August Ferguson The Piano Lesson

In America, the lives of Africans did not get any easier. Once the demand for labor began increasing dramatically, more and more Africans were imported to America. Originally, white people and black people worked together in the plantations. As a result of the increase in Africans in these British colonies, less white people took jobs on plantations. Eventually, enslavement became based on race. Numerous slave codes were developed, which included denying slaves the right to be out past sunset and denying slaves the right to meet in groups of three or more. These Africans forced to live enslaved in America were treated as if they were inferior to white people. It is discouraging to think about the fact that this country, though it was long ago, once accepted this kind of social injustice.

We have all sat through multiple history classes and learned about slavery, segregation, and the Civil War. We have all seen brutal movies and presentations based on racial injustices and the lack of equality. So often, we forget that these issues are still so present in our community. Slavery is illegal in the United States but other forms of racial profiling, insensitivity, and racism continue to be a recurring social barrier. Racism is still very much alive. The United States is “equal” yet somehow segregated. There isn’t quite a quick fix to this problem. Clearly, this has been an ongoing issue and requires major progression in our personal global

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

In The Piano Lesson, by August Wilson, Berniece struggles with her personal connection with the piano. Her families past reveal her relationship with the piano. The piano meant a lot of things to a lot of different people over the years. The piano is a complex and multilayers symbol; its meanings are both personal and political. For example, Berniece was affected by the piano positively and negatively. She had a sentimental connection with it and never wanted to get rid of it. But the piano had a lot of history behind it and it also carries a lot of meaning to it. Berniece stopped playing the piano for a while because of all the spirits inside of it and how they started to haunt other people. Berniece saw Boy Willie getting attacked by Sutter’s ghost and that made her realize she needs to let go of the past and play the piano again. But what was ironic is that she tried her best to forget the family history that came with the piano, she can never let go of her families past no matter what she does. This reveals that people should come to good terms with their past and learn to overcome it.

Boy Willie states, “Papa Boy Charles brought that piano into the house. Now I’m supposed to build on what they left me. You can’t do nothing with that piano siting up here in the house” (Wilson 51). If he sells the piano, Boy Willie will be able to build a life for himself. Berniece says, “Money can’t buy what that piano cost. You can’t sell your soul for money” (Wilson 50). She believes if they sell the piano, she risks losing part of her identity. With tender sentiment, Berniece relishes the determination of her ancestors to appreciate life and the love they had for one another in the face of slavery. Boy Willie says, “See, you just looking at the sentimental value…You can sit up here and look at that piano for the next hundred years and it’s just gonna be a piano” (Wilson 51). Berniece’s pertinacious refusal to part with the piano emanates from her sentimental devotion to it and the memory of her ancestors. Therefore, Berniece characterizes herself through the piano as it brings the beauty of the past generations to their lives (Wilson 50, 52). Boy Willie defines himself as an African American who declares his equality as a man and seeks to enhance his self-worth by becoming a land owner (Wilson 51, 94). Therefore, he values the piano for its potential to raise his personal quality of life through a financial gain. The significance of the piano resides in the differing viewpoints of each sibling.

In the play The Piano Lesson by August Wilson, readers are introduced to an African American family that has faced a dark past regarding slavery. The conflict between Berniece and Boy Willie over a piano that holds the family’s history is the very premise of the story. However, Boy Willie is most deserving of the piano because it would be an opportunity for him to transition from being an African slave to becoming an African American land owner. Therefore, Boy Willie can pursue the American dream by selling the piano, buying land and using it to earn a living.

