Wining Boy’s Values

The Piano Lesson written by August Wilson is a historical play that tells the story of the Charles’s family, whose history is symbolized through a piano. Thru this play Wining Boy is one of the characters. He is a fifty-six year old man who likes to gamble and who plays the piano for a living. He is a musician that has traveled to a lot of places and likes to tell about his experiences thru out life. The two main things Wining Boy values is his ex-wife Cleotha and their family’s piano because it symbolizes his family’s history.

The first thing Wining Boy valued was his ex- wife Cleotha he loved her with all his heart even though they were not together anymore. They were childhood sweet hearts for one another. They got married and argued a lot, so they split up. Even though Wining Boy was not with Cleotha he still cared about her dearly and so did she. Cleotha told him before he left that “Wining Boy, you got a home as long as I got mine” (pg.31). As the reader you can also tell Wining Boy still cared about Cleotha because he tells Doaker in one of the passages “Man that woman was something. I used to thank the lord. Many a night I sat up and looked over my life. Said, well, I had Cleotha. When it didn’t look like there was nothing else for me, I said, thank God, at least I had that” (Pg.32). You can tell in this passage that Wining Boy really loved and valued Cleotha. Wining Boy also respected Cleotha because he considered her to be a good woman.

Wining Boy’s niece Bernice and nephew Boy Willie are fighting over what they want to do with the family piano. Bernice wants to keep it and Boy Willie wants to sell it. Wining Boy sides with Bernice because he doesn’t want the piano to be sold. He values the piano because it has family history and sacrifices. He values the piano because his brother died for it and because it tells the story of the trials his ancestors faced. In a passage on (pg 57) Doaker tells Wining boy that he agrees that they should selling the piano because it has brought nothing, but trouble with the Sutter ghost. Wining Boy tells him that he doesn’t agree because their brother Charles didn’t take it to give it back. He said “He took it because he figured he had more right than Sutter did”. Wining boy is a person that values history and since part of his history is connected to the piano, he values it.

Wining Boy is a musician and a gambler. He is a person that moves from one place to the other, but he never forgets his family history because he values it. He separated from his Ex- wife, Cleotha, but he still loved her and cared about her very much. The reason Wining Boy as so much respect for his family history was because of the piano because he had a lot of stories and memories that relate to the piano. His ex-wife and the piano are the two things that Wining Boy values the most and he feels they kept him safe.