Task 5...themes?

As a main themes I see there two things, SLAVERY of black people and their HISTORY. For me it seems a bit like a historical play, not really but there are some things that point out that feeling. There is a huge paragraph that lasts for more that two pages that just talks about the ancestors of the main characters in this story. What concerns both of these topics, they are connected with this old piano and I have chosen one part said by Berenice that talks about this piano and for me it somehow shows both of these themes. "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 blod in.......mixed it up with the rest of the blood on it. Every day that God breathed life into her body she robbed and cleaned and polished and prayed over it." I do not know, but in me this leaves quite a strong feelings about their history, how they believed in a better times and how hard they had to work.
Also, it shows the change, maybe it is not on purpose but I see it there, there is a huge change between people who are the main characters and their ancestors. In the past, they had such a hard life in slavery and now? They are just arguing about the piano but they are free and can do what ever they want to do and do not have to work for anybody just for themselves.

Task 4....history and future

For me it seams that there are not so many things going on in this story, but at the same time it seams that there are still new and new things going on. 

I believe that the most important parts that had happend so far are these: Boy Willie had reappeard in the house of his relatives with an intention to make money by selling the old family piano. We found out about the story of piano and Sutter, the man whose ghost is scaring people living in this house and owning the piano. Also there are some fights going on between Boy Willie and Berenice about the selling of the piano, because she does not want to do it but he wants. Because it is all about this, fighting about the piano there is only one more action so far and it is homecoming of Wining Boy, who is an uncle of Berenice and Boy Willie, he was far away for a long time but know he is back and he is involved in the story, because he was in the situation when they got piano and Berenice's and Boy Willie's father died. 

What I think that will happen next is that there still will be arguments about the piano, but in my opinion, Doaker and Wining Boy will be more involved that until now. I also believe that there will be a huge fight between Berenice and Boy Willie because the tension is escalating. Even though, there was not a lot about Sutter's ghost yet, I guess that it will interact the story a bit more in the future, because it is there for something, so something about it will be going on for sure.

The only thing that helps to move the play forward is the new characters that occured in the story, Wining Boy. I do not know if I am a bit weird or if I have chosen a bad play for me, but in looks like it is going nowhere, we know new facts from the past, however there is nothing going on about the future. Boy Willie is still telling that he wants to sell the piano and Berenice is opposing him, but there is no final agreement or something.

Task 3...time relation??

What I would say is that the time in which the play is set is not that important, because the main theme is mostly the past event and that is what is important, the period when black people were in slavery and could not do almost anything because it was theirs boss who said what to do, where to do and how to do it.
In my oppinion the main scenario is somehow related to today's world and relevant, because still, there are people whose ancestors went through the period of slavery and they still can have some memories about them and some things which connects them to these people. The main thing, piano is something like family heritage and still you can find in some families, not only of black people but of people whose ancestors came through something different and I think that people who have some object like this does not want to give it away. But still you can find there differences between different family members and that is something what is still current for people now-days.
So yes, this play is still relevant and there can be seen connections with todays world.

finally

Some enlightment coming :) ...nearly at the end of the story and I am starting to get what it is about, nice!!.. Really like this feeling of knowing what am I reading ...

Task two ..something about the story

PLOT:
Just simply because it is very complicated. The story is about two siblings who fight for the piano, if sell it or not, but this piano is like a heirloom for one of them, because there is hidden a story of an ancestors of the family that posses it. During a hole story there is a fight about piano connected with a story of those ancestors and another little stories as Wining Boys chase after money and Boy Willies chase after Berenice to sell the piano. And of course the mysterious appation of Suter's ghost. That is briefly it, it is not much but story is a bit complicated and I think that this brief info can take you to the picture.

There are a few main characters who are involved in this drama, they are of a different personality. Except for a few "touchable" characters there are few who we know just from a stories and also one ghost.

CHARACTERS:

Berenice can be described as a strong person, she is female but it doesn't matter, she is very tough and doesn't too much care about people who doesn't mean anything for her. She is highly familial type, the idea of selling the piano which is her only memory of their ancestors is absolutely unimaginable for her. What concerns the relationship between her and Boy Willie, they are siblings and the same in a way of strong characters, but they both have different view of things and she thinks that her brother just talks and doesn't do anything.

Boy Willie is quite an interesting person, he is stubborn, goes for what he wants(sometimes over deads). He is a kind of a man who is somehow still a boy, he break the law a lot and he doesn't care about doing it. I find him  as a "man of action" if he wants to do someting or have something he goes for it (ex.make money). Description of Boy Willie made by author is: "Boy Willie is thirty years old. He has an infectious grin and a boyishness that is apt for his name. He is brash and impulsive, talkative and somewhat crude in speech and manner." (The Piano Lesson)

Doaker is an old man who somehow want to make peace between Boy Willie and Berenice, because he doesn't want them to fight because they are family. It is shown in a play that he wants Boy Willie to sell the piano for which they are arguing, but he doesn't want him to do it without Berenice's permission. He is the one who tells us a story about the ancestors of their family, the story of a piano. He likes both of the siblings but he is more with Boy Willie but will do nothing against Berenice.

Wining Boy is the last of a main characters in this play, he is Doaker's older brother and he is a kind of "piano chick"...he just drinks, gambles and play the old family piano. His life seem like he did not do anything, just those things all his life long. He just wants to make money so he could go and party for another while. 

Suter is one speculative character, he is not really in the play because he is a ghost, but I find him important for the context of the story. He was a man who had the piano at first, he changed it for two slaves who were ancestors of Berenice and Boy Willie, after some time they stole the piano from him but until now all of the characters can see the ghost somehow and they think that it is because of the piano in their house.

As obvious, all the characters are familly, all of them are kind of different and kind of same at one time. The main storyline is about the fight of Berenice and Boy Willie about the piano. I think that all of them like each other somehow, but it is difficult to find out. 

Of course those characters have the main "voice" in the story, because it is all abou them and theirs history and personalities. In my oppinion it was really good choice of author the all of the characters are somehow different, so we can see the story from different perspectives and it is interesting, there are not just boring dialogues between the same people but fights and excitement because they are different.

When talking about tension, I think it is about piano of course, I see it as a symbol, I understand while Berenice doesn't want to sell it. For her it is a piece of her past. So probably the piano is the most important thing in the story because it all runs around it all the time, it is always somehow connected.

Photo show..

Here are some pictures of author - August Wilson

Here some from the play and the covers

August Wilson

He grew up in Pensylvania in a slum community and this fact is somehow reflected in his future dramas, for example in The Piano Lesson, he talks about those people, poor Afro-American slaves who lived in harsh conditions. His first play, which gave him some "name"was Ma Rainey's Black Bottom in 1984.

Author had won 2 Pulizer prices, one for his earliest play Fences and second one for the one I will talk about The Piano Lesson. He died in the year 2005.

There are some quotes said by August Wilson which I find absorbing:

“All you need in the world is love and laughter. That's all anybody needs. To have love in one hand and laughter in the other.”

“It ain't nothing to find no starting place in the world. You just start from where you find yourself.”

“I might be a different kind of fool, but I ain't gonna be the same fool twice.” 

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