Setting Analysis

Fences is a play set in the 1950s about a family living in a small home in Philadelphia. The main character Troy Maxson is often in conflict with the world around him. To cope with these conflicts he takes to storytelling to make his life sound more interesting and exciting. Nevertheless, Troy must maintain his roles as worker, father, and husband to be the man he wants to be to his family. Troy has to go beyond the fences he has made around himself and the fences others have made around him to be the man he wants to be.

To go beyond his past, Troy struggles with the responsibilities of being the breadwinner. He is trying to escape a bad childhood and attempts to support his family. His main goal is to provide for his family like his own father never did, although his character doesn’t always make the best decisions. To do this he works hard every day doing a job that most wouldn’t want. Troy is a character who takes his responsibility for his family above all else. Troy wants to break this cycle of becoming like his father, so he took on a job no one would want to provide for his family, as this is his most important goal in life, it’s something he takes very seriously. His seriousness leads to the conflict in his life. Troy's need for responsibility stems from his own fathers lack when it came to himself and his family. This causes a second generation of father and son conflict. As much as Troy despised his father, he inevitably becomes his father by picking up his characteristics. His actions of adultery and his self-illusion of care for his sons demonstrates this. The pressure to correct the past leads to an Act of Shame when he cheats on his wife. This as a tragic hero is his downfall, in this moment he is no longer the per...

... middle of paper ...

... do what he does. This changing world doesn’t change how Troy thinks, he believes that he already knows what there is to know.

In Fences, Troy is a man who has faced many hardships. He takes on many different roles that impacts the decisions he makes throughout the play. Troy’s conflict is because of the roles he plays and decisions he makes which interconnect to tell the story of Troy’s life. In the play there is an overall theme of fences, “Some people build fences to keep people out and other people build fences to keep people in.”(2.1.61). Troy lives in his own reality behind this fence that keeps him in with his family. In his roles he tries to stay on the inside though he strays outside the fence everyone else must keep firmly inside it being who he expects them to be, this makes him hypocritical.

Wilson, August. Fences. New York: Penguin Group, 1986.4-61.