The Piano Lesson By August Wilson

Thesis: In the short stories The Charmer, Love Must Not Be Forgotten, and The Address, one’s past experiences have a profound effect on their development as an individual.

"The Charmer" by Budge Wilson is a short story about a Canadian family that finds misfortune and conflict within their lives. Conflict being the predominant theme which directly affects all the participants in the family. The story is written in third person and narrated from the young girl Winifred's point of view. Budge Wilson uses Zack's smothered childhood, charming personality and irresponsible behaviour to create emotional conflict between members of the family.

Fences, written by August Wilson, is a play about a man, named Troy, struggling to support his family during the late 1950’s. In this play, we see that Troy hurts the people closest to him. He has been uncaring towards his wife, Rose, his brother Gabriel and his son, Cory. This is because Troy had nothing to go on but the harsh example set by his father. In Fences, Troy has felt like he has been fenced in all of his life, which causes him to fence others in.

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

Most people cannot see reality as it truly is from their eyes. In Athol Fugard’s Master Harold… and the Boys, he shows the apartheid between blacks and whites in South Africa. While some of these white people wanted to end apartheid, other people who lived with apartheid for their whole lives do not see the wrongs with it. These people want change, but do not know that they are the issue which is known as a psychological barrier. In the play, Athol Fugard uses Willie who struggles with a psychological barrier, how Wille’s psychological barrier motivates his actions and how Willie’s barrier is altered by the end of the play to prove how Willie is affected negatively by apartheid.

In the Fences, by August Wilson shows that life of African Americans in the U.S. in the 1950s with the story of Troy and his family. Wilson uses the symbol of the fence to show the desires of each character like Rose’s desire is to keep her family together, Troy’s desire is to keep death out and to be not bound forever, and Bono’s desire is to follow Troy, his best friend, as an example of the right way to live and to be with Rose and Troy who are basically his family. Rose and the other seen characters represent people and show gender roles of the time, like Rose is a housewife, Troy is the provider. Also Cory is the new generation of emotion over responsibility, Gabriel represents the war heros that were permanently disabled from war

Growing up, most parents want what is best for their children with the hope that they will lead a better life than the one they had. On the surface, this does not seem to be the case in the relationship between Troy and Cory in August Wilson’s Fences. Troy was a hardworking man who did all he can to provide for his family. Cory worked equally as hard in his athletic career. Troy made a decision to end Cory’s football career out of protection but Cory viewed it as his father’s jealousy. Troy’s rough attitude and relationship towards Cory stems from multiple sources: Troy’s relationship with his own father, his jail time, the fact that he did not make the Major Leagues in baseball due to discrimination, and his reluctance to accept the idea that the times have changed. Each of these plays a distinct role in their relationship, ultimately cultivating in Troy losing Cory for good.

Have you ever seen a father really not enjoy the presence of his own sons? In the book Fences, a man named Troy has a very interesting relationship with his sons. Troy puts his personal interests in front of his own son’s dream which causes conflict between Troy’s sons and himself.

When men reach a certain age, they tend to look back into their lives and reflect on their struggles and accomplishments more than they look forward. It is this mid life crisis where they decide what man they have been in their life. The plays: Fences by August Wilson and A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry tell the story of two men reaching a certain age, one would consider a midlife crisis and have a similar background or story but when they look back will they see the same thing. Both of these plays take place during the same time period, they are set just a decade before the civil rights movement. The two of these plays follow the lives of two African American men and their families fighting racism in their lives being segregated and discriminated against. Both Troy Maxon and Walter Younger are men who are struggling and working through tough situations and hardships but who are they working for? It is this question’s answer that leads to the major differences the men have between them behind the large similarities they share. Before getting to there differences let us break down and analyze the similarities to show how much the mindset of a character can affect one’s outcome

August Wilson’s plays relate directly to his African heritage, and were and are a part of his success. His expression of the struggles of the blacks

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.

Throughout history, civilizations have built fences to keep enemies out and keep those they want to protect inside. In society today, people create metaphorical fences in order to fence in their feelings, while others create literal fences in order to keep the unwanted away. In the play Fences, the Maxon family lives in 1950’s America whose love for sports and one another are questioned at times when they need to be together the most. In the play Fences by August Wilson, two main characters Troy and Cory Maxon build a fence, literally and metaphorically, which as the book progresses, becomes a symbol that allows each character to truly understand each other.

Throughout many works of literature, characters are described to go through a rite of passage, developing the plot and solving conflicts. A rite of passage is when a character goes through life changes, realizing his/her flaws and maturing as a person. Walter Lee Younger is a man that goes through many different character changes, which cause conflict amongst the other characters. Once he goes through his rite of passage, he is able to fix his flaws and mature. In Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, characterization is used to portray that one must experience a rite of passage in order to mature.

Boy Willie, however, wants to release the past and sell the family piano so he can have a new start in life and forget the painful past. "The Piano Lesson" is both unique to the plight of African-Americans and universal in its depiction of the human condition (Gale, 2000, p249). The sibling rivalry, past history versus present time and future, storytelling and gender relationships all cross both unique and universal boundaries. To illustrate, even in today's society there are sibling rivalry that pit brother against sister, brother against brother or sister against sister together to the point of bitter battle. In addition, there are still people in today's society that have difficulties in resolving painful past experiences with the present and future. In regards to gender relationships, there are still a lot of mysteries in the realm of love between two people. 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” (Sparknotes, 2014). Therefore, even though the theme of this play surrounds itself around African-Americans, the situation can easily be applied to all races and time periods.

The main conflict of the play is the 137 year old piano, which holds the key to the family history. A history which is physically represented in the piano itself both by the spirit believed to be held within and in the many sophisticated carvings.