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Published analysis of the piano lesson by august wilson
Published analysis of the piano lesson by august wilson
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One of the main characters that is mentioned in the play The Piano Lesson by August Wilson is a woman named Berniece Charles. She has been a widow for three years and she has a daughter named Maretha Charles. Berniece works on her own to take care of her small family in the town of Pittsburgh. The main discussion in the play is the argument over the families’ piano with her brother, Boy Willie Charles. Berniece shows readers her different attitudes throughout the play about how her family piano makes her feel in a negative way, how it makes her feel in a positive way, and what the piano really means to her on a personal level.
In an article by David M. Galens, he describes Berniece’s life as it is full of mixed feelings and emotions. One of the things that gave Berniece assorted emotions was her brother trying to sell the piano out of the family. “She is fiercely protective of it [the piano] and refuses to allow Boy Willie to sell it. The piano is the Charles’ family totem: it visibly records the lost lives of Berniece and Boy Willie’s ancestors, and it is the only tangible link remaining between past and present” (Galens).
Other than having personal family attachments to the piano, it also has some of her childhood memories connected to it. Berniece grew up being taught to play the piano by Miss Eula, her piano teacher, because her mother wanted her too, but later in life she claims “she only played it while her widowed mother was alive out of respect. After her mother’s death, she ceased to play it because she was bitter about the pain it had brought the family” (Galens). She refuses to play the piano because she claims it will wake the family spirits and she does not want to do that. Even though Berniece quit playing the pi...
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...rk: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001. 839-860. Scribner Writers on GVRL. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.
Kubitschek, Missy D. “August Wilson’s Gender Lessons.” May All Your Fences Have Gates:
Essays on the Drama of August Wilson. Ed. Alan Nadel. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1994. 183-199. Print.
Morales, Michael. “Ghosts on the Piano.” May All Your Fences Have Gates: Essays on the
Drama of August Wilson. Ed. Alan Nadel. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1994.
105-115. Print.
"Notes from the Past." August Wilson. Peter Wolfe. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1988.
93-109. Twayne's United States Authors Series 712. Twayne's Authors on GVRL.
Web. 30 Mar. 2014.
"The Piano Lesson." Drama for Students. Ed. David M. Galens. Vol. 7. Detroit: Gale, 2000.
243-262. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.
Wilson, August. The Piano Lesson. New York: 1990. 1-108. Print.
Surprisingly, this novel ends with Boy Willie and Lymon going back to Mississippi without selling the piano. Finally, Boy Willie closes by telling Berniece that if she doesn’t keep playing on the piano, he and Sutter would both be back. In saying this, Boy Willie means that if they don’t keep their inheritance close to their heart, unfavorable events could begin happening once
The Piano Lesson written by August Wilson is a work that struggles to suggest how best African Americans can handle their heritage and how they can best put their history to use. This problem is important to the development of theme throughout the work and is fueled by the two key players of the drama: Berniece and Boy Willie. These siblings, who begin with opposing views on what to do with a precious family heirloom, although both protagonists in the drama, serve akin to foils of one another. Their similarities and differences help the audience to understand each individual more fully and to comprehend the theme that one must find balance between deserting and preserving the past in order to pursue the future, that both too greatly honoring or too greatly guarding the past can ruin opportunities in the present and the future.
As Floyd is falling down on the stage, my heart is teared apart resonating with miserable life of African-American people in 1940s Pittsburgh. I have seen how people struggle with their assigned and unfair destiny and how the brutal reality smashes their dreams and humanity; I have seen that there were a group of people singing, dreaming, fighting, loving and dying in the red-brick house, which I might pass by everyday, all in this masterpiece of August Wilson. It is always difficult to reopen the grievous wound of the dark period during America history; however, the hurtfulness would be the most effective way forcing people to reflect the consequence of history.
Conflicts and tensions between family members and friends are key elements in August Wilson's play, Fences. The main character, Troy Maxon, has struggled his whole life to be a responsible person and fulfill his duties in any role that he is meant to play. In turn, however, he has created conflict through his forbidding manner. The author illustrates how the effects of Troy's stern upbringing cause him to pass along a legacy of bitterness and anger which creates tension and conflict in his relationships with his family.
