds of Doubt Grow Quickly Doubt is a rapidly growing vine which can obliterate the truth from a situation. John Patrick Shanley presents a perfect example in his play, “Doubt: A Parable”. Richard Hornby states, in his article “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt,” in reference to the play, “[It] depicts a Pirandellian situation in which guilt or innocence cannot be determined, but even more it depicts the way that a prosecutorial mentality can run amok” (p1). Two of the main characters of this play

they think of the promise of opportunity, success, and prosperity no matter the class you are born into. In Death of a Salesman, Willy’s idea of the American Dream spawns off of the dream of business success through salesmanship. Harold Clurman, a drama critic of The Nation, describes salesmanship as a fraudulent, post WWI version of the American Dream; “Instead of the ideals of hard work and courage, we have salesmanship.” (Clurman. 213). While raising his children, Willy instills the idea that success

In the play “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller, the story begins as Willy Loman a traveling salesman from Brooklyn, New York is returning home from a sales trip that he could not complete. He tells his wife Linda “I am tired to the death” (963). He is an older man past sixty who is feeling worn down from the travels that he has taken over the years and is feeling enormous stress in his life. He has been demoted from a salary position to commission only and is worried about money and how he will

Manic, Depressive Superiority on a Quest for Perfection Lorrie Moore’s character, Zoe Hendricks, in “You’re Ugly, Too,” is an outsider drowning in irony from a supposed perfect world she has built for herself. Her cynical, yet humorous outlook on her self-isolated life, is a result of her rose-tinted view of her inability to find intimacy or satisfaction in her life. In an otherwise depressing story about a mid-western history professor going through the middle-aged motions, Zoe Hendricks’ wry social

During the twentieth century, countless people came into America as immigrants looking for a new start. America as a nation brought upon a new belief of self-invention that allowed those who wanted to change their lives have an opportunity. Benjamin Franklin is a primary example of self-invention. Started on the streets of Boston, left to his own ingenuity and only affording three loaves of bread, Benjamin Franklin became one of the most successful printers and inventors of his time. The American