Blog Post # 5: Piano Lesson Responses

         I believe that the "piano lesson"  is the Charles family learning to accept and move on together with the past, and not discarding it or staying with it. You see throughout the story that Boy Willie wants to sell the piano and move on with life, while Berniece wants to keep it and never move on. Only in the end, these ideas come together within Berniece, and she keeps the piano, while moving on together with it. August Wilson chose the title The Piano Lesson, because the whole story was revolving around what the Charles family needed to learn about themselves, and their past involving the piano.At the end of the story, Boy Willie finally understands the importance of the piano. He understood its importance when Berniece played the piano and sung her family members' names, telling him that the piano holds a great deal of their family within it, and it shouldn't just be given up. What's significant about Berniece calling out her dead ancestors' names to rid the house of Sutter's Ghost is that she understands that her family has been through a lot with the piano, and she shouldn't keep mourning for them, but instead asking them for help with her own life. The purpose of this is that Berniece finally learns to accept the past and move on with life, together with the memories of her family.

Post # 4: Social Mobility

1. Zakaria believes social mobility is going down in the U.S. because the likelihood of children born into poverty rising up to higher classes is low, and the U.S. welfare state is not spending  on the poor, but the middle class. In many parts of the U.S, those who are poor end up with less food, and a bad education. Because of this, the poor are never given equal living conditions as the middle and upper classes, and opportunities for the poor show up significantly less. Also, since the U.S. welfare state chooses to only focus on the middle class, the distance between the poor and the rich slowly increases, and this may soon make it impossible for any lower class people to move up in the U.S.

2. Equality within basic needs for life is a big factor for the U.S. to get back on track with the American Dream and social mobility, because if all classes are given the same education, health care, etc, both the poor and middle classes have opportunities to move up within social classes. This relates to the American Dream of people wanting to become successful, and maybe even better than their predecessors, because if everyone isn't given the same pieces to build up their life, no one can achieve anything they want for their life.

Post # 3: The Piano Lesson Act 1

1. The Ghosts of the Yellow Dog are the Boy Charles and the four hobos that died on the Yellow Dog railroad. They may have been hit by a train, and now they're out for revenge.

2.The "n word" is being used in a friendly term between the the characters in early Act 1, and they only use it to refer to one another without using names.

3.The Irene Kauffman Settlement House seems to be a sort of place that helps the poor, because Berniece has Maretha go there so that she can become a teacher. You feel the sense that they may be poor or struggling because during the time in the play, racism still exists, and this effects many black families during that time.

4. Parchman Farm is referring to an actual prison from the 1900's, because Boy Willie said that he and Lymon did time there for three years, which means they were in jail for three years.