Why does Berniece play the piano at the end?

Story Dynamics. Berniece refuses to play the piano because she's afraid to wake the spirits of her ancestors. However, when Boy Willie is attacked by Sutter's evil ghost, she uses the piano to release those spirits to save her brother. Berniece has to stop blaming her brother for her husband's death.

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Mind

Relationship Story Throughline An area of conflict between Boy Willie and Berniece is their respective positions on whether or not to sell the piano. She believes it’s a shrine to their family’s suffering. Boy Willie believes it’s an instrument to be used one way or the other. BOY WILLIE: [. . .] if you say to me . . . I give out lessons on it and that help me make my rent or whatever. . . I’d have to go on and say, well, Berniece using that piano. She building on it. . . But Doaker say you ain’t touched that piano the whole time it’s been up here. [. . . ] You just looking at the sentimental value. [. . .] But I ain’t gonna be no fool about no sentimental value. (Wilson, p. 51)

He believes that it’s valuable only to trade for land:

BOY WILLIE: As along as I got the land and the seed then I’m alright. . . Cause that land give back to you. But that piano don’t put out nothing else. . . that’s why I’m gonna take that piano out of here and sell it. BERNIECE: You ain’t taking that piano out of my house. (Wilson, p. 51-52)

Memory

Relationship Story Concern Berniece and Boy Willie come into conflict over Berniece’s memory of his involvement in her husband’s death three years ago. Boy Willie recalls that Crawley got himself killed when he pulled a gun on the sheriff who interrupted their wood-gathering.

BOY WILLIE: If Crawley ain’t had the gun he’d be alive today.

BERNIECE: All I know is Crawley would be alive if you hadn’t come up there and got him. [. . .] Crawley’s dead and in the ground and you still walking around here eating. That’s all I know. He went off to load some wood with you and ain’t never come back. (Wilson, p. 54)

Suspicion

Relationship Story Issue A thematic issue that affects Berniece and Boy Willie is “suspicion.” “She greets her brother’s arrival with suspicion, accuses him and his friend, Lymon, of stealing the truck in which they drove north, and ungraciously tells them to be on their way quickly. When Sutter’s ghost appears to her and calls for Boy Willie, she immediately assumes that he has murdered Sutter.” (Pereira, p. 87) When Boy Willie asks for the name of the man who wanted to buy her piano, Berniece doubts are confirmed. BERNIECE: I knew it. I knew it when I first seen you. I knew you was up to something. (Wilson, p. 27) Because of Berniece’s tendency to be suspicious of Boy Willie, it’s impossible for him to convince her to sell the piano on his behalf.

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Evidence

Relationship Story Counterpoint Boy Willie searches the house for signs of Sutter’s ghost when Berniece first sees it, but fails to find any evidence of a haunting. He believes she’s making up the ghost sighting to get rid of him. Berniece also fails to provide evidence that the piano is imbued with the anguished spirits of their ancestors, or that it’s anything more than a carved instrument. Her eye witness account of the grief and loneliness the piano caused their mother leaves Boy Willie unmoved.

Relationship Story Thematic Conflict

Suspicion vs.Evidence Evidence is given more weight thematically in the subjective story. When the ghost finally menaces him, Boy Willie challenges it without fear or guilt which proves his innocence in Sutter’s murder. Berniece plays the piano and unleashes the spirits of their ancestors to combat the evil ghost. The physical attack and its aftermath provides Boy Willie with the evidence needed to convince him that the piano belongs with the family. He and Berniece make peace with each other.

Desire

Relationship Story Problem Boy Willie’s drive to change his station in life causes problems between him and Berniece. Boy Willie thinks that selling the piano and buying farmland will ease his life as a black man in Mississippi. He refuses to “live at the bottom of life” where Berniece believes they all are. BOY WILLIE: If you got a piece of land you’ll find everything else fall right into place. You can stand right up next to the white man and talk about the price of cotton. . . the weather, and anything else you want to talk. If you teach that girl [Maretha] that she living at the bottom of life, she’s gonna grow up and hate you.

BERNIECE: I’m gonna teach her the truth. (Wilson, p. 92)

Ability

Relationship Story Solution Berniece’s ability to play the piano and her capacity to summon her ancestor’s spirits when Boy Willie is attacked by the ghost solves the problems between them. By playing the piano and calling up the spirits, she demonstrates its power and significance within the family. Having achieved this, Boy Willie decides to leave the piano with Berniece as he’s now convinced that it belongs with her.

Self-Aware

Relationship Story Symptom Boy Willie’s relentless campaign to advance himself in the world regardless of what it costs his sister, creates a major dilemma for Berniece. BOY WILLIE: My heart say for me to sell that piano and get me some land so I can make a life for myself to live in my own way. Other than that I ain’t thinking about nothing Berniece got to say. (Wilson, p. 94)

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Aware

Relationship Story Response Berniece, aware of what the piano cost their family in lost lives and the grief that follows, tries to make Boy Willie see beyond its monetary value.

BERNIECE: Money can’t buy what that piano cost. (Wilson, p. 50)

She reminds him that their father traded his life for the piano and how their widowed mother suffered: [. . .] Look at this piano. Look at it. Mama Ola polished this piano with her tears for seventeen years. [. . .] Seventeen years’ worth of cold nights and an empty bed. For what? A piano? (Wilson, p. 52)

Evidence

Relationship Story Catalyst The lack evidence accelerates the conflict between Boy Willie and Berniece. When he fails to find evidence of Sutter’s ghost, Boy Willie suspects Berniece is lying about the sighting to get him to leave, and decides not to leave without selling the piano. Berniece’s failure to present concrete proof of the piano’s value as a family heirloom, leads Boy Willie to forge ahead with his plan against her wishes. Berniece refuses to accept Boy Willie’s evidence of what happened the night her husband was killed, and physically attacks him.

Interdiction

Relationship Story Inhibitor Interdiction slows the subjective story: Boy Willie’s blind determination to sell the piano for money to buy land that will alter his future, prevents him from understanding that the piano is the embodiment of his family’s heritage and pride. His stubbornness incites Berniece to threaten to shoot him, and postpones their reconciliation until it’s almost too late.

Preconscious

Relationship Story Benchmark As the story progresses Berniece and Boy Willie respond to each other without thinking: Berniece’s immediate reaction to Boy Willie’s pre-dawn appearance is to order him to leave; accuse him of stealing the truck he arrived in; suspect him of killing John Sutter; blame him for her husband’s death. Later, frightened by Boy Willie’s persistence, she threatens him with a gun. Boy Willie rushes up to Pittsburgh to sell the piano disregarding Berniece’s attachment to it; dismisses her claim that she saw Sutter’s ghost; criticizes her reasons for keeping the piano as sentimental; challenges her to go ahead and shoot him when she threatens him.

dramatica.com - The Piano Lesson - Analysis - Dramatica

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