Garrett Addington

Literary Heritage

Harris

25 April 2017

Property and Ownership in The Piano Lesson

What is property? Property, as defined by the Webster Dictionary, is something owned

or possessed; the exclusive right to possess, enjoy, and dispose of a thing: ownership. For

African-Americans who were affected by slavery, the topic of property is a difficult one. To these

people, the concept of property was something foreign. They did not have the ability, or the legal

right, to possess, enjoy, or dispose of anything. While the idea of property was unfamiliar to

them, the idea of ownership was, unfortunately, not. To be a slave was to be owned by someone,

to be their property. So, while the concept of being able to own something themselves was

unimaginable, the concept of being owned was an all too real part of their everyday lives.

In the context of August Wilsons, The Piano Lesson, the idea of property takes on

several different meanings. For instance, the piano is considered to be the property of the Charles

family (or more specifically, the property of Bernice). To Boy Willie, the piano is not so much

the familysproperty, as it is a means to acquire propertyfor the family. Property, in this sense,

meaning land. Furthermore, throughout the story, it becomes apparent that Sutter, now deceased

and returned as a spirit, considers the piano to still be his rightful property. Clearly, the characters

in the play all have different ideas of what property is, and who should be the one in control of

said property.
 Of all the characters in the play, Boy Willie is perhaps the most forthcoming with his

intentions. In act I, he says,

Thats why I come up here. Sell them watermelons. Get Berniece to sell that

piano. Put them two parts with the part I done saved. Walk in there. Tip my hat.

Lay my money down on the table. Get my deed and walk out. This time I get to

keep all the cotton. Hire me some men to work it for me. Gin my cotton. Get my

seed. And Ill see you again next year. (885)

It is clear that Boy Willies main goal is to buy land, but what makes this so important is

the actual land that he is hoping to purchase. Boy Willie wants to purchase Sutters land. This is

the land that his family was forced to work on for generations, the land where his great-

grandparents were separated from each other, and the land where Willie Boy, Boy Willie and

Bernices great-grandfather, carved the likeness of his wife and child into the piano after they had

been sold, solely so that Sutter could acquire said piano. It is obvious that Boy Willie believes

that purchasing this land provide him and his family some form of catharsis. To him, purchasing

Sutters land will help to ease the pain of decades of abuse that his family experienced on that

land. As Pennino put it,

Boy Willie associates property with freedom, not just economic freedom but

personal freedom as well. Wilson renders Boy Willies drive to purchase land all

the more poignant because it is owned by the Sutters, the former masters of the

Charles family. (Pennino 2)

While at first, Boy Willies motivations to sell the piano may seem greedy, it is actually

his way of dealing with his pent-up anger and frustrations. Pennino refers to this as a Lockean
paradigm. He writes, From [Boy Willies] point of view, he and his family have been mixing

their labor with the state of nature that is Sutters land since the era of slavery, and have thus

joined something that is their own, thereby making it his (Boy Willies) property (Pennino 4).

Pennino devises this theory based on Lockes idea that if a man mixes his labor with the nature

around him, then the product of that combination belongs to him. Boy Willie is clearly a believer

in this theory and strongly believes that the land rightfully belongs to him and his family.

Bernices ideas of property and what its values are differ greatly from that of her brother.

To Bernice, the piano was never actually property. Yes, she did own it, and it was in her

possession, but if Websters definition is correct, then Bernice doesnt truly own the piano.

Webster claims that property is anything that you have the right to possess, enjoy, and dispose

of. It is true that Bernice does possess the piano, but what about the other two prerequisites? We

find out early on in the play that Bernice clearly does not enjoy playing the piano. Doaker says,

You know she wont touch that piano. I aint never known her to touch it since Mama Ola died.

Thats over seven years now. She say it got blood on it (885). It is also made clear that Bernice

has no desire whatsoever to dispose of the piano, or in this case, sell it. This is shown when she

says,

You aint taking that piano out of my house. [She crosses to the piano.] Look at

this piano. Look at it. Mama Ola polished this piano with her tears for seventeen

years. For seventeen years she rubbed on it till her hands bled. Then she rubbed

the blood in... mixed it up with the rest of the blood on it. Every day that God

breathed life into her body she rubbed and cleaned and polished and prayed over

it. (911)
 To Bernice, the piano is no longer an instrument. It is now a monument to all the pain and

suffering her family has endured for generations. Unlike Boy Willie, who wants to purchase the

land in an effort to forget the past, Bernice believes that the past should be cherished and learned

from. A lot of Bernices feelings toward the piano come from the carvings that are etched into it.

