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August wilson piano lesson analysis
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In August Wilson’s awarded drama, The Piano Lesson, we enter the conflicts of an energetic brother, Boy Willie Charles, and a strong headed sister, Berniece. We see them battling for an important family heirloom, a classic piano, in this play. The spirited brother, Boy Willie, stands out to me because he brings up the idea of buying land in Mississippi that his family had worked on and will one day work for him. To purchase this land, he enters in conflict with his sister, Berniece, the moment he mentions he needs to sell their family heirloom. The protagonist is persistent to receive their desires and will defy anyone who stands before him. With the piano being the center of conflict between Boy Willie and his sister, we witness his personality …show more content…
in this drama from start to finish. His personality traits consist of being impulsive, stubborn, and talkative. The piano conflict brings out Boy Willie Charles’s traits as those characteristics illuminate the book’s meaning of memory and past. Boy Willie is brash, quick, and overall impulsive, when it comes to making decisions, such as trying to take the piano from his sister.
He comes with an impulsive spirit to make a successful life for himself. He also pushes himself to come to his uncle’s and sister’s home to take the family’s treasured piano to buy acres of land with history. This brings up the theme of memory and past as both the land and the piano create memory of Boy Willie’s family. Also, with quick impulse, he comes into the home pitching the idea of purchasing the land by selling the classic piano, yet he won’t take no for an answer. With his impulsive nature, it causes him to conflict with his sister over the heirloom. Just like his father took the piano on impulse back then, he believed it was his to take and died for it. Boy Willie’s impulsive nature gets him into trouble and arguments, especially when he declares the piano is his to take since half of the piano belongs to …show more content…
him. Not only is his impulsive trait what’s causes conflict with the idea of selling the family’s piano, his stubbornness adds on to the tension.
Boy Willie always pushes aside on what his sister, Berniece, has to say in this situation. This conflict over the piano causes his stubbornness to illuminate during each moment Berniece denies him of selling the piano. Boy Willie’s stubbornness is unethical towards fighting to sell the antique as he raises the statement that the piano is his birthright and his half to have. Yet, Berniece brings up, “Mama Ola polished this piano with her tears for seventeen years. For seventeen years she rubbed on it till her hands bled. Then she rubbed the blood in…mixed it with the rest of the blood on it” (1.2.52). This is where Boy Willie’s stubbornness and the quote connect to the theme of memory and past as they both bring up their past of their family with the treasure that is the piano. Boy Willie’s stubbornness and behavior on the characters and himself causes so much tension and conflict over the future of the piano in the
drama. With his traits of being impulsive and stubborn, he is also talkative as his words mean pure action for him. He is outspoken and persistent with his words as they can get him in and out of any type of situations. He claims to live at the top of life and his sister is at “the bottom of life” (2.5.92). He has different opinions from his sister, and he claims them by being so talkative and using his words as his balance to argue about selling the piano. His actions based on his words cause tension and conflict in his sister’s home for the sole motivation of selling the piano for a piece of land that will fall into place for him. The piano is symbolic for his family, but he felt that by talking with Berniece, he can purchase land with history and struggle of his family. Yet, his talkative feature brought out the insensitive side of him, that also highlighted his other features noted above. His talkative side is brought on by his surroundings for the family piano that can be unethical with arguing with his sister. Boy Willie is a character with so much to take in with his traits of being impulsive, stubborn, and talkative. We see where he also stands at the end of the drama when he states, "Hey Berniece…if you and Maretha don't keep playing that piano…ain't no telling…me and Sutter both liable to be back" (2.5. 108). Boy Willie is a round character with so much going on that his personality is affected by his surroundings and his past. He overall illuminates the meaning of memory and past as he debates throughout the novel about how selling the piano will bring back the memory of his family. In the end, he leaves the piano alone when Berniece had vanished Sutter’s ghost away with the piano. The magical moment finally convinces Boy Willie that family heirloom has more value that is deeper than money or land.
According to the text, “Boy Willie is thirty years old. He has an infectious grin and a boyishness that is apt for his name. He is brash and impulsive, talkative and somewhat crude in speech and manner”. This was shown when he argues with his sister, Berniece, constantly. She had a great deal of sentimental value within that piano, but Boy Willie was very tenacious about selling it despite his sister’s wishes. He got himself into a quite a situation, and it isn’t until the very end that it was resolved. Sutter’s ghost begins to start attacking Boy Willie after he tries to take the piano out of the house. The ghost doesn’t subside until Berniece plays the piano and calls the spirits of their family to rid of Sutter’s ghost. After all, this symbolizes the true value of the piano and their ancestry.
