The Dialectics of Wilson's The Piano Lesson by Elam Harry - Essay Example

The ghosts are symbolic of the past that keeps haunting the African Americans. Harry’s analysis is agreeable but excessively prejudiced.The next article “Call-and-Response: Parallel "Slave Narrative" in August Wilson's The Piano Lesson” by Boan Devon, which posits that Wilsons play is a propos on conflicts that arise when deciding the degree to which the past should affect the present. He argues that author of the play uses the piano as the benchmark to develop the argument on how people view the past.

The author argues that the play consist of a traditional folklore incorporated into a true but metaphorical approach on slavery. According to Devon, the metaphorical narrative revolves around Willie Boy integrated into a family folklore revolving around Doaker. The approach is captivating and agreeable as it irrefutably explicates Wilson’s play. This paper is a critique of Elam Harry’s article “The Dialectics of Wilson's The Piano Lesson” and Boan Devon article “Call-and-Response: Parallel "Slave Narrative" in August Wilson's The Piano Lesson.

” The paper focuses on demonstrating the prejudice manner in which Elam has analysed the play “The Piano Lesson” and articulate the judiciousness of Devon’s scrutiny on the same play. . mbol of conventional African Americans who believe their history should not be deserted while Boy Willy signifies noninterventionist African Americans who feel their past was futile and agonizing and should thus not preoccupy their future. Willie therefore tries to approve the American entrepreneurship to demonstrate his exodus from the wearying past African ancestry.

Harry states that the whites viewed “The pain, struggle, and suffering of Charles family, represented by their personal histories etched into the piano” (Elam 370) with pleasure and coldness. The author further asserts that refusal of Berniece to dispose the piano represents the impact of the African American rebuttal to adopt western culture, which causes their continued poverty. Harry’s approach is distasteful, biased and fails to acknowledge any positive qualities of African American culture.

Harry posits that African American culture “Has offered the only opportunities for expression and resistance.” (Elam 368). This is contrary to the portrayal in the play since Wilson has shown that the culture has facilitated unanimity among the African Americans. The author bigotry claims “The Current crisis and fragmentation of the African American family still bear the scars of this dislocation and disregard for family structure.” (Elam 368). The play does not depict Africans disregard to family structure.

In deed, the Charles family tries to remain united such that at the end Willie decides to give up his dream of vending the Piano for the sake of family harmony. However, Harry acceptably attributes slavery to have contributed to the poverty in Charles family. He accurately interprets the piano as the African American culture passed on from generation to generation, which some African American’s