Bernice

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The Piano Lesson is a sibling couple who is from completely different worlds, yet started from the exact same spot. The two represent two attitudes toward the family legacy in that piano and what they want to do with their families and how they dealt with the challenges of everyday life in that time period. These attitudes are explicitly gendered, articulated in the name of the father, in the case of Boy Willie, and the mother, in the case of Berniece. In selling the piano, Boy Willie imagines himself as acting as his father might have and winning the property he could only work to the benefit of others. He thinks that if he is able to sell the piano, it will not only be doing so, he leaves his mark on the world, just as Boy Charles did with his theft. He thinks the the tail of the yellow dog is has brought a once in a lifetime opportunity to take some land for himself and find a way to work out of poverty. He thinks that the piano is simply a way that his sister is trapping herself in by holding on to all those negative memoires and stay oppressed. However, she believes that she is honoring her legacy by holding on to it and honoring all the hard work that they have put in Against her brother, Berniece will conjure the image of Mama Ola, mournfully tending to the piano until the day she died. Like her mother, Berniece figures as the guardian of the family's past sufferings.

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