To say the least, life for blacks in the post-Civil War South was perplexing. On paper, blacks were free to do and live as they pleased at the time. Yet, due of the role they had performed since arriving in America, such freedom was difficult to get. Most people did not believe that blacks could ever be anything other than what they were, and they had no desire to see them rise to any level of social rank. Despite the fact that the law stated that 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. This paper is obligated to 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 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 “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. Both siblings value the piano, but for very different reasons. This 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
Primary source
Singleton, Jermaine. "Some Losses Remain with Us: Impossible Mourning and the Prevalence of
Ritual in August Wilson's the Piano Lesson." College Literature. vol 36, no. 2, 2009, pp. 40-57. Print.
Secondary sources
Alexandre, Sandy. "“[The] Things What Happened with Our Family”: Property and Inheritance in August Wilson's The Piano Lesson." Modern Drama. vol 52, no.1, 2009, pp. 73-98. Print.
Bissiri, A. "Aspects of Africanness in August Wilson's Drama: Reading the Piano Lesson
Through Wole Soyinka's Drama." African American Review. vol 30, no.1, 1996, pp. 99. Print.
