Weekend Questions

1) What do you think "the piano lesson" is?

I think that the piano lesson is a metaphor for what each member of the family learns throughout the novel. Each person learns a life lesson from their own experience with the piano. For example Boy Willie learns that ancestry and family history is more important than he originally thought it was. Berniece learned the opposite, that sometimes holding onto your past can hold you back from your personal potential. So by learning their own piano lessons, each person has found a medium for their beliefs.

2) Why did August Wilson choose this title?

I think that Wilson chose the title because it tries together all of the book's conflicts. Everyone learned a lesson because of the piano, Boy Willie and Berniece fought about the piano, Sutter's ghost haunted the piano, Avery wanted the piano, etc. The piano is the main focus point in the entire novel and the book ends when  Berniece learns her lesson of what to value in life, and how strongly to value those things. The title also sticks with you throughout reading the book, the curiosity of what it means. 

3) How is it that Boy Willie comes to understand the importance of the piano in the final scene of the play?

In the final scene Boy Willie sees the power that Berniece playing the piano holds. He sees the importance of family history and ancestry, as that is what the piano symbolizes. Without Berniece harnessing her ability to emote and connect to her past, Sutter's ghost could have haunted the house forever, and Boy Willie sees the connection and its power. He hadn't connected to his past because it had not been tangible, like money and land are, but seeing up-close the actual power of ancestral connection, he understands the necessary balance of spiritual and physical. 

 4) What is significant about her calling out the names of her dead family members?

Berniece calling out their names is how she finally lets them go. It is how she gives herself, being so afraid of the piano and its history, up. She is announcing them without fear or hatred, just as fact. Those are their names and they no longer mean anything to her personal life. She will always honor and respect them, but no longer fear their very presence in her mind. 

5) What purpose does this serve?

By finally letting them go, Berniece is allowing herself a happier life. She is, as Avery said, finally leaving her stones on the side of the road. No longer dragging them along in her life and weighing herself down with them. Now, without the burden of so many  lives, Berniece can go on to live her own. She can make her own footprint in the world and be her own person. Maybe even marry Avery. Wilson has Berniece do this for a reason, to show all the readers to let go of our faults and our parents' faults. It does not matter what has happened to us in the past. It can strengthen us and propel us forward, or drag us down and take away our opportunities. Whichever one we choose.