How Did August Wilson Affect African American Culture

President Wilson's own ineptitude and stubbornness is what led to the Senate's defeat of the Treaty of Versailles, rather than the strength of the opposing forces. Even Wilson's closest and most trusted advisors could not sway his stance. Wilson was strong in his stance and incorporated the idea of the 14 points. While it is true that opposing forces contributed to defeat the treaty, it was Wilson's unmovable position that led to its ultimate defeat in the Senate.

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.

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.

During the post WWII period in America, the face of the nation changed greatly under the presidency of Truman and Eisenhower. America underwent another era of good feelings as they thought themselves undefeatable and superior over the rest of the world. Communism was the American enemy and American sought to rid the world of it. Because of the extreme paranoia caused by Communism, conformity became an ideal way to distinguish American Culture from the rest. Conformity became a part of every American Life to a large extent. It became evident through the medium of culture, society and politics throughout the era of the 50s.

August Wilson made his audience aware of the issues blacks were going through during that time period. For instance, Wilson shows the struggle Troy has with allowing his son Corey to play sports and get recruited. Troy goes on to say “I decided seventeen years ago that boy wasn’t getting involved in no sports. Not after what they did to me in the sports” (Wilson 1.3.111). Troy is referring to how the whites would not let him play in the major league because of his skin color and he believes they will do the same to Corey. Wilson expresses another theme of color discrimination when Troy talks to Bono about how only whites drive the garbage trucks while the coloreds do the picking. Troy states, “…Why? Why you got the white men driving and the colored lifting? … What’s the matter, don’t I count? You think only white fellows got sense enough to drive a truck…” (Wilson 1.1.10). This was a big problem for many companies in the 1950’s the African Americans played minor roles at the time only whites held the special privilege jobs. Many black men like Troy just wanted a change they wanted equal job opportunities like the white men were getting.

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.

I didn't know anything about August Wilson before I began my research. I was very surprised to learn about his separatist views, because his play seemed so universal to me. I was also very surprised to learn that he had left school two years early because of a racial comment from a teacher, and that he had acquired the remainder of his education from hours spent at the library. What I had not known was that many aspects of Fences can be seen as

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

Wilson encountered racism early on in his life and this began to influence his writing. In

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

Though there was a heightened sense of tension over civil rights in the late 1950s when A Raisin in the Sun was written, racial inequality is still a problem today. It affects minorities of every age and dynamic, in more ways than one. Though nowadays it may go unnoticed, race in every aspect alters the way African-Americans think, behave, and react as human beings. This is shown in many ways in the play as we watch the characters interact. We see big ideas, failures, and family values through the eyes of a disadvantaged group during an unfortunate time in history. As Martin Luther King said, Blacks are “...harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what

Lewis states that Wilson was an African American playwright, whose past of racism when he was growing up caused him to drop out of high school after a racist accusation

Winner of multiple awards such as the Tony Award, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and the Pulitzer Prize, August Wilson is known most for his forceful cultural plays. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Wilson was born to a white father that later abandoned his family, and a black mother. Wilson dropped out of school in the ninth grade after being accused of plagiarism. Wilson after went to public libraries and read various books; this was an initiation for Wilson and his successful future. When Wilson first started writing he didn’t think he was able to write his own works because of such great writers before him. “Quote black literature criticism”. However