Analysis Of Fences By August Wilson

August Wilson did not name his play, Fences, simply due to the melodramatic actions that take place in the Maxson household, but rather the relationships that bond and break because of the “fence”. The “fence” serves as a structural device because the character's lives are constantly changing during the construction of the fence. The dramatic actions in the play strongly depend on the building of the fence in the Maxson’s backyard. Fences represents the metaphorical walls or fences that the main characters are creating around themselves in order to keep people in or vice versa. The title may seem straightforward, but in actuality it is a powerful symbol which can either have positive or

Troy’s family also can be represented by the yard and fence. The Troy’s family can signify by three parts opened fence, fenced and cornerstone of fence. Troy’s has five dependent as a member of family, including himself: Lyon’s, Corry, Rose, and Raynell. Lyon’s and Troy represented in the play as decomposed part of a fence. “Though he fancies himself a musician, he is more caught up in the rituals and “idea” of being a musician than in the actual practice of the music” (Wilson 9). Lyon’s was Thirty-four years old, but he does not want to work another kinds of job expect music. He did not practice music and does not work another job, so he decomposes

Fences written by August Wilson is an award winning drama that depicts an African-America family who lives in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania during the 1950’s. During this time, the Mason’s reveal the struggles working as a garbage man, providing for his family and excepting life as is. The end of segregation began, more opportunities for African American people were accessible. Troy, who’s the father the Cory and husband of Rose has shoes fill as a working African America man. He is the family breadwinner and plays the dominant role in the play. Troy’s childhood was pretty rough growing up on a farm of 11 children. Overtime, he realizes the change of society. He builds a friendship fellow sanitation worker, Jim Bono while in the penitentiary. Troy planned to build a fence around his house to control the number of people on his property. The fence also plays a symbolic role throughout the drama. These motives and characteristics control is what makes Troy the friend, father, worker, and husband he is today.

Throughout time there have always been conflicts of morality and injustice. August Wilson wrote this play about issues that were prevalent in the 1950’s but also still are sadly present today. In Fences, there is an abundance of evidence of cultural clashes. In this play these clashes span over racial, generational, and even gender lines and its effects on the characters.

We sometimes believe that by creating barriers around ourselves and the people we love, it will keep us safe and together. August Wilson is an African-American playwright from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania who was raised with his five brothers and sisters by his mother who worked hard to support them after his father, a white man left them. His mother found another man who also helped her raise them. In this time, it was very hard for African-Americans because it was the time when White Americans and African Americans where segregated. African-Americans were greatly discriminated and it was difficult for them to support their families because finding a job was difficult due to the racism, to be able to support their families they had to work

As with most works of literature, the title Fences is more than just a title. It could be initially noted that there is only one physical fence being built by the characters onstage, but what are more important are the ideas that are being kept inside and outside of the fences that are being built by Troy and some of the other characters in Fences. The fence building becomes quite figurative, as Troy tries to fence in his own desires and infidelities. Through this act of trying to contain his desires and hypocrisies one might say, Troy finds himself fenced in, caught between his pragmatic and illusory ideals. On the one side of the fence, Troy creates illusions and embellishments on the truth, talking about how he wrestled with death, his

The members of the family that makes the most effort to keep the family level is Troy?s wife, Rose. The narrator tells us that Rose is a gentle woman. She cares a great deal for her family and her husband, despite the challenge of making her home a positive environment under the strains of a man with such impossible qualities. The author explains her reasons for enduring Troy by saying that ? her devotion to him stems from her recognition of the possibilities of her life without him: a succession of abusive men and their babies, a life of partying and running the streets, the Church, or aloneness with its attendant pain and frustration? (526; I, 1). In light of the fact that Troy is a good man and provides for their family in a way of his duty, Rose loves and supports him and ?either ignores or forgives his faults, only some of which she recognizes? (526; I, 1). Despite his love and respect for his wife, Troy acts extremely disrespectfully towards Rose. Due to the lack of love and respect that Troy was shown as a boy, he does not know feelings to his family. He talks down to his wife as if she were a child, while at the same time he declares his love for her to his friend, Bono. Troy?s fault, however, in declaring his love for his wife and family. He says, ?I love Rose? (555; II, 1), but when the time comes for him to show his love, he only disrespects her. When Rose asks Troy what he and Bono are talking about one

Fences can be viewed as a family play, it can also be viewed as a work specifically of the black man's place, or plight, in a predominantly white world. Either way, it has a very valuable message. It is a true art to be able to touch on so many aspects of life in a work, aspects that may be viewed differently by different people.. Wilson's work, and the character of Troy Maxson, makes me question many things, among them myself, as well as his intended message. This is why I am so in awe of Fences, and of Wilson's talent. This is why I am writing my paper on Fences.

