Senior Inquiry 14-15

August Wilson: The Piano Lesson Guiding Questions

Target: I can analyze a play structure and identify themes, as well as make inferences from the August Wilson’s Piano Lesson with a lens of socialization.

Standards: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.3 Analyze the impact of the author's choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).

Make sure you read all the questions first, and then write yourself notes with the page number of the passages.

Cite evidence from the play to support your work. How have the life experiences in the various characters shaped how they had been socialized into society?

What happened to Lymon down south?

What were some of his problems with the judicial system?

What did Bernice think of his story?

What was Boy Willie’s experience with the judicial system?

What did he learn?

What happened to their father, Boy Charles?

Why does Bernice blame Boy Willie for her husband’s death?

What is Boy Willies account of how Bernice’s husband, Crawly, got killed?

Which characters internalized racism? Cite evidence from the play.

How does this play represent aspects of Michele Alexander’s, The New Jim Crow?

What are examples of Power and Oppression in the play?

Read page 37 top right column, then research the vagrancy laws and other Jim Crow laws Post-Civil War, make connections between them and The Piano Lesson.

What was the role of Religion in the play?

How did the family acquire the Piano?

Does that having meaning in the play?

Explain, Why won’t Bernice sell the piano? What’s her explanation? What is the significance of the piano to her?

Why won’t Boy Willie stop trying to sell the piano? How does he explain why he needs to sell it? What does that represent in his struggle?

Identify how the socialization of characters has affected their outlooks on life and their relationships to each other. Think about what this says about the black experience. This will help prepare you for the coming paper.