August Wilson Fences Literary Analysis

In today 's society people have to deal with several issues that we can 't explain. For some of us we built fences to isolate ourselves from others or in some cases to protect ourselves. No matter what the issue is we, all have to struggle to be able to provide for our families. As a child I built fences when it came to my feelings. For example, growing up I was in the chunky side. Since I wasnt so skinny like the pretty girls in my class. I kinda isolated my self from the other students. That way my feelings wouldn 't get hurt. My fence was to protect me from what I thought was going to hurt me. Well the same thing happened to Troy Maxson. In the play, "Fences" written by the well-known playwright, August Wilson, is the story of Troy Maxson and his beloved family. Throughout the whole entire play, a fence is being built around the Maxson household. As the story unfolds to the viewers, the word fences may look like a simple title, but the truth is it has different symbolic meaning. The real definition of the word fence is revealed along with the personalities of the characters in the play. In "Fences", August Wilson uses different types of fences as a metaphor to explain how these people live.

August Wilson's Fences is a play about life, and an extended metaphor Wilson uses to show the crumbling relationships between Troy and Cory and Troy and Rose. Troy Maxson represents the dreams of black America in a majorly white world, a world where these dreams were not possible because of the racism and attitudes that prevailed. Troy Maxson is representative of many blacks and their "attitudes and behavior...within the social flux of the late fifties, in their individual and collective struggles to hew a niche for themselves in the rocky social terrain of postwar America"

In the Drama based book Fences, August Wilson illustrates the tragic heroism of Troy Maxson as Troy faces troubling conflicts up to the point of his death. Throughout the play, his actions end up being misinterpreted or show an impure side to him, causing for his wife Rose and his son Cory to resent him. This is illustrated many times in the play, first through the refusal to allow Cory to play football, second through the use of his brother’s war reparations in order to buy his house, and third through the affair that he has with Alberta.

Fences, the critically acclaimed play written by renown playwright August Wilson, has been praised time and time again for it’s power and deliverance as well as the themes and symbols explored throughout the play. August Wilson walks readers through the story of Troy Maxson and the everyday conflicts that arise from his dysfunctional family. With the introduction of Rose’s character, Troy Maxson’s wife, we learn she exemplifies nurturing and maternal traits as most women in the 1950s did. We see her display these attributes early into Act Two: Scene One as Bono, Troy’s right-hand man of 30 years, explains the true reasoning behind Rose’s persistence to have a fence built around the Maxson household to Troy. Thus, the significance of the play’s title is revealed by this point of the play.

In the play “Fences” by August Wilson you see a father and son relationship that reflects the struggles that are faced with all odds against them. This play brings out many family conflicts from betrayal, disappointment, embitterment, compassion, loyalty, and forgiveness. A father who's demeanor to not let bygones be bygones leads him down a difficult path of failure and a son who's resentment towards his father tears them apart. In this play August Wilson presents a multigenerational vision in which our sense of waste is more than balanced by an infusion of hope. (___) Troy Maxon born and raised during a time of great turmoil.

Lining the yard, a picket fence that took weeks to build wraps around the broken-down house. These structures are seen as a method of protection, a way to "keep the people one wants in, and keep those one does not out (Wilson 1172). " But, there is more to the underlying name of this assembly. Fences, a modern drama by August Wilson, is a play that is about the Maxson Family, with Troy as the protagonist. Most of the time, others see this structure a way to define one's property; nonetheless, the term Fences has more symbolism to offer.

The fence, which Troy, with the help of his son, Cory, gradually complete as the play goes on, began as a desire from Rose to be built. Troy prolongs the fence’s construction as Cory states because Troy “don’t never do nothing, but go down to Taylors,” instead of spending time with his son building it and pleasing his wife. The fence therefore symbolizes his lack of commitment towards his family. Later, it is clarified that every time Troy visited Taylors, he really was connecting with his mistress, Alberta, whom he impregnated. While he connected with Albert, he disregarded his own family and Rose’s wish.

The play Fences by August Wilson sets in 1957 just before the civil rights movement. The playwright describes it as what we would infer present day to be Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The main character is Troy Maxwell and the play is written to emphasize in Troys life who he was as a person and what circumstances in his life made him who he is in the play. Important people in the play are Troy’s wife Rose, his young brother Gabriel. Troy’s children Lyons (Oldest), Cory (middle), and Raynell (youngest) and his best friend Bono. The play is coming-of-age: how Troy grows as a person and how he impacts those closest to him.

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

Troy thought that he was a good husband to Rose because he provided her with food and a house. He wasn’t a good husband because he didn’t give her love and compassion. These two things are needed in a good marriage. She centered her whole life around him and he gave her almost nothing. When she had a problem, she couldn’t go to him. Troy also wasn’t faithful to Rose. He went off and had an affair with another woman. Rose was heart-broken by this. She couldn’t believe Troy could do this to her. She devoted her life to him and he goes and stabs her in the back. On top of that, Troy had a child with his mistress. The woman died giving birth. Troy asked Rose to take care of the baby. Rose did, what else could she have done? Troy was not a good husband.

In Fences, August Wilson introduces an African American family whose life is based around a fence. In the dirt yard of the Maxson’s house, many relationships come to blossom and wither here. The main character, Troy Maxson, prevents anyone from intruding into his life by surrounding himself around a literal and metaphorical fence that affects his relationships with his wife, son, and mortality.

Fences by August Wilson gets its title from the main character, Troy. In the beginning, he builds a fence for his wife as he engages in a conversation with Bono, his friend. The fence is completed by the end of Act 1 and Bono, and his wife had previously placed a bet that he would buy her a new refrigerator if the fence would be successfully built. Set up in Pittsburgh, PA on an African-American section between the late 1950s and 1960s, the play rotates around father and son conflict. Troy is a garbage collector of African-American origin and was once a famous ballplayer within the Negro Leagues before inclusion of the blacks in the American leagues. His son Cory has a talent for athletics sports and targets to win a college scholarship from football.

August Wilson in his play Fences gives his audience a unique view into the lives of individuals who lived in a time of great change in America. Into the chaotic household of Troy Maxson, “an illiterate garbage man … who fashions his identity and self-awareness through bold expressive tales”(321). Troy, a prisoner unto himself, fights with confusion and pain as he struggles with the truths of the ever changing world around him. Troy is very similar to the prisoner in Platos’ Allegory of the cave a slave who won’t turn around. August Wilson’s play Fences is the story of a black family in the middle of the nineteen fifties It follows Troy Maxson a middle aged laymen, who is married to Rose his wife of many years. Troy and Rose have

In the play, Fences, Troy seems to have a complicated relationship with every other character in the play. This applies especially to his relationship with his son, Cory. Troy and Cory have many similarities and differences that complicate their relationship. There are many outside factors that also make matters worse.

August Wilson’s play Fences brings an introspective view of the world and of Troy Maxson’s family and friends. The title Fences displays many revelations on what the meaning and significance of the impending building of the fence in the Maxson yard represents. Wilson shows how the family and friends of Troy survive in a day to day scenario through good times and bad. Wilson utilizes his main characters as the interpreters of Fences, both literally and figuratively. Racism, confinement, and protection show what Wilson was conveying when he chose the title Fences.