August Wilson Contributions

“The Secret Lives of Sgt. John Wilson” by Lois Simmie, is a love story with a twist. It’s a true story of John Wilson. A man who loves but hates and lies to make himself look more superior then he really was. This story end with not only the murder of John’s wife Polly, but also in the hanging of John himself. Lois Simmie had many reasons for writing this book. She had heard many rumors about it and wanted to find out more. She felt the book was worthwhile writing because she had a personal connection to the story. Lois accomplished writing Sgt.John Wilson by proving the truth. “ Lois Simmie has woven a most intriguing tale about a mountie who was anything but credit to his force. Sgt. John Wilson may be a base character, but he is seductive”. (back of the book)

life in the mid to late twentieth century and the strains of society on African Americans. Set in a small neighborhood of a big city, this play holds much conflict between a father, Troy Maxson, and his two sons, Lyons and Cory. By analyzing the sources of this conflict, one can better appreciate and understand the way the conflict contributes to the meaning of the work.

A recurring theme in American history has been that of the American Dream, the idea that anyone, regardless of race, can achieve success through hard work. In his stirring 1990 play The Piano Lesson, August Wilson uses African-American characters to embody the American Dream. Throughout the play, set in Pittsburgh in 1936, Wilson traces the economic successes of several African-American characters, such as Boy Willie and Lymon. However, Wilson’s portrayal of this apparent progress conflicts with the true historical setting. The reality between 1877 and the 1930s was that social barriers, such as Jim Crow laws and sharecropping, precluded economic progress for most African-Americans. A few black Americans such as Madam Walker, an Indiana businesswoman, made some progress, but in general there was stagnation in terms of pecuniary growth during this time period. August Wilson’s interpretation of African-American economic progress through fictional characters in The Piano Lesson is flawed because it represents a few economically successful African-Americans of the time, but fails to capture the lack of progress made by the majority between 1877 and 1930.

Author and playwright August Wilson’s Century Cycle, a series of ten plays representing the lives of African-Americans during each decade of the twentieth century, has widely been acknowledged by critics as well as the general public for its accurate depiction of the journey and struggles of the African-American community in its search for an identity in a white world. During the entire cycle Wilson almost exclusively focuses on black characters and their personal and collective stories.

The first time I read August Wilson's Fences for english class, I was angry. I was angry at Troy Maxson, angry at him for having an affair, angry at him for denying his son, Cory, the opportunity for a football scholarship.I kept waiting for Troy to redeem himself in the end of the play, to change his mind about Cory, or to make up with Ruth somehow. I wanted to know why, and I didn't, couldn't understand. I had no intention of writing my research paper on this play, but as the semester continued, and I immersed myself in more literature, Fences was always in the back of my mind, and, more specifically, the character of Troy Maxson. What was Wilson trying to say with this piece? The more that

August Wilson’s plays relate directly to his African heritage, and were and are a part of his success. His expression of the struggles of the blacks

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

wrote the play Fences about his life: the heartbreaking reality of racism in his own life and the

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

In literature, slavery and the African American race are often analyzed and interpreted by numerous authors. Mark Twain reveals numerous hitches and aspects of society’s view towards different races throughout many of his novels. In Pudd’nhead Wilson Twain describes the status of African Americans in society, as well as how they are portrayed or believed to act in the eyes of other townsfolk. The portrayal of Roxy and the status of Tom and Chambers both help Twain show the wrongs of the

August Wilson uses African-American literature to show one’s perspective and thinking. Perspective, or “a particular attitude toward or way of regarding something” can contrast two people’s thoughts. This word can be used when describing someone’s thought towards something. In The Piano Lesson by August Wilson, Boy Willie shows perspective as he judges people and their thoughts about life and over the piano.

Woodrow Wilson’s presidency was by many accounts one of the most successful in American history. Not only did his domestic affairs and reform policies give birth to the modern age of liberalism but his foreign policies would lead the United States to victory in World War I. This would in turn contribute to the United States involvement in world affairs.

Consisting of ten plays which are each dedicated to a different decade, August Wilson’s The Pittsburgh Cycle sketches the African-American experience in the 20th century. As the second and fourth plays of the series, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and The Piano Lesson both explore African-American identity and inheritance in the first half of the 20th century. Wilson’s two plays embody a feature different from the naturalistic or realistic plays of the Bourgeois Theatre. As is said in the American essayist Frank Rich’s comment on Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, “Mr. Wilson 's play is a mixture of the well-made naturalistic boardinghouse drama and the mystical, non-Western theater of ritual and metaphor” (Rich 2812), Wilson’s two plays blend the realistic life with magic to evoke resonance with African-American experience and history. Inspired by Jorge Luis Borges, the Argentine writer who is thought to be a predecessor of magical realists, Wilson once explained his influence: “From Borges, those wonderful gaucho stories from which I learned that you can be specific as to a time and place and culture and still have the work resonate with the universal themes of love, honor, duty, betrayal, etc” (Hussein 30). Borges’s influence is shown in Wilson’s use of magic to reflect the racial and even universal experience in the individual lives in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and The Piano Lesson. The magical elements of the mystic ritual, spiritual songs, haunted piano and ghosts combine with

Edward O. Wilson was born on June 10, 1929 in Birmingham, Alabama. He is an American biologist recognized as one of the world’s leading authority on ants. He is the foremost proponent of sociobiology, the study of the genetic basis of all social behavior of all animals, including humans. His book, “Letters to a Young Scientist,” was published in 2013 by Liveright Publishing Corporation in New York. The book has 244 pages.

Woodrow Wilson was more than the 28th President of the United States; he was also considered one of the main figureheads of public administration and a leader of the Progressive Movement. The work he did throughout his life had a profound impact on the inner workings of the government and bringing the field of public administration to life. Some of his major contributions include his essay “The Study of Administration,” legislation he helped pass while in office, and his efforts to end World War I.