The Piano Lesson

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. The piano is an important and sentimental family heirloom, but it is also worth a significant amount of money.

• Is Boy Willie right to want to sell the piano, or is Berniece right to want to keep it? (topic sentence)
• In the body of your essay, explore at least three reasons to support your claim. Remember when writing your argument that the supernatural elements Wilson includes in the play are open to interpretation—they may be real, metaphorical, or superstition, so you are not bound to what the characters conclude.
• In your conclusion, address the counterargument and explain why your argument is stronger.

2. The truck that Boy Willie and Lymon drive to Pittsburgh from Mississippi is never seen, but it is a significant image and functions almost as an offstage character.