Pennino writes,

The piano is more than just a musical instrument; it is a family heirloom, a work

of art and history, which depicts, through carvings, previous generations of the

Charles family. These carvings recall the trauma of the family separated because

of an exchange between Robert Sutter and Joel Nolander. (Pennino 4)

Because of all the work and care that has been put into the piano over the years, Bernice

believes that selling it would be a betrayal of sorts to her family. Alexandre believes that because

of both the physical representation of slaves on the piano (the carvings), and the metaphysical

representation of slavery associated with it (The first Bernice and her son being sold for the

piano), anyone who sells the piano would be just as bad as someone who would sell a slave. She

writes,

Even Wining Boy, Boy Willies uncle, who couldnt spare Berniece three dollars

when he had a whole sack of money, knows that the piano is too much freighted

with black history to be so unceremoniously sold. Anyone who sells the piano is

no different from a seller of slaves (Alexandre 8)

Bernice also believes in the supernatural forces that surround the piano. In a way, Bernice

feels as though the piano brings her closer to her ancestors, even though they are long gone from

the world. Morales writes,

 Berniece believes in the mystical power of the piano, recognizing it as the site of

connection to her ancestral spirits, but at the same time she denies those spirits

access to her life. The blood sacrifices made over the piano intensify its sacral

properties and parallel similar African practices of pouring blood, meal, and urine

over sacred representations of the ancestors or gods in order to feed them and

maintain their spiritual existence. (Morales 4)

The idea of using material objects as a way to feel connected to lost family members was

common in the era of institutionalized slavery. Since white slave owners often severed familial

relationships (usually by selling away members of the family), slaves often turned to possessions

of said family members as a source of comfort. Alexandre writes,

The undermining of kinship relationships, therefore, made it possible (if not

necessary) for things such as heirlooms or a kins personal belongings to

substitute for the missing, sold, and bartered kin himself. In search of solace for

the persistence of this particular kind of loss, it is not surprising that people turned

to the substitute of material objects for comfort, however much such a solution

may have been a stop-gap. (Alexandre 8)

Because of this, it is reasonable to assume that part of the reason Bernice is so reluctant to let go

of the piano is because she sees it as the last remaining link to her family. In fact, Wilson himself

alludes to the idea that the piano can serve as a replacement for people who are no longer around.

This is seen when Sutter has Willie Boy carve the depictions of his family into the piano in an

attempt to break Miss. Ophelia out of her depressed state. He writes,

 When Mr. Sutter seen the piano with all them carvings on it he got mad. He

didnt ask for all that. But see... there wasnt nothing he could do about it. When

Miss Ophelia seen it . . . she got excited. Now she had her piano and her niggers

too. She took back to playing it and played on it right up till the day she died.

(906)

On the other hand, this spiritual connection Morales speaks of that Bernice has with the

piano elicits a feeling of trepidation in her. She acknowledges that it is there, but she is depicted

as being afraid of it. This is shown when she says, I dont play that piano cause I dont want to

wake them spirits. They never be walking around in this house (922). Interestingly enough,

Bernices desire to shut the piano and ignore it completely goes completely against the culture of

her African ancestors. Morales writes,

While it is easy to sympathize with Berniece's desire to forget her painful

memories, if we draw the parallel between the piano and African ritual practice,

the spiritual and physical consequences of forgetting her past and not using the

piano are very serious. In the parallel context of most African ancestral worship,

neglect of the ancestors and the ancestral altars results in loss of their protection

and threatens the destruction of the entire community. (Morales 5)

This makes Bernices resolve to avoid the piano that much more poignant. Blatantly disregarding

custom is something not often seen in African culture, and although Bernice was not raised in

Africa, it is safe to assume that the values and customs of her ancestors were passed down to her

at some point.
 So, whos argument has more validation to it? Boy Willie who wants to sell the piano and

use the money to purchase Sutters land, thereby erasing years of pain and hardship wrought

upon his family? Or Bernice, who views the piano as a connection to the people of the past, and

a monument to the crimes committed against her family? Both sides have their merits. As

Alexandre writes,

whatever (piano) lesson we discover has eventually been imparted to us by the

end of the play is necessarily consolidated by the enthralling dialectic between

economic progress (represented by the character Boy Willie) and historic

preservation (represented by his sister Berniece) (Alexandre 3).

While picking one side to be the clear victor might be challenging, it is not so difficult to

see the many different ideas and themes of property that Wilson includes in the play. Wilson

capitalizes on the Locke principle of property, and infuses it with the rich culture of African-

American heritage. As Pennino writes, Wilson has taken ownership of Locke and reimagined it

for the specific African American historical experience (Pennino 7). Wilsons rich narrative

combined with Lockes principle will provide readers with an invaluable opportunity to explore

the ideas and nuances of property for years to come.

 Works Cited

Alexandre, Sandy. [The] Things What Happened with Our Family: Property and Inheritance in

August Wilsons The Piano Lesson. Modern Drama 52.1 (2009): 73-98. Academic Search

Premier. Web. 20 April 2017.

Morales, Michael. Ghosts on the Piano: August Wilson and the Representation of Black

American History. Ed. Alan Nadel. May All Your Fences Have Gates: Essays on the

Drama of August Wilson. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1994. Web. 20 April 2017.

Pennino, Anthony. "Property, Person, Piano: Ownership in August Wilson's the Piano Lesson."

Making Connections: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Cultural Diversity, vol. 15, no. 2,

Fall 2014, pp. 21-28. Web. 21 April 2017.

Wilson, August. The Piano Lesson. New York: Plume, 1990. Print.