The Piano Lesson

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“The Black American Dream”

In this activity, students work in small groups to explore the idea of the American Dream and what it has meant for Black Americans in the 20th century.

The term “American Dream” was created by writer James Truslow Adams in his 1931 text The Epic of America. He defined it as “a dream of a social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.”

• What does the American Dream mean to you? Discuss this question with a small group.
• With your group, choose a decade of the 20th century and research the racism and other issues that made the American Dream different or more difficult to attain for BIPOC during that decade.

Put your work together with that of other groups to make a visual timeline of how race has complicated the American Dream throughout the 20th century. Choose a spokesperson from your group to explain your decade to the class.

Teaching Suggestion: Once students have done the work of researching how racism affected the American Dream in the 20th century, you might hold a class discussion about Boy Willie. How is he trying to achieve the American Dream? What obstacles stand in his way throughout the play?

Paired Text Extension:

Read A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, which premiered on Broadway in 1959. Like The Piano Lesson, it is about the Black American Dream. The Younger family has an inheritance from a beloved patriarch who died, and they argue over the best way to use it.

• Have students create a T-chart to note similarities in the plot points of the two plays.
• Invite students to discuss and share their ideas as to what makes A Raisin in the Sun an important play, and why both Raisin and The Piano Lesson won Pulitzer Prizes.

Teaching Suggestion: In a class discussion, students might compare and contrast the two plays. How does each portray the quest for the American Dream? How do the characters in both plays run into obstacles and make mistakes? How are the outcomes similar or different?