Characters and Motives
This character believes the family piano holds ancestral spirits.
Who is Berniece?
This object holds carvings of Berniece’s ancestors.
What is the piano?
In The America Play, this character recreates Lincoln’s assassination as part of his "job."
Who is The Foundling Father?
This theme is embodied by the piano in The Piano Lesson.
What is family heritage (or cultural memory)?
Berniece’s father who risked his life to take the piano.
Who is Boy Charles?
The Ghosts of the Yellow Dog are believed to haunt Boy Willie for this reason.
What is the murder of Sutter?
Parks uses this literary device to address America’s obsession with its historical figures.
What is symbolism?
Parks' The America Play uses replicas and reenactments to explore this theme.
What is America’s historical obsession?
The occupation Doaker pursued to leave Mississippi.
What is a railroad cook?
Berniece’s daughter learns this musical instrument as a family tradition.
What is the piano?
In The Piano Lesson, this sound symbolizes Sutter's haunting presence.
What is knocking?
Both The Piano Lesson and The America Play explore this concept of passing down shared stories.
What is cultural legacy (or oral tradition)?
What Boy Willie wants to buy with money from the piano sale.
What is land?
What Boy Willie wants to buy with money from the piano sale.
Who is Papa Willie Boy?
This “Great Hole” is the setting in The America Play, representing America’s fascination with the past.
What is the “Great Hole of History”?
The legacy of slavery is linked to this theme of ownership in The Piano Lesson.
What is ownership (or inheritance)?
This character symbolizes reclaiming family history in The Piano Lesson.
Who is Boy Willie?
The Ghost of Sutter in The Piano Lesson represents this.
What is guilt?
The America Play explores this concept, challenging how we remember historical figures.
What is cultural memory?
Both plays present family history as a way of reclaiming this.
What is identity?