The Piano Lesson Essay Research Paper free essay sample

The Piano Lesson Essay, Research Paper In the play, # 8220 ; The Piano Lesson # 8221 ; by August Wilson written in 1945, it showed the troubles in let go ofing the yesteryear and traveling frontward in one # 8217 ; s life. It besides centered on the struggles between brother and sister over differences in values and beliefs. For illustration, the brother, Boy Willie, wanted to sell the household piano so he can purchase his ain land to farm and get down a new life for himself. However, he was confronted by his sister, Berniece, who did non desire to sell the piano due to it # 8217 ; s rich and painful yesteryear that it represented. Therefore, the subject in # 8220 ; The Piano Lesson # 8221 ; shows the complexness of Afro-american attitudes toward the yesteryear and black heritage compared to programs for the hereafter. In add-on, # 8220 ; The Piano Lesson # 8221 ; is both alone to the quandary of African-Americans during the clip and universal in its word picture of the human status, which I will farther explicat e subsequently in this paper. We will write a custom essay sample on The Piano Lesson Essay Research Paper or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The two chief characters in this drama were Berniece and Boy Willie with the remainder of the household as back uping characters. Berniece was really recluse and held a batch of hurting inside after the decease of both her female parent and hubby. # 8220 ; She is still in mourning for her husband. # 8221 ; ( 1335 ) Boy Willie, on the other manus, was a loud and obstinate adult male who had his head set on selling the household piano from the oncoming of the drama and nil or no 1 was traveling to alter his head. # 8220 ; He is a brash and unprompted, chatty, and slightly rough in address and manner. # 8221 ; ( 1334 ) These features of the two chief characters refer back to the subject of this drama by exemplifying the attitudes of African-Americans towards the yesteryear, present and future. Boy Willie doesn # 8217 ; t want the yesteryear to keep him back in society and therefore wants to sell a portion of the yesteryear ( the household piano ) to enrich his hereafter. Berniece, nevertheless, is still transporting the yesteryear ( old luggage ) around and that past is keeping her back both economically and in her love life. The scene of this play took topographic point in the 1940s in the place of Doaker Charles, Berniece # 8217 ; s and Boy Willie # 8217 ; s uncle. It was through Doaker Charles # 8217 ; storytelling that revealed the true ground why Berniece did non desire to sell the piano. Berniece did non desire to sell the piano because her male parent died over it and her female parent used to clean the piano by rubbing it until she bleed. Besides, the piano has totems carved on the legs and other countries by a slave ascendant that told the whole household history of Boy Willie and Berniece. More disclosures of their household history are told by the rambling, travelling, imbibing adult male nicked named Wining Boy. He tells of a seamy relationship with Lymon # 8217 ; s female parent and brings intelligence about place, which is Mississippi. The scene of this drama farther complicated the state of affairs due to the storytelling of Doaker Charles and Wining Boy. Through the storytelling of Doa ker Charles and Wining Boy, we find out why it is so of import to maintain the piano in the household and non sell it. The household piano has a long household history, a history that influenced the present and to sell it would be like selling a portion of your yesteryear ; a portion of your heritage ; a portion of your psyche. # 8220 ; The Piano Lesson # 8221 ; had such writing elements as symbols. For case, throughout the whole drama, the piano played an of import and cardinal symbol. The piano symbolized Berniece # 8217 ; s and Boy Willie # 8217 ; s hereditary household tree with the cravings on the piano legs and other countries of the piano which in-turn represented Afro-american yesteryear ( bondage ) and at the same clip it represented the hereafter in Berniece # 8217 ; s girl, Maretha, who besides loved to play on the piano. A portion of the narrative that I found confounding and self-contradictory was Berniece # 8217 ; s attitude towards her girl, Maretha, playing the household piano and yet will non state her of it # 8217 ; s past. Berniece besides sends her to a private school frequently castigating her non to demo her colour at that place. Harmonizing to Berniece, she didn # 8217 ; t want to burthen her girl with the yesteryear. I got Maretha playing on it. She don’t cognize nil about it. Let her travel on and be a school teacher or something. She don’t have to transport all of that with her. She got a opportunity I didn’t have. I ain’t gon na burthen her with that piano.† ( 1367 ) With this quotation mark from Berniece, it was like she wanted her girl to be all that she can be without the cognition of the piano # 8217 ; s history and therefore doing farther confusion and sense of duty of maintaining the household heritage of the piano alive. She wanted her girl to hold a normal life without the load of cognizing the full narrative behind the household piano # 8217 ; s yesteryear. This manner of believing for Berniece farther proves my point in my subject that there is a sense of complexness of Afro-american attitudes towards the yesteryear, present and future. If the household piano is such an of import portion of this household # 8217 ; s history, the narrative behind the piano should be told to Berniece # 8217 ; s girl to farther maintain the heritage alive and non allow it vanish from history. In add-on to the self-contradictory attitude towards her girl, Berniece was besides confused herself with the challenge of raising her girl entirely after the los s of her hubby and pursued by the ambitious Reverend Avery and so subsequently by the misplaced psyche, Lymon. Berniece # 8217 ; s hereafter in love terminals ambivalently. Even though Berniece # 8217 ; s hubby has been dead for three old ages, she is still non ready to perpetrate to neither another long-run relationship nor matrimony. This deficiency of committedness can be seen in the undermentioned transition from Berniece: # 8220 ; I know how long Crawley # 8217 ; s been dead. You ain # 8217 ; t got to state me that. I merely ain # 8217 ; t ready to acquire married right now. # 8221 ; ( 1366 ) At the terminal of the drama, Boy Willie and Berniece eventually came to footings with the shades of the yesteryear, which were obliging them to take their bases about the piano. Some household members, particularly Boy Willie, challenged the usage of the shade returning to stalk the household. For case, Boy Willie came to footings with the shades of the yesteryear and the piano by recognizing the true value of the piano wasn # 8217 ; t pecuniary but was emotional and decided non to prosecute the thought of selling the household piano. Berniece, nevertheless, came to footings with the shades of the yesteryear and the piano by all of a sudden playing on the piano after shuting the piano doors behind her and non played of all time since the decease of her female parent. Harmonizing to Berniece, # 8220 ; When my mamma died I shut the top on that piano and I ain # 8217 ; t neer opened it since. # 8221 ; ( 1367 ) In decision, the piano serves as a metaphor for the bequest of the yesteryear ( bondage ) that has brought these characters to this point in life. What they do with that bequest is that point of the narrative. The attitudes presented by the two chief characters of this drama ( Berniece and Boy Willie ) demonstrate the complex thought of African-Americans depicted in this dramatic drama. For illustration, Berniece wants to transport the load of her painful yesteryear with her yet she doesn # 8217 ; t want to go through the history and the history of the household piano down to her girl. Boy Willie, nevertheless, wants to let go of the past and sell the household piano so he can hold a new start in life and therefore bury the painful yesteryear. Further, # 8220 ; The Piano Lesson # 8221 ; is both alone to the predicament of African-Americans and cosmopolitan in its word picture of the human status. The sibling competition, past history versus present clip and hereafter, storytelling and gender relationships all cross both alone and cosmopolitan boundaries. To exemplify, even in today # 8217 ; s society there are sibling competition that pit brother against sister, brother against brother or sister against sister together to the point of acrimonious conflict. In add-on, there are still people in today # 8217 ; s society that have troubles in deciding painful past experiences with the present and future. In respects to gender relationships, there are still a batch of enigmas in the kingdom of love between two people. Therefore, even though the subject of this drama surrounds itself around African-Americans, the state of affairs can easy be applied to all races and clip periods.