Ownership And Relationship In August Wilson's The Piano Lesson

The concept of ownership and possession plays a vital role in the decisions humans make. In such an ephemeral life, many people wish to leave a “mark on the world,” or have a legacy in order to not be forgotten in the sea of countless lives. Thus, we go to great lengths when trying to stay immortal to the human memory. The author of The Piano Lesson , August Wilson, establishes the idea of human infatuation with ownership with the creation of three characters- Boy Willie, Berniece, and the ghost of Sutter- who have fixations over keeping a part of their histories preserved. They display a sense of ownership over an old piano with literal marks of history etched on it. To each of the characters, the piano represents some form of an everlasting

In order to avenge his father’s death, he decides to convince his sister (Berniece) to sell the piano, which has marks of their family history drawn on it, and buy the land of the plantation owner for himself. As Boy Willie states, “Sutter’s brother selling the land. He say he gonna sell it to me… I got one part of it. Sell them watermelons and get me another part. Get Berniece to sell the piano and I’ll have the third part” (9). Boy Willie does not hesitate to gather the items needed in order to buy the land, which demonstrates his view of the items, including the piano, as vehicles towards attaining his ultimate goal of ownership over tangible objects. One of the items, watermelons, once stood for a symbol of freedom in the community during the time of slavery. The watermelon stereotype became associated with free blacks, who have the ability to own land almost as easily as the white man. Wilson possibly uses this fruit as a symbol of Boy Willie’s quest for freedom from his family’s bonds of slavery and start as an equal. He also tries to

Even though he has passed away, the value of possession over the piano makes him retaliate against the family. Sutter’s motives originate from a desire to avenge his death. Since Boy Willie wishes to gain Sutter’s land, Sutter must feel violated, or stripped of components intrinsic to his identity, so he tries to keep the piano safe with Berniece, who he knows will not sell the piano to avoid losing connection to the piano and through it, her family history. His strong sense of possession over the piano escalates to the point where he singles out and attacks Boy Willie because he tries to sell the piano. If Sutter cannot keep the land, he must keep at least a small part of him. In other words, the possession of a material item in death contains Sutter’s greed for