Piano Lesson
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The Piano Lesson
Imagine one of those days when your parents took away all of your favorite activities or all of your allowance because you got a bad grade in one of your classes? You feel a little depressed and your priced possession has been stolen. This event is the same as August Wilson's, The Piano Lesson. The story is about a sibling rivalry, Boy Willie Charles against Berniece Charles, regarding an antique, family inherited piano. Boy Willie wants to sell the piano in order to buy the same Mississippi land that his family had worked as slaves. However, Berniece, who has the piano, declines Boy Willie's request to sell the piano because it is a reminder of the history that is their family heritage. She believes that the piano is more consequential than "hard cash" Boy Willie wants. Based on this idea, one might consider that Berniece is more ethical than Boy Willie.
A piano serves as a major element in this play, which is in Doaker Charles' Pittsburgh home. Decades earlier, the white slave-owner of the Charles family traded Doaker's father and grandmother for the piano, and the grief-stricken grandfather carved African totems of his wife and son in the piano's legs...