The Piano Lesson August Wilson Analysis

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The Piano Lesson, written by August Wilson, is one of the most common and best known plays that discusses African Americans’ lives after slavery during the twentieth century. The author, August Wilson is most known and acknowledged for his ten-play cycle that represents African American experience in the twentieth century. This set of plays is also known as the Pittsburg Cycle.
Although the play takes place after the prohibition of slavery in the United States, the play still consists and stresses on the fact of remembering the history of African Americans, which started with slavery and extends with racial discrimination. The play does that in order to support and motivate people who struggle and fight for racial equality, which brings the fact of how the nation was divided into north and south, and how African Americans favored the north …show more content…
For seventeen years she rubbed on it till her hands bled. Then she rubbed the blood...mixed it up with the rest of the blood on it" (Wilson). This quote shows the hardships that Bernieces mother faces in her life as a slave, which represents the harmful and negative effects and impacts that slavery brings to African Americans. The author consisted on the slavery theme because he wanted his readers to fight for racial equality which was missing at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Since the piano has a great meaning that is associated to the theme of slavery, there is a constant conflict around it. Boy Willie and Berniece keep arguing about selling the piano, in which Boy Willie want to sell the piano in order to get enough money to buy Sutter's land; however his sister Berniece opposes him because she doesn't have the intention to sell the piano, which reminds her with her ancestors, the history of Charles's family, and the history of African Americans during slavery. This conflict keeps elaborating and developing during the play through Boy Willie's attempts to sell the
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