Themes: The American Dream
In all his plays, Wilson explores the tension between the American dream and the African-American experience marked by poverty and racial discrimination. In The Piano Lesson, each main character imagines a different future, highlighting the challenges African Americans faced in achieving the American dream.
The concept of "the American dream" involves the belief in the potential for upward social mobility within American society: an immigrant arriving at Staten Island with nothing can, through hard work, eventually earn enough to buy a house and live comfortably. Boy Willie’s ambition to own land reflects this traditional American dream.
Avery also has a dream, but it contrasts sharply with Boy Willie’s goals. Avery feels "filled with the Holy Ghost and called to be a servant of the Lord." In his spare time, he preaches and is currently working to raise money to build a church. Avery’s aspiration to become a preacher and lead a congregation, alongside Boy Willie’s desire to farm and own land, highlights two significant aspects of African-American life—religion and land. Avery’s passionate religious speech contrasts with the black southern vernacular that Boy Willie uses.
Their dreams illustrate two paths to success available to African Americans during this period; however, other avenues for economic progress also existed. The character of Wining Boy represents another traditional route for black advancement: music. Wilson explored this theme in his first play, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1984), critiquing the exploitation of black musical talent by whites. This critique is reflected in Wining Boy, a once-promising "recording star" and piano player whose fortunes have declined. Despite this, not all characters give in to despair: Berniece remains aware of her societal status but still dreams of her daughter rising socially by becoming a piano teacher. Similarly, Lymon hopes to find success in the big city.
The most significant dream in the play, however, is Papa Boy Charles’s vision that owning the piano will deepen the family’s connection to their history. His wish to remove the piano from Sutter’s house and return "the story of our whole family" to his relatives comes at the cost of his life. The Sutters’ murder of Boy Charles echoes their historical violence toward the Charles family. Moreover, the "liberation" of the piano and Boy Charles’s murder on the railway—a powerful symbol of escape and freedom for blacks, as it was a route used by fleeing slaves—occur on the Fourth of July. Wilson thus emphasizes the original limitations of the American Revolution, where white citizens gained independence from British rule while continuing their oppression of black slaves, and the limited relevance of its ideals for African Americans in the segregated 1930s.
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