Fences by August Wilson and Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller are two plays that are very similar to each other. They are different in terms of plot, but they are both stories about family conflicts and relationships between family members. In both plays, sport plays a big role in the life of the characters as both sons of the main characters wish to play sports in school. Also, the women in both plays have an unfortunate marriage as their husbands both had an affair and betrayed their marriage. In addition to these similarities, death is also a strong concept; as both stories end with the main character’s funeral. Although there are many similarities in both plays such as sports, marriage, and death; there are also many differences in these same themes. The concept of sports plays a big role in both stories; as both main characters, Willy and Troy, have sons who wish to play sports in school. But the sons, Cory and Biff, had very different reactions from their fathers. Willy, was very supportive of the idea, whereas Troy, disagreed with it and did everything in his power to stop it, and he succeed. Willy believed that if his son became a famous athlete, he will have a bright future; however, this did not happen because Biff found out about his affair. While Willy was supportive and understanding, Biff’s father, Troy, was the opposite of Willy. Troy did not want Cory to play sports due to his own experience in the past with how he was treated when he wanted to
When it comes to comparing and contrasting two different cultures and morals the differences can be night and day. In Death Of A Salesman and Fences, these stories follow two middle-class families around the same time period (late 1940-1950’s), who are both facing problems within their own household’s. From marital issues to failing father/son relationships, both of these stories paint a picture to the audience of what life in an urban family living in that time setting was like through the author’s eyes. And even yet with all the things between these two plays that make them alike, there are also many things that make them very different.
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.
Both of them have the racism, discrimination, the generation conflicting. The hard period time in which Troy Maxson in Fences, he is an African-American. He has his dream to be a player in the Major Leagues. The racist segregated society destroys the dream of a man. The big suffering which he has to be from his child life until he has a family and the relationships in the rest of his life. A father of his children, a husband of Rose, he volunteers put the big responsibility on his shoulder. He is proud of his protection on his family to be safe. However, the conflict between Cory and Troy, that is a big picture of interculturalism in the relationship between father and son. Troy put the bad thought in his son's head about him by accident. Cory thinks his father never likes him because Troy stops Cory to play football and attend to college. Cory thinks Troy want Cory to be a stupid one, just working for a supermarket. Troy tries to explain the problem and make it clear to Cory. Troy wants his family to be safe. Troy wants to protect all people in his controlling because he knows this feudal society, is never fair and equal to African-American. The fear of Troy is so big to blind to see the future of his son. He is scared of people around him, the White people, America society. The fear of the Black American. they are always the lowest stream of this society. They were exploited labor, they being held as
For my final project, I have chosen the plays Fences by August Wilson and Zoot Suit by Luis Valdez to compare and contrast, when it comes to their themes of multiculturalism, interculturalism, and transculturalism.
Conflicts and tensions between family members and friends are key elements in August Wilson's play, Fences. The main character, Troy Maxon, has struggled his whole life to be a responsible person and fulfill his duties in any role that he is meant to play. In turn, however, he has created conflict through his forbidding manner. The author illustrates how the effects of Troy's stern upbringing cause him to pass along a legacy of bitterness and anger which creates tension and conflict in his relationships with his family.
Fences written by August Wilson and Death of a Salesman written by Arthur Miller are two plays that could be considered very different in terms of their plot. The plots of both plays contain two very different cultural backgrounds which affects each protagonist differently. If the reader or audience looks past the plot into the theme and symbolisms used they can see that the plays are more similar than they are different. In spite of the different cultural backgrounds of each protagonist they both are tragic heroes that are trying to achieve the American dream as it relates to each character; both of which fail in drastic yet similar ways. The American dream has always been an important factor in many American’s lives as it is to Troy
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and Fences by August Wilson have similar themes of conflicts between fathers and sons, conflicts between husbands and wives, and the need to focus on a small unit of space in order to achieve success. In the process of developing these themes throughout the two plays, three similar symbolic elements are used including the insecure father figure, the "other woman," and the garden.
dreams as Major League baseball player, we see his son, Cory, taking that path instead,
Troy refuses to let him have his chance, stating, “The white man ain’t gonna let you
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.
In this essay I will compare and contrast Fences and "The Piano Lesson", written by August Wilson. Wilson uses his hometown life experiences to portray both plays, these stories take place in Pittsburgh, and they also fall under Wilson Pittsburgh cycle. The cycle is also known as his ‘Century Cycle’. They explore African-American struggle with Racism, Poverty, Discrimination, Love and Family.
The award winning play Fences is not just a work of fiction from the mind of August Wilson, but rather it is the reflections of a middle-aged man on his adolescent years. The majority of characters, places, and events are mirrored after real-life people, places, and history from Pittsburgh where Wilson grew up. Rather than creating a whole new world and characters for his third play, August Wilson infused his own personal childhood to form a story that could be related to by viewers and readers alike. Whether a Wilson consciously replicated elements of his history or not, the success of Fences, is due to the audience 's ability to relate to the characters and the circumstances of their lives.
The central theme of a father and son relationship is similar in both plays. William and Troy both have specific dreams for their sons. William wants his son Biff to be a football star he is interested in the money he can make instead of good grades. Troy on the other hand wants his son Cory to concentrate on his academics instead of pursuing his dream of being a football player. He is afraid Cory will not appreciate the ethics of hard work when money is thrown at him. He wants Cory to work at an A&P store, Willy Loman starts on a mission of self destruction and looks for pleasure in the arms of another woman the affair is similar to that of Troy Maxson in the play Fences where his affair produces a child. Willy Loman, the man who believes in honesty now is trying very hard to keep his affair a secret, when his son Biff found out about the affair he lost all respect for his father Troy Maxson also had an affair which produces a child. Both Children loose complete respect for their fathers
It is obvious to the audience that Troy and Cory simply do not get along. The two are constantly bickering, mostly about Cory's dream to play football at the college level. Since playing baseball did not get Troy anywhere, he feels that football will not benefit Cory and that Cory should "get recruited in how to fix cars or something where he can make a living" (8). Troy constantly denounces Cory's dream and pressures his son to quit the highschool football team so that he can work at the local grocery store. The verbal abuse of Cory by Troy is enough to make Cory question whether or not his own father even likes him, but it is not until after Troy's affair with Alberta is out in the open that Troy and Cory's unhealthy relationship reaches a whole new level.
Everyone has unique talents and interests. It is because of these interests that people develop their own dreams and aspirations for their future. These dreams may be about career or finding happiness or even about family. There are many hurdles in the path to achieving dreams. In the play, Fences, August Wilson centralizes many conflicts in the plot around each individual character’s pursuit of their dreams and aspirations and the difficulties they face. Although there are many different themes in this play, the main theme concerns the pain and suffering that individuals go through to get a chance to fulfill their dreams and how the characters cope with the failure to achieve their dreams due to various reasons like, racial