A fence is actually there to keep people in and to keep people out. There are people who build a metaphoric fence for themselves to protect themselves and to protected their loved ones. August Wilson’s play “Fences” illustrates how the symbol of a fence describes the relationships of an African American family living in Chicago during the mid 1950s. Troy, the father of three and a husband of Rose, had a hard life when he was younger. Served fifteen years in prison for robbery, been living with an abusive father and was abandoned by his mother and had his girlfriend taken away by his father when he was 15. While his son, Cory, is trying to play football and have his papers signed for a recruiter, Troy is trying to keep himself and Cory seperated because he don’t want Cory’s life to be like his. Troy told Rose “I don’t want him to be like me! I want him to move as far away from my life as he can get”. He also stated ,” I decided 17 years ago that boy wasn’t getting involved into sports. Not after what they did to me in sports.”(1.1) …show more content…
Troy and Cory are building this fence. Bono, a friend of Troy , realized that Rose wanted the fence to be built to keep Troy and Cory together and inside because she loves them. On act 2 , page 2, Bono told Troy “, Some people build fences to keep people out ….and other people build fences to keep people in. Rose wants to hold on to you all. She loves you.” After Troy’s confession of him seeing another woman and having a child by the woman, Rose explained how her metaphoric fence is there to protect her family from being half. Rose told Troy how she don’t want her family to be half because everybody in her side family got a different mother or father and how it’s hard for her to tell who’s who.
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.
Throughout the play, pieces of Troy’s background are exposed to the reader. It quickly becomes clear that he was a talented baseball player who could have played professionally if not for the color of his skin. Instead of going on to a successful baseball career, Troy was forced to move on with his life and settle down as a garbage man. Although this is not what he truly wants in his life, it provides stability for him and his family. Similarly to his father, Troy’s son, Cory, is a talented football player who is being scouted for college. However, instead of encouraging him, Troy constantly scolds him, telling him he has to find a ‘real job;’ Troy even tells the scout to leave. This is ultimately because of his jealousy towards Cory’s success in sports, and the fact that Cory possesses the life Troy dreamed of. Many feuds and disagreements are born between the father and son because of their different views.
Wilson, August. Fences: A Play in Two Acts. New York, NY: New American Library, 1986.
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 anyone a chance to prove themselves because he was selfish.
In the play Fences by August Wilson, Troy is shown as a man who has hurt the people who are closest to him without even realizing it. He has acted in an insensitive and uncaring manner towards his wife, Rose, his brother, Gabriel and his son, Cory. At the beginning of the story, Troy feels he has done right by them. He feels this throughout the story. He doesn’t realize how much he has hurt them.
As a result of Troy being unable to find a place to live or a job he started stealing to get by. Eventually the situation escalated and he murdered someone in a robbery gone wrong; this led to him being sentenced to 15 years in prison. Prison is where he found his love for baseball. He became quite good with a bat and hoped that when he got out he could play professionally. Unfortunately due to the segregation of the MLB Troy was never able to pursue that career and he is resentful of the situation his whole life.This caused him to be a very bitter person for the remainder of his life and this also caused him to shoot down the hopes and dreams of his son Corey by telling him things like “...The white man ain’t gonna let you go nowhere with that football
Reading literature allows the reader to experience feelings of others through literary characters of largely differing backgrounds. This leads to an increased sensitivity and consideration of those around us, which is also called having empathy. August Wilson uses strong examples of metaphors, diction, personification, and various other devices to make the reader empathize with Rose in his play Fences by allowing us to dive deeper into her thoughts and feelings.
Everything that she does envole around them . She made sure everything was good for Cory and especially Troy but her relationship with him comes to a disturbance. He has and she is also pregnant with his child. As anticapated Rose isolate herself from Troy to keep safe mentally and physically. “I planted myself inside you and waited to bloom. And it didn’t take me no eighteen years to find out the soil was hard and rocky .. (Act 2. Scene 1).” Rose gave Troy her all, she did everything for and with him, threw her life away for his. Because of Troy’s michievousness he has tooken the idea of a settle family life from her. She served her ties to him and he destroyed
...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.
We all lead lives filled with anxiety over certain issues, and with dread of the inevitable day of our death. In this play, Fences which was written by the well known playwright, August Wilson, we have the story of Troy Maxson and his family. Fences is about Troy Maxson, an aggressive man who has on going, imaginary battle with death. His life is based on supporting his family well and making sure they have the comforts that he did not have in his own childhood. Also, influenced by his own abusive childhood, he becomes an abusive father who rules his younger son, Cory?s life based on his own past experiences. When the issue comes up of Cory having a bright future ahead of him if he joins the football team, Troy refuses to allow him. The root of this decision lies in his own experience of not being allowed to join the baseball team due to the racial prejudices of his time. He does not realize that times have changed and because of his own past, he ruins his son?s life too. His wife, Rose, also plays a big part in the way the story develops. Troy has an affair with another woman called Alberta. When Rose finds out about the affair, she is devastated. In this situation we find out what her own hopes and dreams were. All she wanted was a happy home and family life because of her unstable past. The theme of this story is how a black family, in the late fifties to early sixties, faces the problems that many families are faced with, but in their own...
This is the reason why Troy fights against his family and himself, because he feels like he is the only one who can protect them. To Cory and Rose, Troy is destroying the family because of his stubborn thoughts but to Troy he is saving the family from falling apart and this distrust causes the family to eventually fall apart. Troy really does try his hardest to be a good father and is bothered by the fact that Rose and Cory do not see it as him trying to protect them but more of him destroying the family. This hurts Troy because his family is his everything they are what he “fights” for he works day end and day out to put food on the table and try to give them a life he thinks the deserve. August Wilson in “fences” Troy says, “ I love this woman, so much it hurts. I love her so much… I done run out of ways to love her.”(1.1) Wilson uses to show how much Troy actually cares for his wife, to Troy Rose is his everything, she is the light in his darkness, she try’s to guide him back to a sane man. Another Way Wilson shows how much Troy loves his family is when Troy is talking to his family and says that “ You all line up at the door, with your hands out. I give you the lint from my pockets. I give you my sweat and my blood…”(1.3) Troy is saying that he will give them everything until he has absolutely nothing but the lint from his pockets. He will go out of his way to make
Troy’s father did not care for his children at all and really only cared about his work. Troy’s father raped his girlfriend when he was younger which caused Troy to run away. Troy had an affair with a woman named Alberta even though he is married and has a child with her. Troy then has a dispute with his current wife Rose. Cory, Troy and Rose’s son has to get involved to cease Troy from hurting Rose. After the situation that occurred, Cory loses all respect had had for his father Troy. Cory tries his hardest to try and have a close relationship with his father, but Troy keeps pushing him away. Troy does not do this
In the play Fences, August Wilson uses symbolism throughout the story to emphasis the physical and emotional barrier between the protagonist, Troy Maxon, and everyone around him. Troy loses his career as a professional baseball player because of his race. This causes him to be a bitter man and he eventually loses his friends and family because of it. Wilson uses both literal and figurative symbolism to express the themes in this play.
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.
Fences is a play that was written by August Wilson, it follows the life of Tony Maxson, a garbage man, who throughout the play is building a fence around his home. The title, Fences, has more significance than one may have thought at first glance. The title is very symbolic in the perspective of almost every character in the play. Within Act 2, Scene 1 of the play, when discussing the reason as to why Rose wanted the fence up, with Cory and Troy, Bono says “Some people build fences to keep people out… and other people build fences to keep people in. Rose wants to hold on to you all. She loves you.”. In the perspective of Rose, she wants to keep people in and with Troy it is the complete opposite.