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An Unfortunate Influence

An examination of how racism affects the actions and reactions of the characters portrayed in Wilson's play.

From Berniece's point of view, racism is something that she has to accept and build on, but that she can get through. Her family influence is very important to her as it is explained in the play that her family was deeply rooted in the slavery system of the southern United States for many decades. She realizes how much people from past generations in her family had to give up for her to live as a free woman. From Boy Willie's perspective however, racism is something that he is tired of dealing with. He refuses to let the ideas of racism or the fact that he is a different race than those who are in power during the 1930's affect the way he lives his life. Whatever he believes is going to make his life better is what he is going to do and he does not care if the actions are against the law, a big risk, or negatively affect one of his family members. The fact that racism influences their actions is very important because it shows what can happen to a culture when they are looked down upon, and what adjustments have to be made by that culture to be accepted in society.

From the first scene in the play where Boy Willie is present, it is obvious that everything that he does is for his own personal gain. In the first scene, Boy Willie and his friend Lymon have just got done traveling back to Boy Willie's sister's home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to sell watermelon to the wealthiest people they could find. He knows that if he targets the rich white people of Pittsburgh, he will be able to make more of a profit then if he were to target the people of his sister's or his own neighborhood. While explaining his thoughts to his uncle Doaker, Boy Willie exclaims, "I told him let's get a load of watermelons and bring them up here" (Wilson 2). From the beginning of the book, Boy Willie was pulling on race to get him along, even though it was not primarily a negative belief.

Much of both characters' attitudes about the ideas of race and racism are illustrated in their quarrels over the piano. They each have feelings towards the piano that are very different than that of the other person. Although the piano obviously ties them together and serves as the only thing that will bring them together these days, the only reason that they are brought together is to argue over what should be done with it. As described in the play, Boy Willie and Berniece are the grandchildren of the man whose art is carved into the piano. While Doaker is explaining this story to Boy Willie's friend Lymon, he says, "Sutter called [Boy Willie's grandfather] up to the house and told him to carve my grandmother and my daddy's picture on the piano for Miss Ophelia" (Wilson 44). Each character has a need for the piano; Boy Willie's seems to be strictly for greed. Although on the surface, greed is the only reason, this greed is used in a good way because he is actually trying to advance his life with the purchase of a farm so that he can make money by using this "family heirloom." Both of the characters have an interest in the piano that is complex. Boy Willie wants to sell the piano so that he can have enough money to buy Sutter's land. Whether he thinks about this or not, there is a significant link to his purchasing the land because it is the same land on which people from past generations in his family had been worked to death. When the character Doaker, who is Berniece and Boy Willie's uncle, tells the story about how Berniece and Boy Willie's father risked his life for to get the piano for the family, and that because of that it should never be given away, Boy Willie has a completely different thought process then Berniece on the subject.

Boy Willie makes the claim that if other people from past generations in his family had to do an act like sell an item as important to the family as the piano they would do it, especially if it would significantly change their life in a positive way. This idea is present when Boy Willie states, "If my daddy had seen where he could have traded that piano in for some land of his own, it wouldn't be sitting here now" (Wilson 46). If Boy Willie is really using his family heritage to make this claim, then it seems like he is not just trying to sell the piano for personal gain, but for the advancement of his family. In an analysis of the Africaness used in The Piano Lesson, literary critic Amandou Bissiri claims, "At the same time Boy Willie wants to sell the piano to buy Sutter's land--the land on which his ancestors toiled to death--back in the South" (101). There are many times when he is arguing about why he should be able to sell the piano in which he touches on emotions that are derived from family heritage. Race influences him in this circumstance because he illustrates the fact that although people in past generations would have sold something like the piano to further their lives, they were not able to because of their race, and now that he is able to do so, he is going to use that power. He is just trying to validate his want of using the piano to get land for himself by trying to convince Berniece that he actually cares about his family and not just himself.

Boy Willie also validated his argument by bringing in the idea that if Berniece were using the piano to help her pay rent or feed her family then he would claim, "I'd have to go on and say, well, Berniece using that piano. She building on it. Let her go on and use it" (Wilson 51). This argument was made to try to make him seem as if he had compassion towards the family and he just wanted to use the piano in the way that would be best for the family as a whole. Boy Willie really knows that he wants to sell the piano so that he can have the satisfaction of taking over a white man's land that once owned and enslaved many of his relatives. He seems to want to get away from some of his past and to try to forget how his family was treated which is what is focused on by literary critic Devon Boan when he analyzed the call and response aspect in The Piano Lesson. Boan claimed, "Boy Willie is never able to take charge of his own narrative; every move he makes in his attempt to escape the legacy with which he has been left is made in response to the mythology of the piano" (264). He wants to own the land so that he can make a profit off of it and show that not only white people can profit off of owning and farming land, but that black people are just as capable of doing so.

Boy Willie's argument is just one more reason that Berniece holds a very negative attitude towards Boy Willie from the first time that he enters the house mainly because she believes that he had something to do with the death of her husband, Crawley. She blames Boy Willie for the death when she states, "You killed Crawley just as sure as you pulled the trigger" (Wilson 52). Although that is the main reason, she also does not approve of his actions and how he goes about getting money because it just confirms negative stereotypes that many people of that time held of black people, especially black males, that she did not want to keep being passed down from generation to generation. Berniece shows that she herself falls to these negative stereotypes when she states, "Might be looking for him about that truck. He might have stole that truck" (Wilson 7). Her saying this shows that she does not trust black males and is always cautious when dealing with them because they might be up to something. She believed that Boy Willie convinced her husband to go with him to the place where he ended up getting killed and that Boy Willie's actions just hurt the African American race as a whole. According to Berniece, his actions hurt the African American race because it publicizes the idea the black people want to do nothing more than steal and hurt other people for their own benefit.

