Berniece tells Boy Willie to be quiet, and she doesn't hide how she feels at all. From this first dialogue between Boy Willie and Berniece we can definitely see that there is tension.
Berniece: What you doing all that hollering for?.
Boy Willie: Hey Berniece. Doaker said you was sleep. I said at least you could get up and say hi.
Berniece: It's five o"clock in the morning and you come in here with all that noise. You can't come like normal folks. You got to bring all that noise with you.
Boy Willie: Hell, I didn't do nothing but come in and say hi. I ain't got in the house good.
Berniece: That's what I"m talking about. You start all that hollering and carry on as soon as you hit the door.
Boy Willie: Aw hell, woman, I was glad to see Doaker. You ain't had to come down if you didn't want to. I come eighteen hundred miles to see my sister I figure she might want to get up and say hi. Other than that you can go back upstairs. What you got, Doaker? Where your bottle? Me and Lymon want a drink. [to Berniece.] This is Lymon. You remember Lymon Jackson from down home.
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As soon as Boy Willie and Lymon told Doaker and Berniece about their scheme with the watermelons, Berniece turned quite cynical towards both Boy Willie and Lymon. Wilson does a great job of using language to contribute to the tone of his characters, and an example of this is when Boy Willie asked Doaker for a drink of alcohol, and badgered until he gave in. Boy Willie wasn't there for very long and he was already being impatient as we could depict from the dialogue. The language that was used in the above dialect also shows Berniece's impatience, with Boy Willie. I know that if I hadn't seen my sister in three years, she would run to me with open arms, ecstatic to see me. However, Berniece is showing the complete opposite, almost shunning her brother. .
As soon as Berniece isn't around, we can almost feel the tension lift, and the conversation between Doaker, Boy Willie and Lymon is a lot lighter.
