Throughout the play the characters past plays a huge part in the meaning of the work and the work as a whole in general. The Piano Lesson is a work in which the characters acceptance and acknowledgement of their past is clearly stated to be an important aspect of the play. This is displayed through all the characters but made most evident in Boy Willie. Boy Willie struggles throughout the play not physically but mentally. He displays this through his arguments with Bernice, his values and the way that he conducts himself in general.This is due to how he was raised and the impact of the values of his father on him and his character. In August Wilson's The Piano Lesson Boy Willie struggles with the values in which his father raised him which …show more content…
This can be shown through literal statements in which he explains that something is the right thing to do because that is what his father would have done. In addition to less literal displays in which he acts in a way which portrays his father's character. For example from the beginning of the play we see Boy Willie is selling watermelons. It is explained that he is doing this in order to buy Sutter's land. THis is essential to Boy Willie because he felt the need to “conquer” Sutter and almost get a sense of revenge. This is displayed as one of his father's values because his father believed in looking strong and valued wealth. THis can be displayed in many other examples such as when he speaks to Bernice of what they should do with the piano. For example Boy Willie States in the play that their dad would have wanted them to sell the piano. This displays yet another effect on Boy Willie's character due to his father's values because he displays his father's value of wealth once again. However this additionally displays his idea of using what you have to it's potential. This displayed this because as Boy Willie states if Bernice is not making money off of it then somebody else should. This applies to a value of his fathers because of the fact that there is no meaning to have something which does not have a purpose or use to
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.
In The Piano Lesson, written by August Wilson, Boy Willie devises a scheme for buying Sutter’s land. Boy Willie has one part of the money saved up. He will sell the watermelons for the second part. Then he will sell the piano for a third part. The only debating issue in Boy Willie’s scheme is the piano. Berniece does not want to sell the piano. This is the only reason for a defense in Boy Willie’s scheme. Therefore, I will defend Boy Willie’s issue of selling the piano and how that liberates him in reference to his scheme for buying Sutter’s land.
Boy Willie is the protagonist in the play The Piano Lesson, which is written by August Wilson. He is a foil character to his sister Berniece. He wants to sell the family piano. His biggest obstacle is his past, and his sister. Berniece wants to salvage the piano and keep it as a namesake. The quarrels revolving around legacies is the central conflict of the play. Boy Willie’s “Super-objective” contains two parts: fear and legacy resulting in memory.
In The Piano Lesson by August Wilson, Berniece and Boy Willie are siblings who both want the piano that belongs to their family. Berniece wants to keep the piano because it holds their family history and it reminds her of the hard work her mother put into the piano. However, Boy Willie wants to sell the piano to buy land from Sutter’s brother because to him the land, like the piano, are both a part of his family’s history and both represent being free from Sutter. Both siblings fight over who has more rights to the piano and deserves it. In August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, Berniece struggles with being able to embrace her past and acknowledge its importance. Which reveals that instead of hiding the past we should embrace it and let it help
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.
Conventional wisdom has it that negotiation proves to be the driving force for peace of human order. With negotiation comes compromise, which pleasantly results in satisfaction from each standpoint. At the same time that I believe these generalizations, I also believe that before this tranquility can occur arguments must sturdily be assembled. In August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, the Charles family owns a magnificent piano containing their family’s strenuous and heartfelt history by means of its carvings. Berniece and Boy Willie, grown siblings with a tense relationship, cannot agree on whether to sell the piano to fund Boy Willie’s land ownership, or to hold the piano with Berniece. Although Berniece does not say so directly, she apparently assumes that the only way to honor their ancestors is to keep the piano. Boy Willie, however, presents his argument, which supports the selling of the piano, in a more effective manner by swiftly blending the appeals of logos, pathos, and ethos.
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.
... morals and personality towards his goals and at the same time trying to pass those values onto his sons, making him lose their respect, which is one of the many reasons that ended up taking his life. For the most part one can see that issues like Willys cannot only be seen or heard of in a play but also in the real world. Everybody in general wants to conform and be liked in today's competitive society, which is one of the reasons why many people don't get to accomplish the things they want to accomplish because they are either to scared or don't have the courage to step out of the social norms and achieve what they what to achieve. If anyone learns anything from this tragic character, one can say that truly knowing ones-self can really help in the long run because if one doesn't know who they are, they can end up leading a miserable life, in a miserable world.
The piano lesson is an old movie based off a piano as willie boy and Lymon came into town in a truck with full of watermelons on the back to sell they came to see there old friends and family but all awhile willie boy plans is to sell the piano so that he can buy land from sutter. Bernice is not going for selling the piano at all due to it being something valuable to the family so its becomes a task for him. In addittion now there's a ghost in the house which suppose to be sutter as thw ghost appears around the house and plays the piano. As things get intense with wille boy trying anything in his power to get that piano.
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
Everyone comes from a culture that has endured great sadness and hardship, but also great happiness and celebration. However, many people fail to connect and embrace both the negative and positive experiences that help to define one's heritage and culture. In The Piano Lesson, by August Wilson, one African-American family struggles to embrace and come to terms with their families’ difficult past in slavery. Starring two siblings, Berniece and Boy Willie, the play revolves on an argument of whether to keep one of their families’ artifacts from slavery, a piano. The piano is no regular piano though, for it was carved and decorated with the memories and images of their old family members. Moreover, it was crafted by their enslaved ancestors who
In the play “The Piano Lesson”, by August Wilson the character Doaker is a 47 year old man who lives in Pittsburgh with his niece, Berniece, and her daughter, Maretha. The main conflict in the first act of the play is whether or not they sell the piano. Berniece is against selling it and Boy Willie wants to sell it. Boy Willie does not understand why Berniece won’t sell the piano, but Doaker knows she never will. On pages 42-45, Doaker explains to Lymon why she would never sell the piano. He is explaining the story of how the piano came into their possession. He tells Lymon how it was originally Mr. Nolanders piano and he traded it for Doaker’s grandmother and father to Mr. Sutter, who wanted it as a gift for his wife. The wife soon missed Berniece and Boy Charles but Mr. Nolander wouldn’t trade them back.
In the Piano Lesson by August Wilson, Berniece and Boy Willie both have extremely different views on what should be done with the piano. Boy Willie throughout the play seems to be emotionally detached from the piano, while in contrast, Berniece seems unwilling to ever let the piano go. For Berniece, the piano embodies their family legacy because of the three generations carved into the sides of the piano. However, for Boy Willie, the piano represents a new start by using the piano to purchase Sutter’s land. Both Boy Willie and Berniece feel entitled to the piano, and in the final scenes of the play, Berniece is almost forced to kill Boy Willie in order to keep possession of the piano. However, with the appearance of Sutter’s ghost, Bernice