A Piano's Cost In The Piano Lesson, August Wilson portrays the life of a 30's family in a dilemma over selling an ancestral piano for money to buy land those ancestors worked as slaves. The piano teaches many lessons, among the most important is that you must hold on to your heritage over everything else, even economic betterment. The Piano Lesson speaks of some basic lessons of African-American culture. Wilson felt a duty toward his African's slave past. In this way his play teaches duty toward respecting your heritage, which in the tradition of great literature, is just as relevant today as in 19