August Wilson Literary Devices

In the play “The Piano Lesson” by August Wilson, an African American family is used to demonstrate African Americans lifestyle in the early 1930’s. The purpose of this play is not only to present two different religions African Americans believe in, but it is to also focus on the problems and struggles, internal and external, they will experience. Because of the family’s ethnicity and color of their skin, this family has experienced many setbacks. August wilson focuses on three literary devices, symbolism, metaphors and songs to emphasize how serious the issue was in the past and appeal to the audience’s emotions.

Throughout the play, August Wilson incorporated songs to provide comprehension of the discrimination many African Americans faced.

After Doaker has educated Boy Willie with their family history and the piano, Wining Boy decided to play on the piano and sing a song on personal experience in Arkansas. Towards the end of the song, Wining Boy sings, “He fed me old dorn dodgers, they was hard as any rock, my tooth is all loosened and my knees begin to knock”(47). Incorporating these few lines demonstrates the substandard conditions African Americans had to work in, for some states, in a creative style. It also demonstrates how white americans viewed African Americans. When Wining boy includes the simile, while describing what they fed him, he is emphasizing the idea that the higher class, the white americans, didn’t really care for African Americans. Based off of how poor the food was, it illustrates that the White Americans saw and treated the African Americans as non humans, almost as if they were animals. Because the time setting is a few years after slavery was abolished, this helps demonstrate how slow White Americans were to adapting to the new laws and disregarding them. Furthermore, as the play progressed, Wilson continued to use songs to illustrate the inequality and discrimination African Americans faced during this time period. As act two opens up, Doaker is ironing his pants, cooking and singing all at the same time. Doaker was moving with rhythm while singing a tune about traveling through different states in the South (55-56). The lyrics in this particular song gives insight to the lack of stability that African Americans dealt with in southern states. In the past, the South was known for having Jim Crow Laws and a bias system, which caused the Great Migration. Although numerous African AMericans moved to the North around the same time, they didn’t realize they had created a movement. In this case, Doaker may not realize that his song is connected to the Great Migration. Incorporating songs in the play not only entertains the audience, but it also educates them on issues that African Americans had to face in the early 1900s. Using the song style captures the audience’s attention but the lyrics holds great importance because of the educational message.
August Wilson continuously integrated literary devices in his play by including an extended metaphor to emphasize the problem of discrimination in a manner where many can understand.

After the intense dialogue between Boy Willie and Lymon, Boy Willie claimed that there wasn’t a difference between White and African American people. After hearing the claim made by Boy WIllie, Wining Boy described his perspective on how there was a difference between the two with an analogy. He started his claim with a scenario about berries and how White Americans can make it illegal for an African Americans to have certain things, even when an African American legally owns it, if they want it themselves. What Wining Boy is trying to prove is that White Americans have a huge advantage over African Americans because they have the law on their side. Because slavery is not legal, as stated previously, the law and White Americans were very resistant to adapting to the new laws. In this case, Wining Boy is using the land owned by the African Americans represent the freedoms, for example new equal laws and slavery being abolished, that they have received. Wining Boy is utilizing the berries to represent the the resistance to overall equality and that large amount of control White Americans still have over African Americans. Towards the end of Wining Boy’s extended metaphor, he finally stated his overall point he was trying to prove to Boy willie and Lymon. As Wining Boy states “the colored man

can’t fix nothing with the law” (38), he is not only finalizing his analogy, he is also stating the great disadvantage African Americans have when being compared to White Americans. Wining Boy is trying to help his audience understand that although the law may be considered neutral, it still has a long way to go even be considered almost neutral. He uses this example to prove that power is not available to African Americans. No matter how simple the law is, a White American has to the power to manipulate it. This impacts the audience and characters in the play by aiding their knowledge on the true difference between African and White Americans.
Wilson uses symbolism in the play to represent the setbacks and problems African Americans have and will experience.

In the beginning of the play, August Wilson introduced Lymon’s truck full of watermelons. When Boy Willie and Lymon first arrived, Berniece would consistently ask Lymon and Boy WIllie how and where they got the truck. After repeatedly asking her questions, Berniece stated “Might be looking for him about that truck. He might have stole that truck.”(7). Based off of this statement, the truck can symbolize the problems African Americans experience. Lymon specifically told Berniece that he had bought the truck, but because the police officers were searching for him and he was an African American male, Berniece accused him of something that he did not do. This helps prove the idea that because African Americans do not have the same power as White Americans, they’ll most likely be blamed or accused of something they did not do. This can be seen as a problem or setback because if an African American is trying to prosper in life, they will continually have to face accusations. As the story continues, August Wilson continues to use the truck full of watermelons as symbolism. In the beginning of the story, as Boy Willie was explaining how the ride was arriving to Doaker’s house, he stated that the truck broke down 3 times. After arriving to their destination they went out to the neighborhoods and sold the watermelons. After selling the watermelons, Doaker asked if the

truck was fixed and they told him the truck only broke down once (33). As stated earlier, the truck represents the problems and setbacks African Americans face, but the watermelons symbolizes wealth and hope and potential. Because Boy Willie and Lymon lived in the South, where Jim Crow Laws was very big, the truck kept breaking down. Fortunately because the North held more opportunities, the truck barely broke down. Because the truck broke down more in the South than in North, this implies the idea that when going North, African Americans will still face problems but not as much or as bad as it is in South.
In conclusion, this play not only focuses on religion, it also focuses on racial discrimination African Americans experience. August Wilson was able to incorporate the literary devices symbolism, songs and metaphors to effectively emphasize this issue in a creative way. This is important to the audience because not only does it teaches what African Americans faced through the early 1900’s but it also appeals to their emotions. Because this issue is still very big now, it makes the audience realize that the society has not changed over almost 100 years ago. This makes the audience want to change their ways and make them fight for change for the better.