Because this theme is so prevalent in the work and because The Piano Lesson is a short drama, the most important point of comparison between Berniece and Boy Willie is how they manage their family history. The central conflict of the story is between these two characters who are at war over use of their family legacy. In this drama, family legacy takes the shape of a large piano with expertly carved scenes of the siblings’ family history. Their great-grandfather had etched the scenes into the wood while in the home of his former master and the family had sacrificed much to attain the instrument after their emancipation. This symbol is invaluable to the plot because it symbolizes not only their family, but the family sacrifice, freedom, and legacy. Both Berniece and Boy Willie understand the symbolism of the piano, but where Berniece wants to keep the piano untouched and perfectly preserved, thus preservi...
Sonny’s brother has been distant towards him, but recently, he has been trying to understand him and help him. Sonny decides to take his brother to a concert to see if he will understand what he is trying to convey through music. Sonny hasn’t played the piano for “over a year” and he is a little bit rusty (147). Sonny also says he isn’t on “much better terms with life” than he was a year ago (147). In a way though, he is in a much better place, because his brother is there for him.
In conclusion, Brother shows his self-interest in how he treats his younger brother. He treats his younger brother, Doodle, as something to ‘fix’ and he cannot accept his brother as he is. When Doodle finally learns to walk, Brother’s selfish need for a more ‘ideal’ little brother is not satisfied for long. Soon he demands a little brother who can run, jump, climb, swim, swing on vines, and row a boat. When he gives Doodle lessons for these activities, he does not do so for concern about Doodle wanting to be able to do them, but because he wants Doodle to be able to be a ‘normal’ brother.
ii.Sonny was so serious about being a jazz musician that he stayed at the piano day and night at Isabel’s house when he moved in with her. “At first, Isabel would write me, saying how nice it was that Sonny was so serious about his music and how, as soon as he came in from school, or wherever he had been when he was suppose to be at school, he went straight to that piano and stayed there until suppertime. And, after supper, he went back to that piano and stayed there until everybody went to bed.” (Baldwin,
Prior to the play, Boy Willie had not seen his sister in three years. During those three years he was incarcerated and was sentenced to labor at the Parchman Prison Farm. He is considered to be the most impulsive and prideful character in the play. Boy Willie believes he is of equal standing to the white man despite his racial background. He wants to sell the piano in order to “avenge” his father’s namesake while at the same time leaving his mark in the world despite his sister’s opposition in order to create his own legacy. He doesn’t believe the battle between black and white exists and that it‘s nothing more than a memory. However, he lives in his own world and ignores the reality. Failing to succeed is his fear. He doesn’t want to believe that he is below in standing than a white man. He wants to be able to leave his legacy in the world as he believes is his right.
Throughout history women assumed subordination is a constant theme; although in the 1930s and 1920s America this changed. The Twenties brought on woman’s suffrage while the Thirties saw and encouraged a more progressive in women. August Wilson writer of The Piano Lesson supported women’s press towards equality and expressed this in the play. The Piano Lesson follows the Charles family and their heirloom, a piano with carvings of their once enslaved family. Boy Willie wants to sell the piano to purchase land where the Charles family labored as slaves for the family of a man named Sutter, who has died. Bernice, Boy Willie’s sister refuses to let him sell it. Sutter’s ghost, the main antagonist terrorizes the family as his spirit wants the piano
The Piano Lesson by August Wilson is taking place in Pittsburg because many Blacks travelled North to escape poverty and racial judgment in the South. This rapid mass movement in history is known as The Great migration. The migration meant African Americans are leaving behind what had always been their economic and social base in America, and having to find a new one. The main characters in this play are Berniece and Boy Willie who are siblings fighting over a piano that they value in different ways. Berniece wants to have it for sentimental reasons, while Boy Willie wants it so he can sell it and buy land. The piano teaches many lessons about the effects of separation, migration, and the reunion of
Wilson demonstrates how one should accept and respect the past, move on with their life or slow down to pay respects to their family?s history, by describing the struggle over a symbolic object representing the past like the piano. Often people will sulk in the past and struggle with themselves and the people around them when they cannot come to terms with their personal history or a loss. Others will blatantly ignore their personal history and sell valuable lessons and pieces of it for a quick buck to advance their own lives. Berniece and Boy Willie in The Piano Lesson are great examples of these people. Through these contrasting characters and supernatural occurrences, Wilson tells the tale of overcoming and embracing a rough and unsettling family history.