Another action of Boy Willie's that is influenced by race is his unwillingness to stay in the north with his family. Even though his best friend Lymon wants to stay and make a living in Pittsburgh, Boy Willie refuses to do so because he does not think that his skills would be accepted by the people in the north. Although his skills have something to do with his decision, it is more brought on by race because of how he feels his skills would be accepted and appreciated by white people is what really made him choose to stay down south. When Lymon asks why he will not stay with him, he exclaims, "Why I got to come up here and learn something I don't know how to do when I already know how to farm?" (Wilson 46). He wants very badly to go back to the south and do what he knows how to do. To be one of the only black people who were able to go from having a family who was enslaved to having a family member who owned a plantation and used it to produce a profit for his own livelihood. There is an aspect of him that believes he will be defending his family's honor if he goes back and is able to produce a healthy farm, especially if it is on land where his parents and grandparents were once enslaved. He shows the aspect when he is talking about selling the piano to gain the land, he claims that, "I'm talking about trading that piece of wood for some land. Get something under your feet" (Wilson 50). In this conversation with Berniece, he also mentions how he believes that his father would have done the same thing so that he could control his own destiny (Wilson 51).

Just as Boy Willie has reasons for wanting to stay in the southern part of the country, specifically where his family is from and not to travel to the north, Berniece has reasons for the opposite. She knows that if she tries hard, the white people of the north can be a lot more accepting of African Americans that those in the south can at this point in time. She also knows that she is more likely to be able to find a job that will pay enough for her to support her family and one in which white people will trust her in the north. Although she does not say it out right in the play, it is evident when she is told that Lymon is going to stay in the north and she tells him that there are many opportunities in the north for a man to get on his feet (Wilson 76). Berniece does not want to go back to the south because she knows all too well the many hardships that the people from her family were put through while they were being controlled on plantations in the south. She does not want a daily reminder of how people of her color were once treated.

Berniece is courted in the play by a family friend and aspiring minister named Avery who wants to make her his wife. Although many who know Berniece tell her that it would be a good idea to give in to his courting and get married because it would give the family more financial stability, she does not want to do so. She wants to prove that she has the ability, as a single African American woman, to raise a family by herself and that she does not need anyone else to help her. During that time period many people considered women, especially black women, weaker than men and held the belief that a woman such as Berniece needed a strong man in their life so that they could support their family. When Avery pushed to get her to marry him, she exclaimed, "You trying to tell me a woman can't be nothing without a man" (Wilson 67). Berniece adamantly wants to prove this stereotype wrong and claims that she has had no problems raising her daughter, Maretha, and that she is not going to have any in the future.

This same idea of not wanting to be under anyone's control is in Boy Willie's mind as well, although it is in a different way. He makes it well known that he wants to work for no one but himself, and that he does not want people controlling him like they controlled his ancestors. Even before he got the idea to buy Sutter's land and run the farm himself, all of the jobs that he talked about doing were all activities that could be done to make money without having to be overlooked by some other man, which would usually be a white man. These instances, such as hording wood, or selling watermelon, were all jobs that he would get the idea to do and then he would get people together so that he would be the head of the operation and everyone would have to listen to what he wanted done, instead of the other way around. While explaining the plan of owning his own farm to Doaker, Boy Willie was very excited when he talked about looking over other people which is shown when he says, "This time I get to keep all the cotton. Hire me some men to work to for me" (Wilson 11). He was tired of the perception that white people were the only ones who could control and be in charge. August Wilson claimed that a big part of Boy Willie's character was when he claimed, "'I don't need anybody to bleed for me. I can bleed for myself'" (Shannon 553). Wilson also claims that another example of Boy Willie's unwillingness to back down was when he fought Sutter's ghost without thought as to whether he should or not (Shannon 553). It was important for him to run his own life under his own rules, and not have to look up to some white person for their approval every time he turned around.

Although Berniece and Boy Willie hold some of the same beliefs due to racism, the way that they carry out their actions for these beliefs is always extremely different. Boy Willie is seen as someone who will do anything for his own personal gain and is contrasted with Berniece who cares about making everyone in the family, except Boy Willie, feel like they mean something. Both of these characters believe that their actions pertaining to the piano will help to preserve and carry on their family heritage as African Americans for generations to come. Both are consumed by the piano throughout the play and make many different decisions, sometimes subconscious ones, because of how they feel about their family heritage. The fact that these two characters each hold different beliefs to be important is obvious throughout the play, and there are many scenes where their beliefs clash with one another thus creating conflict. Family heritage is an important part of African American culture and is shown throughout The Piano Lesson as something that creates conflict as well as something that will always bring family members together, no matter what the reason.

Works Cited

Bissiri, Amandou. "Aspects of Africaness in August Wilson's Drama: Reading The Piano

Lesson through Wole Soyinka's Drama." African American Review 30.1 (1996): 99-113.

Boan, Devon. "Call and Response: Parallel 'Slave Narrative' in August Wilson's The

Piano Lesson." African American Review 32.2 (1998): 263-271.

Shannon, Sandra. "Blues, History, and Dramaturgy: An Interview with August Wilson."

African American Review 27.4 (1993): 539-559.

Wilson, August. The Piano Lesson. New York, New York: Plume Publishing, 1990.