ADV. Soph. English Journal Response 21

Othello by William Shakespeare (Journal Entry 1)

In Act One, Scene One of this play, the part with most importance was the part when Barbantio’s daughter has went missing along with Othello.  Iago and Roderigo seem to be the messengers of this tragic news.  The search for Othello and Barbantio’s daughter seemed to be set at the dawn of the next day.  Based on the text from this scene, there is a fairly large amount of “old English” involved along with how the characters communicate to each other.  It seems as if they use figurative language to convey their feelings about things such as the lost people in this scene.  Overall, I started reading the play with some difficulties regarding the use of language and how to get the gist of the characters intentions.

ADV Soph. English Journal Response 20

The Piano Lesson by August Wilson (Journal Entry 8)

In Act One, Scene Two of The Piano Lesson, August Wilson uses tone and pace to attract the readers attention to certain characters in this passage.   In the context preceding the quote, Boy Wille talks a lot about his opinions regarding how the piano should be handled based on his experiences in the past.  In one of his longer talks to Bernice, he mentions, “You can’t make more than that. Now I want to get Sutter’s land and I can go down and cash in the crop and get my seed. But that piano don’t put out nothing else. You ain’t got nothing working for you. Now, the kind of man my daddy was he would have understood that. I’m sorry you can’t see it that way. But that’s why I’m gonna take that piano out of here and sell it.” (51) 

            The author inserts a hopeless tone for Bernice when Boy Willie mentions his strong motives about selling the piano.  This hopeless atmosphere that was created will make Bernice resist anything that happens to the piano, all the more.  After all, this is a case where, whatever happens, someone is going to benefit from what happens to the piano.  In addition, the author also gives Boy Willie a sense of empathy when he mentions how nothing is working out for her and the piano which counteracts this hopelessness that he gives her. 

            Near the end of the quote, the author speeds up the pace in order to make the impression on the reader that Boy Willie’s decision with regards to selling the piano is final and could not be changed.  It also gives the reader a chance to foreshadow what might happen with the piano and how Bernice is going to react to this kind of response by Boy Willie.  So, overall I see that the author uses tone and pace in Boy Willie’s speech to make it seem as if one character is impacting another in an assertive way.

ADV Sophomore English Journal Response 19

The Piano Lesson by August Wilson (Journal Entry 7)

In the continuation of Act 2 of the book, we see more action from Lymon who is sometimes a dormant character in the play.  Lymon does act up to Bernice, but the author makes sure that the scene has a sense of control in it.  In other words, Lymon only shows a prominent interest in Bernice for the moment.  Based on this scene, I foreshadow that Avery and Lymon might have disputes over Bernice.  Avery had just recently pressured Bernice to be his companion, of some sort.  To me, Lymon seems to be picking up some affairs along with his relations with Boy Willie.

Comment on Joshua Zheng’s Blog:

I agree.  Lymon, does have some affairs with Bernice.  This can foreshadow how Avery’s and Lymon’s relate as far as thing are going in the book.   Yes; Lymon’s behavior becomes somewhat questionable at one point, but does not go too extreme.

ADV. Soph. English Journal Response 18

The Piano Lesson by August Wilson (Journal Entry 7)

In the continuation of Act 2 of the book, we see more action from Lymon who is sometimes a dormant character in the play.  Lymon does act up to Bernice, but the author makes sure that the scene has a sense of control in it.  In other words, Lymon only shows a prominent interest in Bernice for the moment.  Based on this scene, I foreshadow that Avery and Lymon might have disputes over Bernice.  Avery had just recently pressured Bernice to be his companion, of some sort.  To me, Lymon seems to be picking up some affairs along with his relations with Boy Willie.

Comment on Joshua Zheng’s Blog:

I agree.  Lymon, does have some affairs with Bernice.  This can foreshadow how Avery’s and Lymon’s relate as far as thing are going in the book.   Yes; Lymon’s behavior becomes somewhat questionable at one point, but does not go too extreme.

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.

ADV Soph. English Journal Response 16

The Piano Lesson by August Wilson (Journal Entry 5)

In the beginning of scene two, Wining Boy and Doaker’s relation is loose in a way.  In the middle of scene one, Wining Boy asks for five dollars for some train trip.  Doaker gives him the five dollars but makes it clear that he owes him that amount.  Wining Boy persuades Lymon to buy the suit, pants, and shoes that he offers him to retrieve the five dollars he owes to Doaker (supposedly).  If Wining Boy returns the money owed from him, the trust between characters is established at this point.  This could show how they relate to each other in the future.

Comment on Madison Clayton’s Blog:

That idea is interesting because Wining Boy seems to have a double purpose for persuading Lymon to buy the suit. The first is that, as you have mentioned, Lymon is easily persuaded into purchasing it. The second reason might be in order to return the cash to Doaker (the character who he recently asked five dollars from).

ADV Soph. English Journal Response 15

The Piano Lesson by August Wilson (Journal Entry 4)

Nearing the end of act one, scene two of the book, we see more heated conversations over the history of the piano that Boy Willie and Bernice supposedly owns.  The author’s attitude towards the subject is mostly indifferent and more on the informational side.  Most of the dialogue was focused solely on how the “Ghost of the Yellow Dog” correlates with the detailed account of the piano that was handed down from family to family.  Overall, much sweat and bloodshed was related after the thievery of this piano.  With this, the author tries to make us more aware of why Boy Willie is so intent on selling the piano and also why Bernice is so relentless to disagreeing with this action.  He seems to be giving us the basis of the plot which might give way to the rising action later in act two of the book.

Commented on Austin Schrader’s Blog:

Yes. The author does include information about some of the characters and their relation to the history of the piano in the latter part of Act one of the book.  This may have been done in order to prepare us to foreshadow something that might happen later with regards to the piano and more information about the “Ghosts of the Yellow Dog”.