Write an essay that responds analytically to both August Wilson’s play The Piano Lesson and the film adaptation of his play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

English 201
Prompt for Essay #4

Directions:
Write an essay that responds analytically to both August Wilson’s play
The Piano Lesson and the film adaptation of his play Ma Rainey’s Black
Bottom. You will do this by taking the perspective of a main character
(either Berniece or Boy Willie) from The Piano Lesson and writing about
that issue through the lens of how THAT character would view it.

Don’t
try to give their perspective on the entire play of Ma Rainey’s Black
Bottom. Instead, choose one issue/idea that is explored in the film, and
examine how it would look from the perspective of Boy Willie or
Berniece.
A few ideas of issues/ideas explored in Ma Rainey’s Black
Bottom (but no need to limit yourself to this list. If there are other
issues you see and want to explore choose that):
Exploitation of Black music/culture by White people
Ma Rainey’s (and by extension, Black women’s) sexuality, including her connection with Dussie Mae
The culture of Blues—the function it serves in Black culture and society
Money and class status within the Black community
The role of religious faith in Christianity in the Black community
The impact of racial violence on Levee, and other Black characters in the film
Rural versus urban Black cultural forms and expressions
Discrimination and racism against Black Americans and their effect
Generational trauma and how it gets passed through from earlier generations

For
example, let’s say you want to address Ma Rainey’s sexuality from the
perspective of Berniece. What you’d need to do is think through both how
Ma’s sexuality is portrayed in the film and how you think, based on
your reading of the character of Berniece in The Piano Lesson, she would
see that. What would she make of Ma and the way she is
sexualized/desexualized (by the music industry) and the way she uses her
own power to gain sexual favors from Dussie Mae. How would a character
like Berniece see/understand a character like Ma, in regard to her
sexuality?

Specifications
Your essay can either be written in
the third person, about how you think Berniece or Boy Willie would
understand the issue OR you can write AS the character of Boy Willie or
Berniece, telling an audience how you would view that issue, in their
own voice.
For both options, you’ll want to include a Works Cited
page that references both the play and the film, as well as any other
sources you used in writing your essay, and in-text citation for direct
quotations from the play The Piano Lesson or the screenplay of Ma
Rainey’s Black Bottom (can be found in the Variety link in the Weekly
Assignments, Week 13 folder).
Give your essay a title, which you should include as the SUBJECT of your Discussion Board post.
This
essay will probably need to weigh in at about two pages, double spaced,
to adequately address the topic of your choice (not including the Works
Cited page).

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