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August Wilson Fences Literary Analysis

Decent Essays

SUBJECT August Wilson’s Fences occurs in Pittsburgh before the Civil Rights Movement’s onset and details the life of the Maxsons, an African American family. Troy, the family’s morally corrupt but hardworking patriarch, believes that he only needs to support his family financially and participates in an extramarital affair, creating enmity between himself, his wife Rose, and his son Cory. Troy’s hypocrisy is apparent through his ignorance of his faults and his overbearing attitude regarding those of others. Throughout the plot, Rose requests that Troy builds a fence around their yard, representing her desire to preserve their family, but his work is often delayed by things that he deems to be more important. The Maxsons’ conflict culminates in two events: an argument between Troy and Cory, causing the latter to leave home; and Troy’s mistress becoming pregnant. After Troy’s mistress passes away during labor, Rose adopts the child, but refuses to recognize Troy as her husband thereafter. …show more content…

The fence has been completed and Cory meets the child, Raynell. He contemplates whether he will attend his father’s funeral, ultimately deciding that he will and showing that he has overcome the mental burden that Troy had placed upon him. Raynell plants a garden, which represents the family’s rebirth now that Troy cannot control them.
VI. SPEAKER Wilson narrates Fences from an objective point of view, where the narrator roves above the drama’s scenes and relates only concrete events to the reader.
STRUCTURE
Internally, Fences takes place in chronological order during 1957, with its last scene taking place in 1965. Throughout the drama, Troy tells stories of his past which are often fictitious and which Wilson uses to develop the

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