Analysis of Plays, "Fences" and "A Raisin in the Sun" Essay

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.

The play, “Fences” by August Wilson describes the life of an African-American family that is por. Troy Maxson, the father of the family, was a baseball player in the

When men reach a certain age, they tend to look back into their lives and reflect on their struggles and accomplishments more than they look forward. It is this mid life crisis where they decide what man they have been in their life. The plays: Fences by August Wilson and A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry tell the story of two men reaching a certain age, one would consider a midlife crisis and have a similar background or story but when they look back will they see the same thing. Both of these plays take place during the same time period, they are set just a decade before the civil rights movement. The two of these plays follow the lives of two African American men and their families fighting racism in their lives being segregated and discriminated against. Both Troy Maxon and Walter Younger are men who are struggling and working through tough situations and hardships but who are they working for? It is this question’s answer that leads to the major differences the men have between them behind the large similarities they share. Before getting to there differences let us break down and analyze the similarities to show how much the mindset of a character can affect one’s outcome

Near the turn of the century, as decades passed by in a prejudiced America, where to be black was to lose all dignity, an emerging provocative spirit of liberation eventually catalyzed a period of great change: a period of enlightenment known as the 1960s. Slowly but surely, black pride began to restore as differences in morals between successive generations caused societal changes. Capturing the essence of black struggles prior to -and during- this dynamic period of change, August Wilson wrote the play Fences, a generational story about Troy Maxson, the son of a black sharecropper father. Highlighted by the play’s title, a particularly important motif of Wilson’s work is the concept of “fences” regarding how they both “trap things in”

Fences is a play that revolves around the times of the nineteen fifties in the United States focusing in the city of Philadelphia. This was a time where a number of issues occurred going about the social problems facing the African American community. Many African Americans were denied a number of opportunities within the nation due to the color of their skin. This was due to the Jim Crow laws that were implemented into American society by a number of racist white American that held government positions to prevent the growth and prosperity of the African American community. This problem was one that was heavily present throughout most of American history which was never put down because a number of individuals within government opposed the opposition that wanted to rise up against the system that had kept the institution in charge for decades prior.

Living in a house that only has one bedroom and bathroom for six family members to share can be very difficult and discouraging when faced with the news that you are having another child. Ruth, feeling overwhelmed with trying to keep peace between the family members, decides the best decision to maintain peace in the family is to get an abortion. However, Mama wants Ruth to have this baby, but when Walter finds out about the baby all he cares about is himself and his dream of success. Mamma even tells Walter that Ruth is, "thinking ‘bout getting rid of that child," ( Hansberry 35). However

As children grow up, it is normal for them to look up to their mom and dad, wanting to be just like them. Sometimes this is a good thing and other times it can have a negative effect on a child’s life. In the play “Fences” Cory looks up to his dad when it comes to sports. However, by the end of the play the reader starts to notice that Troy is not the man to look up to. The plot in “Fences” by August Wilson is centered around an African American family that looks at the world a little differently. The biggest conflict in this story is between two boys and their father. Cory and Lyons are experiencing the world as African America’s just like their father Troy did, but times have changed and that is very difficult

Walter's quick and rash choices resulted in his family continuously not support him and his decisions. Although Walter knows his family is struggling to stay on their feet financially he constantly chases after his dream that could end Beneatha’s future for college, Mama’s dream, and the new child. When Mama tells Walter about Ruth’s pregnancy and plans to have an abortion, Walter is too tunnel-visioned to even care about that at the moment so instead just

She thinks that he has no care or love for her. Therefore she tells him that she will have an abortion on their baby, Walter cannot believe what she had just said to him to him it feels like a dream but instead of saying anything back to Ruth he gets too sensitive of what she had said to him and he goes speechless and storms out of the house. He just wants his chance at life, he wants to be the wealthy and show his household he can provide more than just enough for them. His disappointment gets to him when Mama tells him she already put money into buying a brand new home. Everyone goes eccentric about the purchase Mama had made, but Walter just walks away quite yet so mad he has no words.

Racism and segregation are the essential principles of the dramatic tragedy, Fences. The underlying basis of the play is the effect on tradition due to racial bigotry. The African-American’s tradition displays “a cultural expression and [is a] response to [the] blacks[’] ‘situation that they find themselves in’” (Moyer). The most significant “vector out of African culture” are the blues (Weber). The blues is a form of black music that exhibits an emotional reference to the past passed on through oral tradition. The blues feeling is “a whole complex of emotions and attitudes engendered in its African American residents--a swirling mixture of fear, despair, fury, heartache, extreme restlessness, freely ranging sexual desire, and a stubborn determination

The play “Fences” by August Wilson shows the struggle of an African American family set in 1950’s in Pittsburgh. The man of the house Troy has had a troubled life and even spent 15 years in prison. Even though Troy moans and groans about not making the MLB because of his race he is against his own son receiving a football scholarship and tells his son’s coach he’s not allowed to play even though a scout was planning on watching him. Even after pronouncing his love for his wife earlier in the play it is revealed that Troy has betrayed his own wife and has a child out of wedlock. Not long after Rose accepts Troy’s baby Raynell as her own Troy forces his son, Cory out of the house. Cory wouldn’t leave until after an argument forces a physical altercation between himself and his father. Eight years later Troy passes away and Cory comes home for the funeral and attends the funeral after some convincing from his mother Rose. Even though Troy grew up with adverse conditions they do not excuse his actions of having causing your child to miss opportunities, extramarital affairs, and objectifying his wife, this makes Troy a bad father and husband.

The play Fences by August Wilson, explains and explores the lives of the Maxson family, an African American family in 1957. Like in most plays each of the main characters has a strong desire that they want to achieve throughout the course of the story. Rose Maxson, the matriarch of the family, wants to be with people and connected to them. She does not want to be alone. This is seen through her family’s history, her feelings on marriage, and the family she has made for herself.

At the end of act one, scene one, Ruth is unconscious, and visits a doctor before the next morning. We learn that Ruth is pregnant, and has made the decision to pay for an abortion. This decision is tough for Ruth, and that is shown through her moody and angry attitude before and after she breaks the news. After Ruth tells Mama about the down payment for the abortion, Mama seeks Walter and tells him to get his act together. Although Ruth makes the bad decision of paying for the abortion before consulting her family and making a definite choice to abort the child, she realizes her mistake.

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.

In the 1950’s there was a major problem of racial discrimination making it impossible for people of color to do what they wanted to do. In the play Fences by August Wilson he brings in Troy Marxson, who is the main character of the play dealing with racial discrimination. Troy Marxson is a man with strange views of the world and who has a life that can be described as frustrating. Troy’s frustration is caused by his dream of becoming a major league baseball player being ruined by racist tyranny. The era in which Fences took place was during a time where fights to end segregation barely made an impact on society. Racial discrimination affected Troy in such a big way that he finds it hard to believe that anything will get better in the future. Racism is the noticeable enemy in the play. Troy’s anger and frustration towards the world is mainly caused by the horrible situation of many African Americans of his time.