New York Times 7 May 1985: n. pag. Print. The. Wilson, August. Fences: A Play in Two Acts.
words so that the sound of the play complements its expression of emotions and ideas. This essay
Boren, Lynda S., and Sara DeSaussure Davis, eds. Kate Chopin Reconsidered: Beyond the Bayou. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1999. Print.
August Wilson was born in 1945, in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. He was one of the most acclaimed American playwrights of the 20th century. His plays won two Pulitzer Prizes in drama, one for Fences and the other for The Piano Lesson, eight New York Drama Critics ' Circle Awards, and the highest honor on Broadway, the Tony Award. He married three times. His first wife was Brenda Burton, a Muslim, with whom he had a daughter named Sakina Ansari. After the marriage ended in 1972, he later married his second wife, Judy Oliver, a white social worker, who fiscally supported him during the early years of his career as a playwright. After their divorce in 1990, he later married his third wife, Constanza Romero, a costume designer, with whom he had a daughter named Azula Carmen. He died of liver cancer on October 2, 2005. Then two weeks later, the Virginia Theatre in New York City was renamed the August Wilson Theatre in his honor. Then on May 30, 2007, the State of Pennsylvania designated his childhood home a historical landmark. His mother’s name was Daisy, similar to Rose, is the name of a flower which symbolizes the love, kindness, care, and upbringing mothers show their kids. She practically had to raise four kids alone because of the absence of support from her husband. She is an example of the silencing of women. She was in an interracial marriage, which caused them to move to a new neighborhood where she was a victim of racial prejudice. During this time, whenever someone fell victim to racial prejudice people usually threw bricks through their windows in order to intimidate them to leave, so this might have been one of the problems his mom faced along with feeling out of place and getting bitter looks from the neighbors
August Wilson’s play Fences brings an introspective view of the world and of Troy Maxson’s family and friends. The title Fences displays many revelations on what the meaning and significance of the impending building of the fence in the Maxson yard represents. Wilson shows how the family and friends of Troy survive in a day to day scenario through good times and bad. Wilson utilizes his main characters as the interpreters of Fences, both literally and figuratively. Racism, confinement, and protection show what Wilson was conveying when he chose the title Fences.
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
Gainor, J. Ellen., Stanton B. Garner, and Martin Puchner. The Norton Anthology of Drama, Shorter Edition. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2010. Print.
As the story unfolds, Tan suggests that the piano symbolizes different things. For Ni Kan, it is the unwanted pressure her mother inflicts upon. She argues, “Why don’t you like me the way I am? I’m not a genius! I can’t play the piano” (751). However, her mother sees it as a way for her daughter to become the best. Ultimately, the young girl decides to rebel against her mother’s wishes. During her piano lessons with Mr. Chong, her piano teacher, she learns easy ways to get out of practicing. Ni Kan discovers “that Old Chong’s eyes were too slow to keep up with the wrong notes [she] was playing” (751). As a result, Ni Kan performs miserably in a talent show where her parents and friends from the Joy Luck Club attend. Feeling the disapproval and shame from her mother, she decides to stop practicing the piano.
Akins, M. L. 1982 An analysis and Evaluation of selected methods for the beginning Private Piano student. PhD, Peabody College for Teachers, Vanderbilt University, USA.
Do you ever have one of those days when you remember your parents taking away all of your baseball cards or all of your comic books because you got a bad grade in one of your classes? You feel a little depressed and your priced possession has been stolen. This event is the same as August Wilson’s, The Piano Lesson. The story is about a sibling rivalry, Boy Willie Charles against Berniece Charles, regarding an antique, family inherited piano. Boy Willie wants to sell the piano in order to buy the same Mississippi land that his family had worked as slaves. However, Berniece, who has the piano, declines Boy Willie’s request to sell the piano because it is a reminder of the history that is their family heritage. She believes that the piano is more consequential than “hard cash” Boy Willie wants. Based on this idea, one might consider that Berniece is more ethical than Boy Willie.
Drama, and Writing. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 6th ed. New York: Pearson-Prentice, 2010. 40-49. Print.