To put it mildly, black people's lives in the South after the Civil War were complicated. On paper, Africans were then allowed to act and live however they wished. But that independence was elusive because of the part they had played ever since coming to America. The majority of people did not want black people to achieve any kind of social standing because they did not believe that they would ever be anything other than what they currently were. Even though the law stated all men were free and had rights, most people in the South had no interest in permitting anything that remotely resembled equality for black men and women. In The Piano Lesson, August Wilson intricately weaves a story around two siblings who for very different reasons wish to control possession of a family heirloom: a handcrafted piano (Singleton 49). This paper will illustrate how the two siblings viewed life and the implication of theme towards the blacks in the South in the early 1900s.
The Piano Lesson fights with the problem of what African American can do with the cultural heritage. Brother and sister Boy Willie and Bernice are two sides of the same coin. In his article Aspects of Africanness in August Wilson’s Drama: Reading the Piano Lesson through Wole Soyinka’s Drama, Amadou Bissiri states that August Wilson has dedicated himself to writing a cycle of plays dramatizing black experience during crucial historical periods order to play out his individual sense of commitment to the cause of black men and women to tell American history (Bissiri 99). True to the history of the time, Wilson has displayed the differences between the brother and sister based on their experiences.
Boy Willie and Bernice are both trying to hold on to the piano. However, their reasons could not be more different. For Boy Willie, the piano represents his ticket to a better life. Growing up in the South so soon after Emancipation, he has a clear view of what is necessary for him to raise his social status. He can recognize the connection between the property and social status. Sadly, this was made clear because he can equate the value of slaves to the level of prosperity, and he desires to rise above the level of a slave. Bernice, on the other hand, wants to hold on to the memory of her family, and the piano represents this perfectly.
The story of the heirloom is a story of the family. It was given as a wedding present, but was eventually hand-crafted by their grandfather, and included the likenesses of both their grandmother and uncle (Sandy 82). Both siblings value the piano, but for very different reasons. It implies that despite the various views in life, the cultural heritage and family are always worth living for. Therefore, the history of the life of blacks’ cannot be forgotten.
Works Cited
Bissiri, Amadou. “Aspects of Africanness in August Wilson's Drama: Reading the Piano Lesson through Wole Soyinka's Drama”. African American Review, no. 30(1), 1996, pp. 99-113, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3042097?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents. Accessed Spr., 1996.
Sandy, Alexandre. ““[The] Things what Happened with Our Family”: Property and Inheritance in August Wilson's the Piano Lesson”. Modern Drama, no. 52(1), 2009, pp. 73-98, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/239861560_The_Things_What_Happened_with_Our_Family_Property_and_Inheritance_in_August_Wilson's_The_Piano_Lesson_1. Accessed 2009.
Singleton, Jermaine. “Some Losses Remain with us: Impossible Mourning and the Prevalence of Ritual in August Wilson's the Piano Lesson”. College Literature, no. 36(2), 2009, pp. 40-57, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236780681_Some_Losses_Remain_with_Us_Impossible_Mourning_and_the_Prevalence_of_Ritual_in_August_Wilson%27s_The_Piano_Lesson. Accessed 2009.
