Critique of The Piano Lesson
*No Works Cited
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 firmly states his convictions about what it means for black people to assimilate into American society. It means they have to give up their black culture in the ways of music, speech, heritage and community. As expected, Wilson sympathizes with the character of Bernice because he is unwilling to part with his culture and folkways just as Bernice refuses to give up her piano. Boy Willie must fight Sutter's ghost to rid the family of the dark and painful past they share. Bernice must play the piano to face her heritage, thereby accepting the slavery of her grandparents, not dismissing it. The main theme here is not to forget their past, but rather to confront it. Wilson sets his characters free from painful memories of slavery via the lessons learned from the piano's existence. Wilson renders a tight thesis about how African-Americans struggle to assimilate into the mainstream yet retain their inherent sub-culture.
Wilson is an author of meaningful words. His portrayal of African-American lineag...
... middle of paper ...
...on, conviction and resolve topped my mind. This play gets you to think about the society in which you live, whether you consciously do so or not. It is thought-provoking to say the very least! Not only do you find yourself replaying the scenes in your mind, but you must come to your own resolve about them. You will find yourself immersed in the plight of the slaves, their children and generations to come. This play stays with you for a long time after the curtain falls. The soulful cry of the music will haunt you, too, if you resist! I say that because the human spirit has no color or prejudice. It is the tie that binds us all. We all have the same spirit from the same maker, no matter how we chose to address or express it. And that spirit will not be deterred by anything because it is eternal. We are all cut from the same piece of cloth, whether we like it or not.
The film observes and analyzes the origins and consequences of more than one-hundred years of bigotry upon the ex-slaved society in the U.S. Even though so many years have passed since the end of slavery, emancipation, reconstruction and the civil rights movement, some of the choice terms prejudiced still engraved in the U.S society. When I see such images on the movie screen, it is still hard, even f...
... to those viewing the performance. The audience must focus their attention of the happenings and the words being portrayed on stage or screen or they will easily miss the double meaning Stoppard intended in each scene of the play. The human motivation is inseparably connected with the theme of life and death that runs through the play, for it is as the two are about to die that they observe that maybe they could have made a different decision, one that would let them remain alive and free they only missed their opportunity to make that choice. Stoppard wanted his play to express more meaning and different messages to his audience but he desired for them to search the play and pay close attention to the different meanings present so they could gain the most possible from the play and those who did not understand would walk away not understanding how much they missed.
Firstly let us consider conflict. In each act of the play, we see the overpowering desire to belong leading to a climax of conflict amongst the characters, which has the consequence of exclusion. Conflict is a successful literary technique, as it engages the audience and focuses our attention on the issue of conflict and exclusion, brought about by the characters’ desires to be accepted by their community.
This is a lesson that is still relevant today. Though the acting and dialogue seem to appeal to an older audience, young viewers can still enjoy and learn from this play. Prejudice, suspicion, and thoughtlessness are as prevalent as ever. For any problem, humans will look for a scapegoat. The War on Terror seems to bring similar feelings as those around during the Cold War.
the main theme of the play. With out this scene in the play I don’t
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.
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.
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.
... generations. Racial tensions have resulted in tragedies; Clay’s murder in the end of the play is a symbolic portrayal of an innocent man attacked for the color of his skin and nothing more. The art of theatre attacks the audience to consider these social issues. At the end of Dutchman the audience is left uncomfortable, shocked and left to piece together the role of Lula, Clay and the flying Dutchman subway cart are metaphors for problems greater than the play’s conflict.
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
Some say that this play is racial in that the family is black, and what the family is going through could only happen to people of that race. One prominent racial is...
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.
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 play's climactic resolution.