Wining Boy Character Analysis in The Piano Lesson

Wining Boy is Doaker’s 56-year-old brother. Once a successful musician, he worked with Doaker on the railroad for a time and nowadays spends much of his time drinking and gambling. His personal style is outdated, and he “lives [life] with an odd mixture of zest and sorrow.” The family jokes that he only shows up for visits when he needs money. Wining Boy deeply loved his ex-wife, Cleotha, who recently died, although he has always tended to stray romantically. A few years ago, Wining Boy had an empowering encounter with the Ghosts of the Yellow Dog in Mississippi and has always believed firmly in these spirits. Years ago, Wining Boy helped Doaker and their brother Boy Charles take the piano from the Sutters.

Wining Boy Quotes in The Piano Lesson

The The Piano Lesson quotes below are all either spoken by Wining Boy or refer to Wining Boy. 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

WINING BOY: A lot of things you got to find out on your own. I can’t say how they talked to nobody else. But to me it just filled me up in a strange sort of way to be standing there on that spot. I didn’t want to leave. […] I walked away from there feeling like a king. Went on and had a stroke of luck that run on for three years. So I don’t care if Berniece believe or not. Berniece ain’t got to believe. I know cause I been there. Now Doaker’ll tell you about the Ghosts of the Yellow Dog.

Related Characters: Wining Boy (speaker), Berniece, Doaker Charles

Page Number and Citation: 35

Explanation and Analysis:

WINING BOY: Alright. Now Mr. So and So, he sell the land to you. And he come to you and say, “John, you own the land. It’s all yours now. But them is my berries. And come time to pick them I’m gonna send my boys over. You got the land . . . but them berries, I’m gonna keep them. They mine.” And he go and fix it with the law that them is his berries. Now that’s the difference between the colored man and the white man. The colored man can’t fix nothing with the law.

Related Characters: Wining Boy (speaker), Boy Willie

Page Number and Citation: 38

Explanation and Analysis:

Boy Charles used to talk about that piano all the time. He never could get it off his mind. […] He be talking about taking it out of Sutter’s house. Say it was the story of our whole family and as long as Sutter had it…he had us. Say we was still in slavery. Me and Wining Boy tried to talk him out of it but it wouldn’t do any good. Soon as he quiet down about it he’d start up again. We seen where he wasn’t gonna get it off his mind…so, on the Fourth of July, 1911…when Sutter was at the picnic what the county give every year…me and Wining Boy went on down there with him and took that piano out of Sutter’s house.

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

Related Symbols: Piano

Page Number and Citation: 45

Explanation and Analysis:

That’s how the whole thing come about between me and Lymon’s mama. She knew me and his daddy used to run together and he got in jail and she went down there and took the sheriff a hundred dollars. […] The sheriff looked at that hundred dollars and turned his nose up. Told her, say, “That ain’t gonna do him no good. You got to put another hundred on top of that.” She come up there and got me where I was playing at this saloon…said she had all but fifty dollars and asked me if I could help. […] I will give anybody fifty dollars to keep them out of jail for three years.

Related Characters: Wining Boy (speaker), Lymon Jackson, Cleotha Holman

Page Number and Citation: 63

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:

Wining Boy Character Timeline in The Piano Lesson

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

Boy Willie and Doaker then discuss Wining Boy , Doaker’s brother. Wining Boy’s wife Cleotha died awhile back. Wining Boy visited Doaker and... (full context)

...reminisces about his past job lining track for the Yellow Dog railroad, where his brother, Wining Boy , used to work with him. Doaker has been with the railroad for 27 years.... (full context)

Three days later, Wining Boy , 56 years old, is sitting at the kitchen table, drinking, while Doaker washes dishes.... (full context)

Love, Relationships, and Independence Theme Icon

Doaker also tells Wining Boy about Berniece’s lingering grief over her husband, Crawley, who died three years ago. He thinks... (full context)

Spirituality and the Supernatural Theme Icon

...them should sleep in the truck to guard the watermelons. Boy Willie starts talking with Wining Boy about Sutter and the Ghosts of the Yellow Dog. Boy Willie says the Ghosts have... (full context)

Wining Boy explains that in 1930, he was at a low point in his life and decided... (full context)

The men drink whiskey, and Wining Boy asks Boy Willie and Lymon about their time on Parchman Farm, where he’s done time... (full context)

...he’s mistreated, he mistreats right back; there’s no difference between him and a white man. Wining Boy agrees that this might be the ideal, but it’s not true in real life. He... (full context)

Then, Boy Willie encourages Wining Boy to play the piano for them, but Wining Boy declines. He says he’s given up... (full context)

Doaker’s and Wining Boy ’s brother, Boy Charles (the oldest of the three brothers and Berniece’s and Boy Willie’s... (full context)

Wining Boy sits down at the piano and begins playing and singing. Berniece and Maretha enter, and... (full context)

Berniece turns to making Wining Boy ’s dinner, but Boy Willie keeps talking. He argues that the only thing that makes... (full context)

...his railroad uniform and cooking something on the stove, singing a song as he works. Wining Boy comes in carrying a silk suit which he was supposed to have pawned; he says... (full context)

...needs to get rid of the piano, since it’s done nothing but cause trouble. However, Wining Boy figures that they have more right to the piano than the Sutters ever did, and... (full context)

...extra sweet, and people believed him. While the younger men are still counting their money, Wining Boy brings in the silk suit and tells Lymon to try it on. He tells Lymon... (full context)

While Lymon is trying on his new outfit, Wining Boy tells the others he knew Lymon’s father and that he, too, was always talking about... (full context)

...then breaks away and goes upstairs. Lymon happily strokes his “magic” suit coat, believing that Wining Boy was right about it. (full context)

...and returns with Crawley’s gun. She sends Maretha out of the way into Doaker’s room. Wining Boy also comes in and begins drunkenly playing and singing a song he wrote for Cleotha.... (full context)

...into the room, and Boy Willie comes downstairs, watching Berniece at the piano. He and Wining Boy decide to catch the train back to Mississippi at the last minute. He tells Berniece... (full context)