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gration as a Cultural Break
Each of Wilson’s Pittsburgh cycle plays sets in different decade of the twentieth century,aiming to chronicle the existing condition confronting African Americans in each decade ofthe twentieth century. So the historical and social background play rather important roles in the process of understanding Wilson’s plays..The Piano Lesson takes place in Pittsburgh in 1937 with the Great Depression as a socialbackground and hints at the black migration from South to North that occurring. After the turnof the twentieth century, a large number of southern black labors headed to the north to lookfor good chances to start new lives, and leaved their homeland and communities behind. Eventhough no accurate data was recorded, most historians believed “roughly 450,000 to 500,000black southerners relocated to the North between 1915 and 1918, and [...] another 700,000 [...]during the 1920s” (qtd. in Jones 36). And this situation did last even in the WWII and theGreat Depression. At that time, the great migration transformed America and it did broughtabout changes in African American culture and had a great impact on their literature, and evenidentity.The Piano Lesson starts within such a social background. And the great migrationbackground is one key element to understand the protagonist Berniece. In the play, the maindispute exists between Berniece who has moved to Pittsburgh and Boy Willie who still livesin Mississippi. In Pittsburgh, Berniece gets a good opportunity of having a nice job which canguarantee she could offer a better education to her eleven-year old daughter Maretha. She atfirst lives a peaceful life with her daughter and uncle Doaker. The conflict comes with thearriving of her brother Boy Willie and Boy Willie’s friend Lymon on one early morning. Theatmosphere of their first meeting is not friendly. When Boy Willie is excited to say “Hi”onfive O’clock in the morning. Berniece, however, questions Boy Willie that “What do youdoing all that hollering for?” (Wilson 6). She criticizes her brother, “You can’t come likenormal folks. You got to bring all that noise with you” (6). Even though it has been three yearssince Berniece met her brother last time. Boy Willie arrives at her sister’s home with a pieceof news that Sutter, the previous slaveholder, whose land in South are on sale, is drown in awell. When he tells his sister that he wants to sell the family heirloom piano to buy Sutter’sland where his ancestors worked as slaves and sharecroppers, their contradictions eruptcompletely. Berniece refuses to agree with Boy Willie to sell the piano. Though Berniecerefuses to sell the piano, she also refuses to play the piano in Pittsburgh any more. Berniece’scontradictory attitude is closely related to the history of the piano.
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1.2 Yearning for Re-connection with the South
At first, the conflict in the play is between Berniece and Boy Willie.Their differentattitudes towards the piano push the development of the whole play. At the beginning of theplay, Boy Willie and Lymon, Boy Willie’s friend and partner, get to Pittsburgh with a truck ofwatermelons. Boy Willie wants to sell the watermelons to collect one part of money to buySutter’s land where his ancestors worked as slaves and sharecroppers. In addition to sellingwatermelons, the most important purpose of his visit is to claim his own right to use the piano.If he sells the piano, he will have enough money to make his drea