The Piano Lesson

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. The piano is an important and sentimental family heirloom, but it is also worth a significant amount of money.

• Is Boy Willie right to want to sell the piano, or is Berniece right to want to keep it? (topic sentence)
• In the body of your essay, explore at least three reasons to support your claim. Remember when writing your argument that the supernatural elements Wilson includes in the play are open to interpretation—they may be real, metaphorical, or superstition, so you are not bound to what the characters conclude.
• In your conclusion, address the counterargument and explain why your argument is stronger.

2. The truck that Boy Willie and Lymon drive to Pittsburgh from Mississippi is never seen, but it is a significant image and functions almost as an offstage character.

• What does Lymon’s truck symbolize and signify in the play? (topic sentence)
• In the body of your essay, choose at least three instances in which the truck has an effect on the action of the play, and explain how each supports your claim about the truck’s significance.
• In your conclusion, explain the truck’s trajectory as Lymon leaves with it at the end of the play and how its meaning and significance change with a new purpose.

3. When Boy Willie arrives at the beginning of the play, Berniece already has animosity toward him over Crawley’s death and wants him to leave.

• Do you think Berniece’s anger toward Boy Willie is justified? (topic sentence)
• In the body of your essay, find and explain at least three points of evidence from the text that support your argument as to whether Boy Willie deserves Berniece’s anger. Remember, the question isn’t whether or not Crawley helped Boy Willie commit a crime, since both characters agree that he did.
• In your conclusion, explain what the event of Crawley’s death says about the world the characters live in and how it affects their lives and relationships.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by textual details, and a conclusion.

1. In Act I, Scene 2, Wining Boy tells Boy Willie, “Now that’s the difference between the colored man and the white man. The colored man can’t fix nothing with the law” (41). How does the play make a statement about the way the police and the legal system treat Black people and white people differently? What is the connection between slavery and the prison system? Give three examples from the text to support your answer, and for each example, include a quoted line or phrase to strengthen your argument. What is the play’s message about the way the prison system has worked since the decades after slavery?

2. The action of the play is centered on the piano and who can claim ownership, but the title of the play is The Piano Lesson. What is the lesson or lessons? Who is the student, and why? Support your argument with at least three examples from the text, including quotes with citations as evidence. What lesson do you think the audience can learn from the play? Does it make a difference that Wilson’s plays tended to open in large professional theaters with predominantly white audiences? Why or why not?

3. The train is a significant symbol in the play. Reread the text and trace the repeated image of the train and the railroad station throughout. What do you think the train symbolizes? What does it mean to the characters? Consider in particular Doaker’s monologue in Act I, Scene 1, in which he says, “But you’d be surprised how many people trying to go North get on a train going West. They think the train’s supposed to go where they going rather than where it’s going” (22-23). Who controls the train, and whose lives are controlled by the train? Use specific evidence from the text to support your answer.