Lymon’s and Boy Willie’s repeatedly broken-down pickup truck is a comical feature in the play, but it also symbolizes creative self-determination in the midst of oppressive circumstances. Lymon and Boy Willie travel from Mississippi to Pittsburgh in the truck in hopes of selling a load of watermelons and helping both men start new lives. And for Lymon, the truck has also served as a means of concealment and escape from a Mississippi sheriff who is trying to force Lymon to work for Stovall, a local white landowner, against Lymon’s will. The truck thus symbolizes the men’s initiative in choosing and pursuing their own paths in life, while also hinting at the obstacles and limitations they face as Black men within a racist environment.
Truck Quotes in The Piano Lesson
BOY WILLIE: Lymon bought that truck so he have him a place to sleep. He down there wasn’t doing no work or nothing. Sheriff looking for him. He bought that truck to keep away from the sheriff. Got Stovall looking for him too. He down there sleeping in that truck ducking and dodging both of them. I told him come on let’s go up and see my sister.
BOY WILLIE: They looking for Lymon down there now. They rounded him up and put him in jail for not working.
LYMON: Fined me a hundred dollars. Mr. Stovall come and paid my hundred dollars and the judge say I got to work for him to pay him back his hundred dollars. I told them I’d rather take my thirty days but they wouldn’t let me do that.
Truck Symbol Timeline in The Piano Lesson
