August Wilson's Fences - Building Fences
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 this play stuck in my head, the more I was impressed with Wilson as a playwright. What talent, to create such a character, to produce a work that wouldn't leave me alone, but, as time wore on, produced more and more questions.
As I reflected more and more on Wilson's masterpiece, my anger turned to curiosity Instead of my curiosity waning, it grew. I felt like I was unraveling a huge ball of yarn. In a play about family, a million different issues lived. I was astounded at the number of issues that Wilson touched upon, issues ranging from family relationships, to problems in the workplace, racial tensions, and infidelity. And under each one of these was another, underlying issue, the reason, or the catalyst that enabled these to prevail. Part of the genius of this piece is that it is like an onion, with many layers, and can be interpreted on many different levels.
At first, I despised the character of Troy Maxson. I could not feel sympathy for a man who had achieved a certain level of sati...
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...ther people build fences to keep people in" (Wilson, 61). Troy Maxson built them to isolate himself and to keep out the people he loved the most.
Works Cited
Bogumil, Mary L. Understanding August Wilson. University of South Carolina Press, Colombia:1999.
Elkins, Marilyn. August Wilson: A Casebook. Garland Publishing Inc., New York: 2000.
Nadel, Alan. May All Your Fences Have Gates: Essays on the Drama of August Wilson. University of Iowa Press, U.S.:1994.
Pereira, Kim. August Wilson and the African American Odyssey. University Of Illinois Press, Chicago:1995.
Shannon, Sandra G. The Dramatic Vision of August Wilson. Howard University Press, Washington D.C.:1995.
Wilson, August. Fences. Penguin Books U.S.A. Inc., New York:1986.
Wolfe, Peter. August Wilson: Twayne's United States Authors Series. Ed. Frank Day. Twayne Publishers, New York:1999.
...e he ruined his marriage by cheating on her. Rose takes care of Troy’s newborn baby Raynell because she believes that Raynell needs a mother figure in her life and not a worthless man; she then kicks Troy out of the house. After Troy dies, Rose forgives him. Rose married Troy after he was released from prison. Troy knows that he is unsuccessful in accomplishing what he wanted for him and his family. Troy is a garbage man who feels that the white man kept him from doing a lot of things that he wanted to do in life. Troy does not have many goals in life. Troy is in own little world and does not like to be judged.
Nadel, Alan. August Wilson: Completing the Twentieth-century Cycle. Iowa City: U of Iowa, 2010. Print.
Should a neglected, discriminated, and misplaced black man living in the mid 1900s possessing a spectacular, yet unfulfilled talent for baseball be satisfied or miserable? The play Fences, written by August Wilson, answers this question by depicting the challenging journey of the main character, Troy Maxon. Troy, an exceptional baseball player during his youth, cannot break the color barrier and is kept from playing in the big leagues. That being his major life setback, Troy has a pessimistic view on the world. His attitude is unpleasant, but not without justification. Troy has a right to be angry, but to whom he takes out his anger on is questionable. He regularly gets fed up with his sons, Lyons and Cory, for no good reason. Troy disapproves of Lyons’ musical goals and Cory’s football ambitions to the point where the reader can notice Troy’s illogical way of releasing his displeasures. Frank Rich’s 1985 review of Fences in the New York Times argues that Troy’s constant anger is not irrational, but expected. Although Troy’s antagonism in misdirected, Rich is correct when he observes that Troy’s endless anger is warranted because Troy experiences an extremely difficult life, facing racism, jail, and poverty.
Without the two conflicting emotions, many of the lessons and morals demonstrated in the play would be lost in the mixture. It is easy to simply look a work of literature and only look at the overlying plot. However, what is much more important is analyzing the deeper foundation and core message that often lies slightly deeper than the surface. In order for a reader to effectively do this, the reader must be engaged and interested in the work of literature. This ability to convey meaning and an idea is what divides a superior work from its peers. August Wilson’s play effectively demonstrates its deeper meaning and morals by developing the key sense of healthy confusion of pleasure and disquietude in the reader. An example of this is evident when Troy Maxson must tell his wife about his affair. In this he receives his due punishment, which creates a sense of pleasure for the reader. On the same token however, the reader cannot help but feel guilty that Troy is losing his family because he is not entirely bad. This example helps to emphasize the complexity of family and morals. Without a healthy confusion of virtue and contempt, this message would not have been conveyed
At first glance the title Fences seems to be a ordinary title for a play written by August Wilson. By the end of the play however the title fences is more than just a title. One of the most important symbol in the play is the fence that Troy and his son Cory built. The fence serves as the framework of the plot due to the fact that the character’s lives change throughout the play in constructing the fence. The title “Fences” represents the symbolic fences the main characters are building around themselves in order to keep people in or to prevent people from interfering. “Fence” may appear to be a simple title, but after reading the play it becomes obvious that it is a complex symbol which sums up the whole play. The playwright August Wilson uses the physical fence to show its many symbolic meanings.
