Family Legacy in the Piano

Family Legacy in the Piano Lesson

A play written by August Wilson, The Piano Lesson is a story about a family's dispute about their heirloom piano. This piano represents the family's tragic history, having been elaborately carved with the faces of dead relatives in order to record the family history. The sister, Berniece, holds onto the piano, revering it as a symbol of the family's hardships and record of legacy, while the brother, Boy Willie, tries to sell "his half" of the piano in order to secure his own future success (Wilson, 1990, p.28). In the play, the Piano Lesson, the overall theme of the importance of family legacy is manifested in Berniece's similarity to her mother, Boy Willie's similarity to his father, and the omnipresence of ghosts throughout the story.

The sister, Berniece, is similar to her mother both in demeanor and in habit. Berniece's father, Boy Charles, stole the heirloom piano back from his master, Mr. Sutter, and shortly thereafter he was killed when his boxcar was set on fire (Wilson, 1990, p. 45). After this tragic event, Berniece's mother, Mama Ola, protected the piano her husband died to salvage, mourning over the loss of her husband for years, "polishing" it with tears and blood (Wilson, 1990, p. 52). When Berniece was young, she would play the piano for Mama Ola, but after her mother's death, Berniece began to treat the piano with reverence and refused to touch it herself, giving it an enhanced respect in the same way her mother did before her. When Berniece's husband was shot in a dispute over a load of wood, she mourned her husband's death for over three years. Both Berniece and Mama Ola held on to the memories of their husbands, mourning their passing for extended periods of time; in the same way, they held a deep respect for their family's past, holding onto the family legacy, the piano, as a record of their history.

Berniece's brother, Boy Willie, on the other hand, continues the manifestation of the family legacy in his resemblance to his father in demeanor and deed. Both of these individuals are impulsive, defiant characters who follow their own form of justice. Boy Willie's father, Boy Charles, set out to steal the piano with pictures of his family carved by his father, to return it to the rightful owners. As far as Boy Charles was concerned, the piano "was the story of [their] whole family and as long as Sutter had it . . . he had [them]," (Wilson, 1990, p. 45). Similarly, Boy Willie wishes to sell the family piano in order to receive something far more valuable to him -- Sutter's land -- in a move which would symbolically avenge the slavery his family endured under Sutter in the past. Boy Willie's impetuousness to this end and defiance of anyone to stand in his way, along with his fierce ambition to avenge his family's traumatic past allows him to carry on a legacy begun by his father.