The Piano Lesson Character Traits

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In the movie, The Piano Lesson by August Wilson, there was a handful of characters with strongly different personalities. Each character represented strength, anger, and stubbornness. By looking at these characteristics we can see the portrayal of men and women in modern day society. Of course, every family has their disputes, but in this case it is over a piano. It all starts when Boy Willie traveled all the way from Pittsburgh to Mississippi to see his uncle Doaker, sister Berniece, and the family’s piano. Not after long in the movie we understand why Boy Willie traveled all this way and it wasn’t for good reasons given the family’s history. Let’s start off with Boy Willie. Boy Willie is one of the loudest, most stubborn, and outspoken people you could ever meet. He is not afraid to voice his opinions to fight for what he wants. In this instance his sister’s Berniece piano. Boy Willie traveled all the way from Mississippi with his friend and partner Lymon to sell watermelons and the family’s historic piano so he could buy Sutter’s Land, a place where his family was once enslaved. Boy Willie feels that he is on “on…show more content…
She holds her own against the men in her family and doesn’t let anybody tell her that she needs a man to be a woman. She is the strongest voice of femininity in the movie and represents her family’s maternal line. Berniece has a young daughter named Maretha who she is afraid to tell her family history to. She was once married to a man named Crawley who died and holds her brother Boy Willie responsible for his death. She feels if Boy Willie wasn’t so bravado and rebellious her husband would still be alive. Furthermore, she refuses to let Boy Willie sell the piano. Berniece played the piano as a child to her mother--Momma Ola who mourned over the piano that costs her husband’s life--and served as a priestess in channeling the family’s ghost. Her music allowed her mother to speak with her dead

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