Defend Boy Willie’s Scheme for Buying Sutter’s Land. In The Piano Lesson, written by August Wilson, Boy Willie devises a scheme for buying Sutter’s land. Boy Willie has one part of the money saved up. He will sell the watermelons for the second part. Then he will sell the piano for a third part. The only debating issue in Boy Willie’s scheme is the piano. Berniece does not want to sell the piano. This is the only reason for a defense in Boy Willie’s scheme. Therefore, I will defend Boy Willie’s issue of selling the piano and how that liberates him in reference to his scheme for buying Sutter’s land.The first defense is the usage of the piano. In Wilson’s novel, Berniece never uses the piano, Boy Willie: “ You can’t do nothing with that piano except sit up there and look at it”, Berniece, “That’s just what I’m gonna do” (p.50). The piano is a “sentimental value” (p.51) to Berniece. Her father died over the piano (p.42-46). Boy Willie argues even though the piano is of sentimental value, Berniece is not using it. He wants to sell it in order to buy land, seed, and workers, which will in turn produce a crop, and something will come out of that (p.51). The second defense is that of equality. Boy Willie believes how a certain individual perceives himself determines what that individual really is in reality (p.92). He also believes that white men have one advantage over black men and that is, “ The colored man can’t fix nothing with the law” (p.38). Boy Willie desires to be equal to the white man (p.92). Also, equality ties into the above paragraph in which Berniece does not use the piano. Boy Willie will use the money from the piano along with the profit from the other two sources and get his land. Obtaining this goal will make him equal to the white man (p.92). Boy Willie will never work for anyone other than for himself...
