The Importance Of Past In August Wilson's The Piano Lesson

It is said that in many works of literature, past events can affect, positively or negatively, the present actions attitudes, or values of a character. A play in which a character must contend with an aspect from the past is The Piano Lesson by August Wilson. In August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, Bernice, struggles with her family’s slavery history, which reveals that not everyone’s past can reveal or prove the person they are today.
Throughout The Piano Lesson, Bernice is constantly getting into arguments with her brother over a piano that is very important to each of them in a very different way. Bernice’s brother wants to sell the piano to help him get money he needs. This piano contains plenty of carvings that reveal Bernice’s family history, which in this case is being enslaved by Mr.Sutter. Since the piano was their …show more content…
Since throughout the play Bernice seemed like a very sad person who didn’t care about anyone but herself. As we read along and got to the ending of the play we realized that that was completely wrong. Bernice did care about her brother, she just seemed very distant from him because she struggled with embracing their family’s past, which in this case the piano Boy Willie was trying to sell had a huge role in Bernie not wanting to tell her daughter about why the piano is important to their family’s past, only because she doesn’t want her daughter to struggle with the acceptance of the violence and killings that piano brought to them. You may infer that she is holds different aspects that other people in her family did, they used the piano as a way to keep the drama going and the killings but Bernice just wanted it all stopped. She used it in a positive way, like teaching her daughter how to play or using it as a way to help her brother from