Quotes From The Piano Lessons

In The Piano Lesson, by August Wilson, Boy Willie struggles with a burning desire for control which leads him to try to forget his past, specifically Sutter’s ownership of his ancestors. His failure to do so reveals your past is a part of you, and it is impossible to escape it. Throughout the play, Boy Willie wanted nothing but to sell the piano and got into many heated arguments with Berniece as a result. The act of selling the piano was not exclusively for the money, Boy Willie wanted to overcome his past, he could not bear to be reminded of his family’s slavery. Boy Willie wanted desperately to buy Sutter’s land, but it was not for the land itself. He could have easily bought other pieces of property, but he exclusively wanted Sutter’s.

He wanted to not only erase his past, but write over it. He wanted to be the one in control, and him buying the land was his way of getting even with Sutter. His failure and immense struggle with Sutter shows how futile it is to try and resist your past.
During the final section of the play, Boy Willie fought Sutter in a life or death match, one that he was clearly losing.

Sutter himself could be seen as the manifestation of Boy Willie’s memories of oppression, his ghost had followed him and brutally attacked Boy Willie. The only way he could be rid of this oppression was with Berniece playing the piano, which served to remind Boy Willie of his heritage, and all of the struggles and hardships that his family had risen above. Sutter’s departure clearly indicates Boy Willie’s acceptance of his past, and lead to him finally coming to terms with the oppression he has felt. Boy Willie had fought so hard to be rid of his bad memories and his heritage itself, but even he could not best his past. This further supports the deeper meaning to the play, the inevitability of one’s past being a part of the present, it is impossible to run from

it.
Sutter took a lot from Boy Willie, especially mentally. Boy Willie’s desire to do everything his own way and to work for no man but himself is a result of Sutter’s virtual ownership of him. He never wanted to feel powerless again, nor rely on anyone else but himself. He bitterly fought his past, attempting to completely block it out by getting rid of anything remotely connected to his slavery. Through his anger, he only saw what the piano meant to him, he could not see what the piano meant to others. The severity of his insecurities are constantly brought up indirectly when it is mentioned just how long and how often Boy Willie has been trying to sell the piano. Throughout the years his anger and his sense of loss could not be healed, and this is due to Boy Willie not facing his past. Him living in denial is what caused him such pain, he would not accept what had happened, and what his family had done; therefore he could not move on from it.
Boy Willie’s evident pain and dissatisfaction are shown when he speaks to Berniece about the pointlessness of raising children in a world such as the one they lived in.

He looked at the past, and judged the future by saying this. In his past all he saw was oppression to him and his family, therefore he had no hope of this changing in the future. This not only gives evidence to the futility of running from your past, but also the consequences of trying to do so. All Boy Willie received for fighting his past were more wounds than he had had in the first place. He bottled up his emotions and attempted to disguise them by focussing on what he could do with Sutter’s land and how much selling the piano could help Berniece as well as him. Evidently this backfired extremely and was the source of all his anger towards anyone trying to get in his way or “control” him. He could never again live with being owned, and thus was incredibly defensive and hostile when anyone tried to make even a simple suggestion. In the end, he realized this, which is why he told Berniece to never stop playing that piano, which really meant never forget about their heritage and what their family had struggled through. This was the only way Boy Willie could live his life in peace, by accepting his past. Anything less would have killed

him.