The Piano Lesson

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Act I

Reading Check

1. How are Berniece, Boy Willie, and Doaker related?

2. Where did Boy Willie and Lymon travel to and from in the truck?

3. What have Boy Willie and Lymon loaded their truck with?

4. What does Boy Willie want to buy with the money from selling the piano?

5. What does Berniece see at the top of the stairs?

6  Where did Avery get the inspiration to become a preacher?

7. How did Wining Boy learn about the death of Cleotha, his late wife?

8. Where did the men learn the song “Berta, Berta,” which they all sing together?

9. According to Boy Willie and Lymon, what did Crawley do that led directly to his death?

10. Who screams suddenly at the end of Act I?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. According to Boy Willie, what happened to Sutter and who did it?

2. Why did Lymon buy the truck in the first place?

3. What does Berniece think happened to Sutter, and why?

4. What has Berniece told Maretha about the carvings on the piano?

5. What does Boy Willie tell Doaker he will do to the piano if Berniece refuses to sell it?

6. What happened when Wining Boy went to see the Ghosts of the Yellow Dog and called their names?

7. Why does Berniece blame Boy Willie for the death of her husband, Crawley?

8. Why did Wining Boy give up playing the piano?

9. Why was Boy Charles determined to steal the piano? What is its history and significance for the family?

10. What did Mama Ola do every day for 17 years between her husband’s death and her own?

Paired Resource

“Berta, Berta”

• This clip from the 1995 Hallmark Hall of Fame film version of The Piano Lesson demonstrates how work songs get in people’s bodies and create a rhythm for working.
• You might consider discussing how the song made the class feel, and even play it again, encouraging students to stomp, tap, or clap so they can feel the song in their bodies too. This resource connects to the theme of The Language of the Blues.
• How do the characters seem to feel about this song as they sing it? Why does Doaker refuse to join in at first?

“A Look Into Parchman—How Plantation Prisons Present Themselves”

• This site gives a history of Parchman Farm, the Mississippi state penitentiary, and it includes footage of prisoners singing a work song while they perform hard labor.
• All the men in the play except Avery served time in Parchman Farm; it’s a trauma that they all share, even though they didn’t all serve at the same time. This connects to the theme of Generational Inheritance and the Black American Dream.
• In the play, how has time spent at Parchman affected the financial status of men in the Charles family? What effect does this have across generations? Were you surprised to learn that the prison is still in operation?

Act II

Reading Check

1. Who admits to being the first to see Sutter’s ghost?

2. What does Boy Willie tell a white woman makes the watermelon sweet?

3. What is Berniece about to do when Avery arrives and interrupts?

4. Why does Berniece refuse to play the piano? Whom does she think it might awaken?

5. What wakes Berniece when Boy Willie and Grace come to the house late at night?

6. What is Lymon looking for in Pittsburgh more than anything?

7. When Boy Willie tries to move the piano to the truck, what does Doaker demand that he do?

8. What does Berniece threaten to use if Boy Willie doesn’t leave?

9. Why did Boy Willie kill a cat when he was a kid?

10. Which character is finally successful in exorcizing Sutter’s ghost?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What turn of luck have Boy Willie and Lymon had at the beginning of Act II?

2. What does Wining Boy sell Lymon, and why does Lymon believe it’s special?

3. How does Avery explain the Ghosts of the Yellow Dog in Christian terms?

4. What does Berniece ask Avery to do for her that he isn’t sure he’s qualified to do?

5. Why is Boy Willie reluctant to go to Grace’s house?

6. What happens that makes Lymon decide that the suit he bought from Wining Boy is indeed magic?

7. What happens when Boy Willie and Lymon try to move the piano?

8. What does Berniece tell Maretha while doing her hair that causes Boy Willie to criticize her?

9. Why does Lymon leave instead of staying to help Boy Willie with the piano?

10. How does Wining Boy get in the way when Boy Willie is determined to move the piano?

Paired Resource

“The Ground on Which I Stand”

• In August Wilson’s famous address before a Theatre Communications Group conference in 1996, he discusses the need for Black theater and the need to acknowledge Black history as the ground he stands on.
• This resource connects to the themes of Generational Inheritance and the Black American Dream; Religion, Spirituality, and Supernatural Experiences; and The Language of the Blues.
• What does Wilson mean by “the ground on which he stands”? Do you agree with his assertion that Black actors should not be cast in plays like Death of a Salesman, written about white characters? What is his objection to “colorblind casting”? What other ideas in his address do you find compelling, and why?

“August Wilson on How the Blues Influences His Work”

• In this 7-minute video clip from a 1988 conversation with journalist Bill Moyers, August Wilson discusses the Century Cycle and how the blues is a central influence. (Note: Clips from productions of Wilson’s plays include the n-word.)
• This video connects to The Language of the Blues and its significance in The Piano Lesson as well as the complete Century Cycle.
• How does Wilson describe his immediate experience of hearing Bessie Smith for the first time? How did the blues shift his perception of Black Americans? How do you see this perspective reflected in The Piano Lesson?

Recommended Next Reads 

Seven Guitars by August Wilson

• Seven Guitars (1995), set in 1948, is chronologically the next play in the Century Cycle after The Piano Lesson. Told through flashbacks, it’s about the murder of blues singer Floyd Barton.
• The play connects to themes of Religion, Spirituality, and Supernatural Experiences; Generational Inheritance and the Black American Dream; and The Language of the Blues.
• Seven Guitars on SuperSummary

Gem of the Ocean by August Wilson

• Gem of the Ocean (2003), set in 1904, is one of the last Century Cycle plays that Wilson wrote, but it’s the first play of the century chronologically. Students who are interested might read the Century Cycle in chronological order. It raises as many questions as it answers, but it offers a unique view of one slice of Black American life in the 20th century.
• This play provides links to the themes of Religion, Spirituality, and Supernatural Experiences and Generational Inheritance and the Black American Dream.