Bernice

Jonathan St. Martin

November 29, 2015

Journal 9

                                        Bernice

For my next journal I decided to go ahead and write about my thoughts regarding the Piano lesson from the perspective of Bernice and some key takeaways that I think we can learn about from her and some wisdom that we can take from her. We will discover these lessons from points that I would say made me stop on think about what it meant to be a woman in that time and what was excepted. The first thing that I would say would be the place which Bernice has been dropped into.  The first thing I noticed about this story is Bernice was portrayed as a single African American mother trying to make a life for her daughter.  The first thing I thought was unique about this particular situation is how much Bernice was willing to do to try to assimilate to the culture and create a better life for herself and her daughter. Here instead of choosing to look at the past wrongs that had been done to her and her family, she chooses to go on and try to build the most normal life that she can make for her and her family. The first avenue that we see is what her job is. She has begun to break out of her shell and accept the hand that has been dealt her unlike boy Willie who chooses to see the world as owing him something. We see another strong example of the African Americans accepting the place that they were dealt is with the pastor. The pastor we hear of in the beginning of the film has a position which he tries to who Bernice into a marriage that offers her the financial and emotional security of being with a level headed headed man that simply only wants to have a family and security of fulfilling that need in his life with Bernice. However, in this play we see time and time again of Bernice continually shutting him down and making it clear that she needed no man’s help to make a decent life for her and her daughter. We see her doing things such as telling Boy Willie to get out and to stop trying to meddle in the affairs of the piano or disturbing her peaceful life in general. Here, we see her giving everything she has pushing back on the ideas of the old south and going into to work as a maid in order to work and make a living for her family. Another thing that I noticed is her refusal to play the piano because of all the painful memories that the piano represented the previous pain that she knew her family had experienced in order to that keep that piano in the family and in that house. However, when her brother showed up with all kinds of thoughts of selling the piano for land, somehow almost instantly Bernice grew a voice. It was a voice to be the responsible one as we almost assume that she was in earlier years. Within the rest of the movie, we see her continually question if it is a good thing to be around her brother and if maybe he will come back and lead her into embracing the new ways of the world instead of sticking with the comfort of it all. We all see her having the option of marriage, however, not wanting to take anyone up on it. Right before she was going to have a bath, we see her being tempted to make out with the pastor and start something with him, however, she has been so closed off to any real emotion that she almost appears unable to let anyone in.  Another love interest we find here is Bernice with the man Lymon. After going and spurring himself up with the help of a new suit and some other accessories, he finds himself in search of a good woman with Boy Willie. However, the scene returns to him and Bernice having an interesting conversation. Berniece puts on the kettle, and Lymon comes home. He tells Berniece that the only woman he found wanted to use him for free drinks. He saw one woman he liked, but Boy Willie got her first – it was Grace. Lymon is wistful about missing his opportunity with Grace. He says that the girl Maratha looks like Berniece, and that he likes kids. Lymon is staying in the city because the sheriff is looking for him down south, and he figures that up north he can get a job and get himself settled down. Berniece remarks that the women in saloons, who go home with men, get old very fast. She doesn’t understand that life. Lymon figures them for lonely. He used to be the same, but now he has to really like a girl to want to be with her. He just hasn’t found the right one. However, I believe that deep down inside, she was rather interested in Lymon but she isn’t ready to let her guard down. She is far to worried about potentially maybe loosing her independence and letting someone take care of her, cause the last time she did that, she was left with a family to provide for.