Piano Lesson

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man who had his mind set on selling the family piano from the onset of the play and nothing or no one was going to change his mind. "He is a brash and impulsive, talkative, and somewhat crude in speech and manner." (1334) These characteristics of the two main characters refer back to the theme of this play by illustrating the attitudes of African-Americans towards the past, present and future. Boy Willie doesn't want the past to hold him back in society and thus wants to sell a part of the past (the family piano) to enrich his future. Berniece, however, is still carrying the past (old baggage) around and that past is holding her back both economically and in her love life.
The setting of this drama took place in the 1940s in the home of Doaker Charles, Berniece's and Boy Willie's uncle. It was through Doaker Charles' storytelling that revealed the true reason why Berniece did not want to sell the piano. Berniece did not want to sell the piano because her father died over it ...

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also loved to play on the piano.
A part of the story that I found confusing and paradoxical was Berniece's attitude towards her daughter, Maretha, playing the family piano and yet will not tell her of it's past. Berniece also sends her to a private school often chastising her not to show her color there. According to Berniece, she didn't want to burden her daughter with the past.
I got Maretha playing on it. She don't know nothing about it. Let her go on and be a schoolteacher or something. She don't have to carry all of that with her. She got a chance I didn't have. I ain't gonna burden her with that piano." (1367)
With this quote from Berniece, it was like she wanted her daughter ...

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