The Great Depression gives a historical backdrop to the play. The Great Depression and Great Migration brought many blacks north to industrial cities like Pittsburg in search of jobs. Boy Willie who wants to sell the piano that Berniece keeps in her living room, to buy land and grow crops of his own. Berniece on the other hand does not want Boy Willie to sell the piano because of its meaning to their family although it can help them get out of their current living situation.
Home Page The Piano Lesson. The Piano Lesson Good Essays. Open Document. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. Berniece wants to keep the piano because it holds their family history and it reminds her of the hard work her mother put into the piano.
Both siblings fight over who has more rights to the piano and deserves it. However, over time the piano is only used by Berniece 's daughter Maretha to practice playing classical music instead of the music she and her family had played.
Her father died because of the piano and Wining Boy, her father and Doaker stole the piano from Sutter. To Berniece the piano brought back the memories from her past that she did not want to remember or her daughter to know about. However, she also does not want to let go of the piano because if she does she would lose the only thing that can tell and remind people of what happened and the history of her family. This shows that Berniece does not want to loose the connection she has with both her past and heritage even though she refuses acknowledge the importance they have had in her life.
Then she …show more content… Say it was the story of our whole family and as long as Sutter had it… he had us. Say we was still in slavery. Doaker says that Boy Charles was obsessed with the piano, he felt that if Sutter had the piano they were still his slaves because they were traded to get the piano and they were considered Sutter 's property during slavery. Boy Willie like his father wants to get something that Sutter owned in order to be free from Sutter.
However, he does not realize that the piano also represented being free from Sutter. In addition, to Berniece the piano means a lot while Boy Willie only sees it as a profitable object. You can always get you another piano. Then Chillingworth left her alone, and didn't even tell her. I do not believe it was a sin to go with another guy. Hester did not love Chillingworth, and he left.
She was lonely, tricked into a marriage she didn't want, and expected to stay loyal to her husband even after he disappeared. To begin with, Chillingworth tricked Hester into marrying him, and she voiced her opinion that she did not love him, and never would. The narrator is not able to comprehend why Sonny does not want to study anymore and dedicate his life to music. He cannot understand why Sonny wants to spend his time hanging around nightclubs playing the piano and he strongly believes that Sonny cannot make a living out of music.
Through her constant refusal to accept the changed tax status and her referring to the Colonel as an alive man, Miss Emily demonstrates her stubbornness, pride, insanity and her desire to firmly hold onto the past, once again similar to a child she wanted to cling onto the tax status like children want to hold onto their toys and continue residing in her delusion. Further, Miss Emily once again refuses to accept change and the new ways of society when the town of Jefferson introduces a free postal delivery service.
This shows how Miss Emily wants to avoid the reality and continue holding onto the past and her past ways of life. As a result, she further isolates herself from society by refusing a method of communication. Essays Essays FlashCards. Browse Essays. Sign in. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. Show More. Moreover, she has refused to pass the piano's history onto her daughter and celebrate it within the family. Berniece can do nothing but carry the past and its traumas with her.
In the final struggle between Willie and Sutter's ghost, Berniece will play the piano and resume her old role as priestess, calling the family's spirits to assist in the exorcism.
Mystically, she will at once speak from the family's place of origin Africa and address the family's spirits from the present. Berniece thus assumes her duties as the link to the ancestors. SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Themes Motifs Symbols. Important Quotes Explained.
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