Many people use metaphors to make an example or for people to better understand a given statement. In the play Fences by August Wilson two main metaphors are redundant; most involving fences. Every character is shown having their own meaning and need for their metaphorical fences. Wilson wrote a play that would not only show deeper meaning than what is being said but one that showed a greater insight on the lives of a small family. The first character is Troy Maxon. The significance of Troy’s metaphorical fence is built upon throughout the play. In troys case his metaphorical fence is to keep death away from him, his things, and the ones he loves. “Alright...Mr. Death. See now…. I’m gonna tell you what i’m gonna do. I’m gonna take me a fence around this yard. See? I’m gonna build me a fence around what belongs to me. And then you to stay on the other side. See? Stay over there until your ready for me…” (2.2). In this scene you see an insight on how Troy thinks of the fence as more than just any fence, he thinks of it as something that could even stop the forces of death from entering his home. “Troy’s efforts to wall-off his home resonate with his ongoing conflict with “Mr. Death” by fortifying the perimeter of his home, Troy …show more content…
“You ain’t never gave me nothing! You ain’t never done nothing but hold me back. Afraid I was gunna be better than you…” (2.4). Years of fearing his father had led him to turn against troy after he saw his mother hurting, and after arguing cory left home. Later in the play he comes back to be with his mother so that he could mend his fence with her back together; although she accepts him back with loving arms it still shows Cory’s resentment to troy when he refuses to go to his funeral. This shows that Cory has kept the people he loves in his fence and the ones who hurt him were left on the other
The play, Fences, in conclusion acquires many interpretations of the “fence” that is mentioned variously. Despite there only being one physical fence, it represents many figurative fences throughout the play. The “fence” is signified as having both positive and negative
It is obvious to the audience that Troy and Cory simply do not get along. The two are constantly bickering, mostly about Cory's dream to play football at the college level. Since playing baseball did not get Troy anywhere, he feels that football will not benefit Cory and that Cory should "get recruited in how to fix cars or something where he can make a living" (8). Troy constantly denounces Cory's dream and pressures his son to quit the highschool football team so that he can work at the local grocery store. The verbal abuse of Cory by Troy is enough to make Cory question whether or not his own father even likes him, but it is not until after Troy's affair with Alberta is out in the open that Troy and Cory's unhealthy relationship reaches a whole new level.
August Wilson’s play, “Fences”, is a play about a father who is trying to make do to support his family as well as come to terms with his boisterous upbringing and the collapse of his Major League Baseball career. The Father, Troy Maxson, resents his son’s painless childhood and chances to pursue a college level football career. In multiple excerpts from the play, Troy brutally lectures his son Cory about life and adulthood. He uses short and incomplete sentences, rhetorical questions, repetition, connections from his past, and current examples to support his claim: life is not about being liked, but being treated with righteousness.
The theme of August Wilson’s play “Fences” is the coming of age in the life of a broken black man. Wilson wrote about the black experience in different decades and the struggle that many blacks faced, and that is seen in “Fences” because there are two different generations portrayed in Troy and Cory. Troy plays the part of the protagonist who has been disillusioned throughout his life by everyone he has been close to. He was forced to leave home at an early age because his father beat him so dramatically. Troy never learned how to treat people close to him and he never gave any one a chance to prove themselves because he was selfish. This makes Troy the antagonist in the story because he is not only hitting up against everyone in the play,
The fence becomes a representation of the barrier that Troy tries to create between him and mortality. Troy has a fixation on Death. He talks about how Death is an easy “fastball on the outside corner” (I. i). Troy always speaks about how he could easily knock a baseball out of the park. Comparing Death to a fastball shows how Troy thinks that he can continue to always keep Death on the other side of the fence because like a
Conflicts and tensions between family members and friends are key elements in August Wilson's play, Fences. The main character, Troy Maxon, has struggled his whole life to be a responsible person and fulfill his duties in any role that he is meant to play. In turn, however, he has created conflict through his forbidding manner. The author illustrates how the effects of Troy's stern upbringing cause him to pass along a legacy of bitterness and anger which creates tension and conflict in his relationships with his family.
the beginning, Troy is a tough character defined by his foul mouth and healthy disposition
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 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
In the play “Fences” by August Wilson the play’s attitude toward women is biased, and if the play was written by a female I think it would have a stronger feminine influence. Issues such as racism and discrimination against blacks may be raised in the play that the author did not bring up, and the women in the story somewhat do generally typify women in the 1950s. To support my interpretation, the women in the play were homebodies, just worrying about the household because they felt like that 's what they were supposed to do and that 's all that was expected of them and etc.
“Jesus be a fence all around me every day. Jesus, I want you to protect me as I travel on my way” (Wilson 1.2.21). The play Fences follows the journey of an African American family, the Maxons, and their struggle to handle the appearance of both physical and metaphorical fences. Fences shows the difficulties that the Maxons face in an attempt to balance love, loss, and laughter. The Maxson family lives in Pittsburgh during the 1950’s, and they meet tensions when searching for equality within their relationships and in their larger community. Throughout the play, tension builds between characters. To portray this tension, the author, August Wilson utilizes the narrative elements of parallel plots through storytelling, developing characters
dreams as Major League baseball player, we see his son, Cory, taking that path instead,
Throughout history, civilizations have built fences to keep enemies out and keep those they want to protect inside. In society today, people create metaphorical fences in order to fence in their feelings, while others create literal fences in order to keep the unwanted away. In the play Fences, the Maxon family lives in 1950’s America whose love for sports and one another are questioned at times when they need to be together the most. In the play Fences by August Wilson, two main characters Troy and Cory Maxon build a fence, literally and metaphorically, which as the book progresses, becomes a symbol that allows each character to truly understand each other.
Fences, written by August Wilson, is a play about a struggling man named Troy. Troy has a very complicated relationship with individuals in his family. Troy and his son Cory has many similarities and differences that cause the relationship to go downhill. The downfall in the relationship mostly regards to his son playing college football.
Alan Nadel in his essay, May All Your Fences Have Gatest, rightly observes that, Wilson's dramas depend on the other side of the fence for each character. In other words, he discusses what is behind each character fences and boundaries. However, the identities of each character have different intention of understanding these boundaries. For instance, in the play Fences, Rose understands of building the fences is completely different than Troy's understanding. Fences for Rose represents security, represents gathering, family, and union.