The Piano Lesson, is a play by playwright August Wilson. This play was part of Wilson’s The Pittsburg Cycle and was released in 1987. This play is centered around the conflict of a brother, Boy Willie, and sister, Berniece, trying to figure out what to do with their heirloom of a piano. Throughout the play the theme of in order to build a better future you must look to the pass is presented in numerous ways. For example, the piano itself represents a mirror to look into the pass. Another example are the characters thoughts on what to do with the piano that help convey the theme as well.
Initially, the piano itself is a symbol of Berniece and Boy Willie’s past. The piano was from the family’s time in slavery. The piano was bought because their
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slave master sold members of their family. The piano reminds the siblings of their past because of the carving of their family that their great grandfather made on the piano. “He got all kinds of things what happened with our family. When Mr. Sutter seen the piano with all them carvings on it he got mad. He didn’t ask for all that. But see... there wasn’t nothing he could do about it.” (Wilson, Act 1, Scene 2). These carvings remind the siblings of the strength and courage that their family went through in order to steal back the piano and create a better future. Additionally, the thoughts of what the siblings want to do with the piano contributes to the theme of looking to the pass to create a better future.
In the play Boy Willie wants to sell the piano in order to buy the land the family was once slaves on. Boy Willie claims that “If my daddy had seen where he could have traded that piano in for some land of his own, it wouldn’t be sitting up here now. He spent his whole life farming on somebody else’s land. I ain’t gonna do that.” (Act 1, Scene 2). Boy Willie is looking at his family past as slaves and wants to buy the land in order to show that he’s creating a better future by selling the piano. On the other hand, his sister Berniece wants to keep the piano to keep the piano to remember the memories of her family in order to create her better future. Beatrice in Act 1, Scene 2 states, “Money can’t buy what that piano cost. You can’t sell your soul for money. It won’t go with the buyer. It’ll shrivel and shrink to know that you ain’t taken on to it. But it won’t go with the buyer”. Beatrice in this quote is stating how money won’t replace the memories that piano has. Beatrice uses the piano as a reminded of what her family went through and uses that to stay strong while being a single
mom. In summary, The Piano Lesson by August Wilson is an interesting play that deals with many compelling ideas and emotions. The main theme of the play is in order to build a better future you must look to the pass. The use of the piano and the siblings in this play help convey this message in a settle and interesting way.
The piano is what sets the mood of the whole piece, the beginning starts off slow and gloomy sounding, then the vocalist begins to sing and confirms that this song is going to be unhappy. Although the song is gloomy sounding, I still like it, the piano has a pleasant melody and it is calming. It sounds like a song that should be played in a movie when a loved one dies and everyone’s moored at a funeral.
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.
... of the fact that he he finally expressed his emotions in class, his pupil Paul will show emotions during playing the piano, thus instead of being just a "good pianist" he would become a "great pianist". To sum up, Peter Goldsworthy in his novel Maestro demonstrates that how the past cannot be left behind, mainly because as nearly every events that have happened before affects on human's life either in a small or large way.
In all relationships and situations, we find that restrictions pop up and fade at the most inconvenient times. We can’t control those we love and we certainly cannot change them. All we can do is sit back and hope one day, they will see the truth and we will support them. Throughout Wilmer Mills’ poem “Diary of a Piano-Tuner’s Wife”, the speaker demonstrates several situations where her love and commitment has been pushed to its limits and has been questioned. She is pushed beyond reasonable distances and wants to help but is stuck and can’t provide reasons for what is happening. I can relate to this since the day I turned 8 and everything changed. I suppose we have to accept what has happened is over and done, and hope that one day, someone
However, his desire conflicts with the racial situation during the time of the play. The play is set during a time when blacks were primarily slaves and considered property. They also didn't own any property. His belief that he is of equal standing with a white man could probably be traced to his lineage with the piano. The piano had symbolized his ancestors since the piano has been around during his grandfather's ...
As duke’s piano lessons faded into the past, Duke began to show an interest for the artistic. Duke went to Armstrong Manual Tra...
After Jing-Mei’s mother passes away she started looking at the piano with admiration. She sat down at it and started playing after all those years. At first, she thought that she would have forgotten how to play, but she seemed to have picked up right where she left off. The piano is the symbolism; Jing-Mei sits down to play the piano at the end of the story. By doing this it shows th...
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
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.
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.
Objectives for Elementary level Piano Instruction: A Survey and comparison of the Objectives of Piano/ piano Pedagogy Teachers. EdD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Fences is a play that was written by August Wilson, it follows the life of Tony Maxson, a garbage man, who throughout the play is building a fence around his home. The title, Fences, has more significance than one may have thought at first glance. The title is very symbolic in the perspective of almost every character in the play. Within Act 2, Scene 1 of the play, when discussing the reason as to why Rose wanted the fence up, with Cory and Troy, Bono says “Some people build fences to keep people out… and other people build fences to keep people in. Rose wants to hold on to you all. She loves you.”. In the perspective of Rose, she wants to keep people in and with Troy it is the complete opposite.
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.
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.