The Piano Lesson

Act I

Reading Check

1. Berniece and Boy Willie are siblings, and Doaker is their uncle.

2. They traveled from Mississippi to Pittsburgh.

3. Watermelons (Act I, Scene 1)

4. The land where his family was enslaved, owned by a man named Sutter who has died (Act I, Scene 1)

5. Sutter’s ghost (Act I, Scene 1)

6. He had a dream in which he met Jesus. (Act I, Scene 1)

7. In a letter from a friend of Cleotha’s (Act I, Scene 2)

8. Parchman Farm, or prison (Act I, Scene 2)

9. He fired a gun at police. (Act I, Scene 2)

10. Maretha (Act I, Scene 2)

Short Answer

1. Boy Willie says that Sutter died after the Ghosts of the Yellow Dog pushed him into his own well. (Act I, Scene 1)

2. Lymon needed a place to sleep where he could keep moving to avoid the sheriff. He is trying to escape a sentence forcing him to work for free. (Act I, Scene 1)

3. Berniece believes that Boy Willie killed Sutter for his land, because when she saw Sutter’s ghost, it called Boy Willie’s name.