ADV Sophomore English Journal Response 17

The Piano Lesson by August Wilson (Journal Entry 6)

In the duration of Act 2 Scene 2 of this book, there are two major events that occur that were unusual, but played an integral part in how Bernice and the rest of the characters (esp. Avery) relate.  The first event that took place was near the beginning of the scene when Avery asks Bernice for marriage.  Here we see the author trying to vary the tone of the book to a more idealistic setting in order to move our attention from the opinions of Boy Willie, Wining Boy, and Doaker with regards to the deceased men who were victims of the “Ghost of the Yellow Dog” and how they were going to sell the piano.  Here we see not only the views of Bernice as to her views on the topic, but how she converses with others which reveals more of her personality (as a round character).

The second event took place at the time Bernice was talking to Avery about “blessing the house”.  This relates to our previous reading which did indeed mention about Sutters Ghost haunting different people and how the piano was somehow involved with all this.  I think that Bernice wants to keep the piano as a memory while not trying to rouse anyone about the topic of Ghosts, but apparently that is not so at the moment.

Comment on Harrison Le’s Blog:

Good point.  The characters close to Bernice seem to have some connection to each other and to the piano.  Could this foreshadow that there will be a struggle between Sutter’s Ghost and someone closely tied to Bernice in the family line?  The rising action seems to focus more on two motifs which are Sutter’s Ghost and the Piano which in turn seems to give the impression of something that is about to happen based on what background information we have about these motifs.