The play “Fences”, written by August Wilson, shows a detailed interpretation about the life of a typical African-American family living in the twentieth century. Troy Maxson, the main character and the man of the house, a strict man with the family, hardworking, and at the same time a pleasure seeker. Jim Bono is Troy’s best friend from thirty odd years, a very friendly fellow who works with Troy and is really close to him. They both enjoy the company of each other every Friday on a bottle of an alcoholic beverage. Both characters are characterized based on being typical African American men living in the twentieth century. Even though Troy and Bono are very close friends, their actions and personalities sometimes conflict each other; this essay will focus on similarities and differences between the two characters to prove that even though they are close friends and acquire similarities, they still have different believes and behaviors.
August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, tells a story of a family haunted by the pain of their past and their struggle to find peace to move forward. The story begins with character Boy Willie coming up from the south visiting his sister Bernice. Boy Willie introduces the idea of selling the family’s heirloom, a piano, to raise enough money to buy the land on which his ancestors were enslaved. However, both Boy Willie and his sister Berniece own half a half of the piano and she refuses to let Boy Willie sell it. Through the use of symbolism, Wilson uses his characters, the piano and the family’s situation to provide his intended audience with the lesson of exorcising our past in order to move forward in our lives. Our past will always be a part of our lives, but it does not limit or determine where we can go, what we can do, or who we can become.
Berniece tries to show Boy Willie that the piano experienced more than pleasant events during those days. She interprets their Mama Ola’s pain by saying, “ ‘Mama Ola polished this piano with her tears for seventeen years. For seventeen years she rubbed on it till her hands bled...she rubbed and cleaned and polished and prayed over it...seventeen years’ worth of cold nights and an empty bed. For what? For a piano? For a piece of wood?’ ” (52). The tragedy of their Mama Ola is an almost mythic quality in their unified imagination, but the time has robbed it in Boy Willie’s face. He forces himself to think of his Mama Ola’s suffering as a metaphor than an actual event.
In the play, The Piano Lesson, music played an important role. The piano in the play represented the African American history and culture. The ghost of Sutter represented the pain and trauma that had been endured throughout the generations in the Charles family. Berniece did not play the piano because she associated it with pain and the bad things that happened to her family members. She did not want to accept the things that had happened in her family’s past. She thought that she could deny everything and act like it never happened. She believed if she continued to run from everything and everybody that the pain would go away. Berniece was burdened and haunted by the ghost of Sutter until she gave in and played the piano after all of those years. After playing the piano, Berniece was no longer burdened or haunted by the past. She was free from all of the denial. She escaped the pain through the music and reflecting on the carvings on the piano, which represented her heritage. Berniece’s brother, Boy Willie, told her “Berniece, if you and Maretha don’t keep playing on that piano… ain’t no telling… me and Sutter both liable to be back” (Wilson 108). By saying that, he meant that if she did not allow her daughter to continue playing the piano and learning about her culture that she would end up going through the same things that Berniece had gone through. Music has a huge impact on the African American culture in several ways and many things about the past can be learned through it.
Parent and child relationships are the main point of play in many literary works. Through their relationship, the reader can understand the conflicts of the play, since the characters play different roles in each other’s lives. These people are usually connected in physical and emotional ways. They can be brothers and sisters, mothers and daughters, or fathers and sons. In “Death of A Salesman,” by Arthur Miller, the interaction between Willy Loman and his sons, Biff and Happy, allows Miller to comment on the father-son relationship and conflicts that arise from them.
The past has a funny way of catching up with people. Sometimes, those individuals relish revisiting the olden days. For others, the past is something to be hidden away and never spoken of for fear of stirring up cruel memories and disturbing secrets. For the four members of the Tyrone family, the past is an escape, but also an inescapable prison. Each character in this play longs to return to a point in the past where they were happy, yet they are also haunted by their respective pasts. Some of the Westons of Osage County are also haunted by the events that transpired in the past. But unlike the Tyrones, the Westons do not welcome the past in their home at all. It forces itself into their lives and ruins what little happiness there is to be had. The Tyrones, on the other hand sedate themselves with those memories of happier times. The older generations in both families made decisions that haunted the future generations and condemned not only themselves, but also their progeny. Not one member of either family is able to escape from the events of the past unscathed.