Fences, a play first published by August Wilson in 1986, is an exploration of the relationships and individuals within a black tenement family living in the United States just before the start of the Civil Rights Movement. The story focuses on Troy Maxson and his family’s struggle to make ends meet, while each person’s emotions and desires threaten pull them apart from one another as well. Within the two acts that make up the play, readers and viewers learn much about Troy and Rose Maxson and their children. In his younger years, Troy was a great baseball player, but missed an opportunity to take his talent to the professional level due to racial discrimination. Events such as this take a toll on Troy’s disposition, and he grows into a hardened man, with major unresolved psychological issues that carry over into his adulthood and family life. Fortunately for Troy’s children, his wife, Rose, has a more kind and caring nature than that of her husband, and when their situation worsens, she takes charge. The two opposite personalities of Troy and Rose are the forces that push the play forward, and it is for their dreams and actions that the play is given its name. In one sense, the fence that Troy has been dragging his feet to finish resembles the family that, over the years, he has neglected; similarly, both are things that Rose has been begging for him to pay more attention to. In another sense, the fence is a symbol for a metaphorical barrier: for Troy, it is a barrier between his world at home and what he wants to keep away, and for Rose, it is a barrier between the world and what she wants to keep protected. The title represents various aspe...
Chen, Grace. “Schools, Parents, and Communities Should Contribute to Educating Teens About Sex.” Teenage Sexuality. Ed. Aarti D. Stephens. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. From “Public Schools and Sex Education.” Public School Review. 2008. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 22 Oct. 2013.
The protagonist of Fences, Troy Maxson is a hard working garbage man who believes in working hard to support his family. He ultimately wants his wife Rose and his son Cory to live a happy and blissful life. Troy also cares for his best friend Bono who works alongside with Troy. At first glance, readers might get the sense that Troy is an average working man with an ordinary American dream. However, Troy is more than that. He is in fact a complicated character with an array of emotions and thoughts.
Troy is a very self-centered individual. He is only concerned with issues regarding him. For instance, he wants to be able to drive the trash trucks at his job like the white men do. In Act One, scene one, Troy tells Bono that he talked to his boss, Mr. Rand, about driving the trucks. “How come you got all the whites driving and the colored lifting?” (1332). If things in Troy’s life aren’t going the way he wants them to, he makes himself into the victim and searches for sympathy from others. In addition, if he ever does something erroneous, he never accepts responsibility, never admits his wrongdoing and no matter how much anguish he causes someone, he never apologizes for it.
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 things inside or outside Troy used the fence he was building to keep out death, his family, and his disappointments in life while Rose used the fence to keep those she cared about inside and help them bond.
Troy?s damaging relationship with his father had a dual effect in his life. It created a conscious awareness of how not to conduct his life and built fences, which inevitably recreated his father in his personality. These fences shaped and formed his relationships with his son. Due to his conscious efforts to not become what he did hold that were his father?s. The narrowness of his thoughts and ideas about life made him an almost impossible person with whom to have a relationship. These flaws permanently changed the lives of the people around him and built barriers which were too solid to ever be broken.
August Wilson uses the symbol of a 'fence' in his play, Fences, in numerous occasions. Three of the most important occasions fences are symbolized are by protection, Rose Maxson and Troy Maxson's relationship, and Troy against Mr. Death. Throughout the play, characters create 'fences' symbolically and physically to be protected or to protect. Examples such as Rose protecting herself from Troy and Troy protecting himself form Death. This play focuses on the symbol of a fence which helps readers receive a better understanding of these events. The characters' lives mentioned change around the fence building project which serves as both a literal and a figurative symbol, representing the relationships that bond and break in the backyard.
Sex education in public schools has been a controversial issue in the United States for over a decade. With the HIV and teen pregnancy crises growing, sex education is needed.
In the United States, marriage is a commitment two people make for the rest of their lives. The average American marriage lasts seven years. Well over half of all marriages end in divorce (Francouer, 72). Statistics in the infidelity have rose fifty percent since the 1970s and is rising all the time. The divorce count in this country is now up to one out of every three-marriage end in divorce. Serial polygamy is a common lifestyle for those who are divorced and then become remarried. The relationship between a husband and wife should be sacred and trustworthy. Without the trust and honesty there is no marriage. Monogamy is the loving, sharing, and devoting one's self to another person for the rest of their life. Monogamy should be the most important aspect in a marriage.
Martinez, Gladys, Joyce Abma, and Casey Copen. “Educating Teenagers About Sex In The United States”. CDC.GOV. Center of Disease Control and Prevention, 15 Sept. 2010. Web. 09 Feb.2014