Berniece, Boy Willie And Doaker: An Analysis

To Berniece, Boy Willie, and Doaker, the piano means different things. To Berniece, the piano acts as a piece of her ancestors, and whenever she uses it, she can sense her deceased family who used it in the past. To Boy Willie, it represents just a piece of property that can be sold to collect more money for the family. Lastly, to Doaker, the piano exists as a piano that is both good and bad for the family, but still has to be kept based on the history inside of it. The piano to him portrays itself as an instrument that is good and bad for the family, but they have to keep it because it is an artifact. Although they all have different thoughts on the piano, Berniece, Boy Willie, and Doaker can all agree on one thing: the piano is an artifact of family history.

To begin, the piano acts as an artifact. It essentially exists as a passageway back in time into the lives of Berniece, Doaker, and Boy Willie’s ancestors. First, I would like to discuss what the piano means to Berniece. At the end of the book, the exorcism takes

place where Berniece plays a song on the piano and starts singing, “I want you to help me...Mama Berniece...Mama Esther…Papa Boy Charles...Mama Ola...I want you to help me” (Wilson 107). Berniece, in that scene, channeled her ancestors because the piano to her exists as a time travel portal back to speak and communicate with people from her family who have died.

Secondly, Boy Willie has a completely different thought about the piano, contrary to Berniece’s beliefs. To Boy Willie, the piano represents property, and if he sells that property, he gets cash. Boy Willie states around the part when the Story of the Piano gets told this: “Whoever playing better play quick. Sutter’s brother say he waiting on me. I sell them watermelons. Get Berniece to sell that piano. Put them two parts with the part I done saved…” (42). Boy Willie’s motive in all of this is to acquire money so he can buy various things for everyone. But in all honesty, he wants the piano gone.

Lastly, Doaker stands in the middle of this issue, not specifically on one side of the fight.

He wants money, but at the same time, the piano acts as an artifact for the family. Doaker, around page 40, tells the Story of the Piano, in which he says this: “Ain't nobody said nothing about who's right and who's wrong. I was just telling the man about the piano. I was telling him why we say Berniece ain't gonna sell it” (46). The piano will never be sold, and in the end, an exorcism, led by Doaker, gets the ghost of Sutter out of the house for good.

The piano represents itself as something different for everyone. For Berniece, it exists as an artifact to speak with her ancestors. For Boy Willie, it acts as a piece of property he can sell to get more money, no matter how much it means to the family. And to Doaker, it stands as just a piano that has a good and bad effect on the family, until the end where the ghost of Sutter leaves them for

good.