Avery Brown Character Analysis in The Piano Lesson

Avery Brown is a 38-year-old man who’s dating Berniece. Avery is ambitious and honest and dresses well. He followed Berniece to Pittsburgh from Mississippi two years ago in hopes of persuading her to marry him after her first husband, Crawley, died. Avery has recently become a preacher and hopes to start a church, the Good Shepherd Church of God in Christ, an idea which came to him through a dream filled with biblical imagery. Avery has adapted smoothly to life in Pittsburgh, finding opportunities here that the rural South did not afford. He is currently working as a downtown elevator operator while raising money to start his church. Though Avery genuinely loves and cares for Berniece, he tends to look at her primarily in terms of his own goals and to underestimate her independence and self-sufficiency. While blessing the Charles’s house, he fails to exorcise Sutter’s ghost.

Avery Brown Quotes in The Piano Lesson

The The Piano Lesson quotes below are all either spoken by Avery Brown or refer to Avery Brown. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Racism and Self-determination Theme Icon

BERNIECE: You trying to tell me a woman can’t be nothing without a man. But you alright, huh? You can just walk out of here without me—without a woman—and still be a man. That’s alright. Ain’t nobody gonna ask you, “Avery, who you got to love you?’’ That’s alright for you. But everybody gonna be worried about Berniece.

Related Characters: Berniece (speaker), Avery Brown, Maretha

Page Number and Citation: 67

Explanation and Analysis:

I was only playing it for her. When my daddy died seem like all her life went into that piano. She used to have me playing on it […] say when I played it she could hear my daddy talking to her. I used to think them pictures came alive and walked through the house. Sometime late at night I could hear my mama talking to them. I said that wasn’t gonna happen to me. I don’t play that piano cause I don’t want to wake them spirits. They never be walking around in this house.

Related Characters: Berniece (speaker), Avery Brown, Maretha, Mama Ola, Boy Charles

Related Symbols: Piano

Page Number and Citation: 70

Explanation and Analysis:

AVERY: You got to put all of that behind you, Berniece. That’s the same thing like Crawley. Everybody got stones in their passway. You got to step over them or walk around them. You picking them up and carrying them with you. All you got to do is set them down by the side of the road. You ain’t got to carry them with you. You can walk over there right now and play that piano. You can walk over there right now and God will walk over there with you. […] You can walk over here right now and make it into a celebration.

Related Characters: Avery Brown (speaker), Berniece, Boy Willie, Maretha, Crawley

Related Symbols: Piano

Page Number and Citation: 71

Explanation and Analysis:

AVERY: Berniece, I can’t do it.

(There are more sounds heard from upstairs. DOAKER and WINING BOY stare at one another in stunned disbelief. It is in this moment, from somewhere old, that BERNIECE realizes what she must do. She crosses to the piano. She begins to play. The song is found piece by piece. It is an old urge to song that is both a commandment and a plea. With each repetition it gains in strength. It is intended as an exorcism and a dressing for battle[.])

Related Characters: Avery Brown (speaker), Berniece, Boy Willie, Doaker Charles, Wining Boy, Sutter (Sutter’s Ghost)

Related Symbols: Piano

Page Number and Citation: 106

Explanation and Analysis:

Avery Brown Character Timeline in The Piano Lesson

The timeline below shows where the character Avery Brown appears in The Piano Lesson. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Doaker maintains that Berniece will be hard to convince. He tells Boy Willie that Avery Brown followed Berniece to Pittsburgh from Mississippi two years ago, wanting her to marry him... (full context)

Just then Avery Brown knocks on the door, and Doaker lets him in. Avery is 38, “honest and... (full context)

Avery describes his dream: in it, he watched three hobos get off a train. The hobos... (full context)

Berniece comes in with Maretha and greets Avery. Before she and Avery take Maretha to the Settlement House, Boy Willie asks about the... (full context)

...years ago. He thinks Berniece needs to get out and date more, and that perhaps Avery will be the right man for her. Then they shift to talking about Wining Boy’s... (full context)

...set up a tub in the kitchen and is heating water for her bath when Avery knocks. Today Avery secured a building for his church, and he tells Berniece he’s been... (full context)

Avery asks Berniece who is loving her, and Berniece retorts that Avery is telling her that... (full context)

Berniece tells Avery they can talk about this again once he’s gotten his church established. Right now, she... (full context)

Avery suggests that Berniece could start a church choir. If Boy Willie saw that Berniece was... (full context)

...she never had and will go on to become a schoolteacher or something like that. Avery tells Berniece that she needs to put these things behind her. If she walked over... (full context)

...fit. Berniece assures him that he'll find somebody. She also admits that although she likes Avery, she doesn’t really have anyone in mind right now. (full context)

Avery arrives then with his Bible and chats with Doaker about his growing congregation. He says... (full context)

...presence of Sutter’s ghost. Grace leaves, uneasy, and Lymon runs out after her. Berniece tells Avery to go ahead and bless the house, but Doaker interjects that the piano is what... (full context)

...At one point, Boy Willie is thrown down the stairs, but he runs back up. Avery admits to Berniece that he’s powerless to expel Sutter’s ghost. After a few stunned moments,... (full context)