Family is not always the easiest thing to deal with as families always seem to get into disagreements. This is shown in the play “Fences” by August Wilson which is full of tension between the main character, Troy, and his various family members. Troy’s many bad decisions and mistakes cause a lot of hate to be directed at him and a lot of arguments ensue throughout the play. August Wilson uses many narrative elements in the play to make it more interesting and show the tension more clearly. Overall, in the play “Fences” August Wilson uses narrative elements such as father-son conflict, contrasting motifs, and characterization to show characters’ problems to create tension between characters.

August Wilson’s Fences was centered on the life of Troy Maxson, an African American man full of bitterness towards the world because of the cards he was dealt in life amidst the 1950’s. In the play Troy was raised by an unloving and abusive father, when he wanted to become a Major League Baseball player he was rejected because of his race. Troy even served time in prison because he was impoverished and needed money so he robbed a bank and ended up killing a man. Troy’s life was anything but easy. In the play Troy and his son Cory were told to build a fence around their home by Rose. It is common knowledge that fences are used in one of two ways: to keep things outside or to keep things inside. In the same way that fences are used to keep

I think it’s a perfect example of women in the 1950s because after the war, women still found themselves in traditional roles but were slowly breaking out of them. When the men returned from the war, many women wished to keep their jobs but instead became stay at home mothers who were expected to care for the children as well as cook and clean. Many ads and TV shows portrayed the perfect “wife and mother” that women in the 1950s were expected to be. Rose deals with Troy 's nonsense mostly because she feels she has too, and even after Troy cheated on her and had a baby by another woman she took care of the baby. An example of this is when Rose said “I told him if he was not the marrying kind, then move out the way so the marrying kind could find me.” This shows that Troy is unloyal, and Rose was always subject to his wild ways. Especially when Rose insisted on marrying him instead of

In the opening of the play, the main characters are developed to be very stereotypical archetypes. Troy is the money earning, hard-assed, head of the house and Rose is the gentle and caring mother. Through metaphors, Wilson can contradict these initial character developments and reveal the character 's true intentions. In the opening of the play, Troy 's character is “... fifty-three years old, a large man with thick, heavy hands; it is this largeness that he strives to fill out and make an accommodation with” (1.1.1). His appearance implies that Troy has an ego larger than himself and strives to fill up the missing space in every way possible, but is not showing his struggles. In a heated argument with Rose Troy says, “It’s not easy for me to admit that I been standing in the same place for eighteen years” (2.1.70). In other words, Troy is perceived to be a self-sufficient and progressive man, until now. He reveals his vulnerabilities and says that although he puts on a front of accomplishment, he has felt

Troy refuses to let him have his chance, stating, “The white man ain’t gonna let you

Troy Masson experienced a hard traumatic childhood, he dreaded his father. Troy and Cory don't have the best father-son relationship, but it is solely because of Troy's past. Troy does not want his son Cory, to play football. Troy takers away Cory's one big dream,"what you do that for pop?," Papa done went up to the school and told Coach Zelman I can't play football no more......Troy feels as if he has all the authority and knows everything. He thinks everything and everybody inside

Alan Nadel argues that the object of the fence in August Wilson’s play, “Fences” symbolizes a great struggle between the literal and figurative definitions of humanity and blackness. The author summarizes the play and uses the character Troy to explain the characterization of black abilities, such as Troy’s baseball talents, as “metaphoric,” which does not enable Troy to play in the white leagues as the period is set during segregation (Nadel 92). The author is trying to use the characters from the play as examples of black people during the segregation years to show how people of that time considered black people not as literal entities and more like figurative caricatures. Stating that these individuals were considered to be in a