In August Wilson’s Piano Lesson Berniece struggles with the past of her family and the violence that is within her family. She de-contextualizes the piano by not telling Maretha about her relatives, whose images are carved into the piano and keeping her in the dark when it comes to her family and the past. With Berniece struggling to keep Boy Willie from selling the piano for land she slowly starts to realize that maybe the uplift that the family needs is just remembrance of their family and their past. The piano is symbol for the legacy or past of relatives and by playing the piano at the end of the play shows that remembering your family’s past or carrying on their Legacy in the smallest way shows that wherever they are that they’re rejoiced

He’ll be able to “put [his] mark on the road”, reclaim the land his ancestors toiled upon (Wilson 94). By selling the piano, Boy Willie believes he will be fulfilling his father’s wish of economic security and the full-circle comeuppance of purchasing the Sutter land as he intended when he stole the piano from the Sutter home. He sees it as his opportunity to prove his equal worth to the white man, seeing it as something “he could build on” (Wilson 46). Boy Willie focuses primarily on the paternal legacy and relation to this piano, fostering a gendered reading of this dichotomy in opinions on the piano’s future. His justification behind selling the piano focuses solely on his belief of his father’s intentions behind stealing the piano, ignoring the female interactions prior to and following that event.

In August Wilson's The Piano Lesson, Berniece, struggles with accepting her past which reveals how close she was to her family's values. Berniece loses her father, Boy Charles and has a hard time accepting that. In the play, the piano symbolizes the father and thats why its so hard to let go.

The entire play takes place in the home of Berniece Charles. Berniece’s brother, Boy Willie, arrives for the sole purpose of selling the family piano to earn enough money to buy the land of a departed white man,

The Piano Lesson is a masterpiece in itself, earning a Pulitzer Prize in 1990. However, this particular play has elements not typical of modern plays. It has the quintessential plot that encompasses a conflict. On the surface, the conflict is between Boy Willie and his sister, Bernice. However, beneath that conflict, lies the symbolism of the characters. Boy Willie symbolizes the American way or the white man's culture. Bernice is the African-American way, staying true to her roots and not parting with the heritage. Although she finds this painful, she will not part with her heritage. Her heritage is tangible in the presence of the piano itself. Within the presence of the piano, August Wilson

While Berniece has great sentimental value for the piano, Boy Willie saw it as an opportunity to build on what's left. Even though Boy Willie saw the piano as an opportunity to escape sharecropping, he didn't forget all about their ancestor, and their traumatic story because throughout the play, he shared the family history with Maretha (Berniece daughter), which Berniece doesn’t want her to know about due to the fact that it's too painful. Boy Willie stated that, "The only thing make that piano worth something is them carvings Papa Willie Boy put on there… That was my great-granddaddy. Papa Boy Charles brought that piano into the house. Now, I'm supposed to build on what they left me. (p. 160)” Boy Willie sees the piano as hope to break the family's tradition of sharecropping, he wants to use what's left by their family to build for the future, because if he could sell the piano, and buy the land, sharecropping wouldn't be a struggle for them

Winner of multiple awards such as the Tony Award, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and the Pulitzer Prize, August Wilson is known most for his forceful cultural plays. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Wilson was born to a white father that later abandoned his family, and a black mother. Wilson dropped out of school in the ninth grade after being accused of plagiarism. Wilson after went to public libraries and read various books; this was an initiation for Wilson and his successful future. When Wilson first started writing he didn’t think he was able to write his own works because of such great writers before him. “Quote black literature criticism”. However

Growing up, did you ever have a day where you came home from having a bad day and because of so, your parents take away your games or phone privileges? You may throw a fit or even get a little saddened because your most cherished items were taking away from you. What you are going through is exactly what is happening in The Piano Lesson by August Wilson. The play follows two siblings, Boy Willie Charles and Berniece Charles, who have allowed a vintage inherited family piano to cause a rivalry between the two. Boy Willie have come across land in Mississippi that he would like to purchase; land his ancestors were slaves on.

In The Piano Lesson each central character learns a lesson. August Wilson uses plenty of symbolism throughout his play, the strongest symbol being the piano itself, representing the family's history, their long struggle, and their burden of their race. Throughout the play, the conflict revolves around the piano, and Berniece and Boy Willie's contrasting views about its significance and about what should be done with it. Berniece is ashamed and cannot let go of the past, or the piano, and Boy Willie wants to move his life forward, and use the piano to do so. Wilson portrays the 'lesson' of the piano as accepting and respecting one's past and moving on with one's life gracefully, through Berniece and Boy Willies contrasting actions and the