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Discuss a comparative analysis on fences
Summary and thesis on fences 123 essays
Discuss a comparative analysis on fences
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In the drama play “Fences”, by American Playwright August Wilson, introduces his readers to a hardworking African American man, that fights to keep his family afloat during the late 1950s. In this play, that is built around the main character, Troy Maxson, you can observe the many life obstacles and lessons that he has undergone in result of being raised by a hard-hearted father. Considering his unpleasant upbringing, Troy became a “trapped bird” yearning to be free but can’t, simply because he couldn’t let go of his past. So instead of dealing with his past abuse, he puts up this “mental barrier” that fences himself in from others, even his family. Obtaining this tactic that helped him through rough times from when he was younger, really …show more content…
Cory and Troy’s relationship is not like your average father and son relationship such as playing football in a park or taking fishing trips etc. It was more like his son reliving his life as a child. See when Troy was younger his dreams were to become a major baseball league player, but his desire was shortly turned down by what he felt was racism towards African Americans. In result, of this set back in his life. He then goes to mess up Cory’s chance to play football. He went as far as telling the coaches that “his son was no longer playing football anymore” and disregarded all the opportunities it could have promised Cory. This act of protection and somewhat envy, caused a major controversy between the two. Furthermore, it also shows in the play how his marriage crumbled into pieces because of his affair with a women named Alberta. Though, not only did he step out on his wife, but he conceived another child in his acts of adultery. This tore Rose Maxson up inside to know that while she was being a obedient house wife, her husband was out with another woman. She then goes to take the child, Raynell, in as one of her own because of his mistress passing due to childbirth, but his wife was no longer is “other half”
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.
The play, Fences was written by an American author August Wilson in the 1983. This play takes place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during the 1950’s which happened before any major work regarding the civil rights movement was noticeable. The play is about a man named Troy Maxson, who is a fifty-three year old who works in the sanitation department. His son Cory wants to play football and does not let him pursue his dream because he doesn't want him to get hurt. August Wilson’s play, Fences, follows the formal conventions of its genre, which helps convey the story to the audience because he uses stage directions, theme, symbolism, and figurative language.
Troy’s brother Gabriel, although minor, is important to the play for many reasons. The most important is that while Gabriel perhaps has highest and most impassable fence around him, he is the only one who ignores it; he is not bounded, at least not in his own mind.
For starters, Troy grew up in a time of segregation: a time when a Black person had no opportunity. Because of this, he could never become a professional baseball player, despite his talent and success in the sport. So, when Cory says that he has the ability to become a professional football player, Troy immediately shoots him down because he feels the same issues will occur. Troy does not realize that in this newer age, people of color have more rights and opportunity than they did when he was growing up. Ultimately, the generational gap makes it so that Cory and Troy share completely different views on the world, and they can never see eye to eye. In the end, their polar opposite views drive a wedge between them, and they completely despise each
He was a product of his era, just like his father before him. Parents can only raise their children the best way they know how, and for Troy, this was all he had. As Troy told Cory “Who the hell said I got to like you?” , parents aren't forced to like their children. Sadly, Cory resents his father even after his death.
This makes Troy the antagonist in the story because he is not only hitting up against everyone in the play, but he is also hitting up against himself and ultimately making his life more complicated. The discrimination that Troy faced while playing baseball and the torment he endures as a child shaped him into one of the most dynamic characters in literary history. The central conflict is the relationship between Troy and Cory. The two of them have conflicting views about Cory’s future and, as the play goes on, this rocky relationship crumbles because Troy will not let Cory play collegiate football. The relationship becomes even more destructive when Troy admits to his relationship with Alberta and he admits Gabriel to a mental institution by accident.
Troy was secretly having an extramarital affair with a woman named Alberta. Troy’s friends all knew the truth, but Troy continually denied any involvement with Alberta. Troy’s best friend, Bono, however, managed to convince Troy what he was wrong for continuing the affair. Troy then came clean to Rose, telling her he was going to be the father of a child Alberta was pregnant with. Rose became heartbroken. She told Troy, “I been standing with you! I been right here with you, Troy. I got a life too. I gave eighteen years of my life to stand in the same spot as you. Don’t you think I ever wanted other things? Don’t you think I had dreams and hopes?” (1606). Rose had given up her entire life to be with Troy. However, Troy never once apologized. Troy continually defended himself, and he went as far as to justify himself. Troy claimed Alberta was an escape for Troy. Troy stated, “It’s just… She gives me a different idea… a different understanding about myself. I can step out of this house and get away from the pressures and problems” (1605). Rose was hurt, however, and Troy never apologized nor stopped seeing Alberta. He continued to live in an illusion that he could keep both his family and his secret life separate. However, Alberta later died in childbirth. Her daughter, Raynell, was to be raised by Troy and Rose. Troy effectively destroyed his marriage because of his excessive pride. He refused to believe he was in the
“Fences” is a play written by August Wilson about a family living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1957. Troy and Rose have been married for 18 years and have two grown children; Lyons and Corey. Troy is an uptight, prideful man who always claims that he does not fear death, the rest of his family is more laxed and more content with their lives than Troy is. As the play progresses the audience learns more about Troy’s checkered past with sharecropping, his lack of education and the time he spent in prison. The audience also learns more about Troy’s love for baseball and the dreams he lost due to racism and segregation. In the middle of the play the author outwardly confirms what the audience has been suspecting; Troy isn’t exactly satisfied with his life. He feels that he does not get to enjoy his life and that his family is nothing more than a responsibility. Getting caught up in this feelings, Troy cheats on Rose with a woman named Alberta and fathers a child with the mistress. By the end of the play Troy loses both of the women and in 1965, finally gets the meeting with death that he had been calling for throughout the play. Over the
...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...
... does tell the truth. He talks truthfully about his father and how he is a lot like him. He also admits that the only difference with him and his father is that he does not beat his children. Troy provided for his family. Additionally, even though he was very tough on Cory, he admitted that he was responsible for taking care of him and the rest of the family. In Act One, scene three, Troy explains to Cory why he treats him the way he does. Cory asks, “How come you ain’t never liked me?” (1346). Troy can’t admit to like his own son, so points out that he doesn’t have to like him in order to provide for him. “[…] ‘Cause it’s my duty to take care of you. I owe a responsibility to you! […] I ain’t got to like you” (1347). Deep down, somewhere in the dark abyss that is Troy’s heart, he sincerely cares about his family. He just has a very different way of articulating it.
...y as a responsible person. He overlooks Cory?s efforts to please him and make a career for his son, learned from his past with his own father, is responsible for the tension that builds between him and Cory. This tension will eventually be the cause of the lost relationship that is identical to the lost relationship that is identical to the lost relationship between Troy and his father.
August Wilson’s play Fences brings an introspective view of the world and of Troy Maxson’s family and friends. The title Fences displays many revelations on what the meaning and significance of the impending building of the fence in the Maxson yard represents. Wilson shows how the family and friends of Troy survive in a day to day scenario through good times and bad. Wilson utilizes his main characters as the interpreters of Fences, both literally and figuratively. Racism, confinement, and protection show what Wilson was conveying when he chose the title Fences.
Perhaps the most important and fulfilling relationship a man can be involved in is one with his own flesh and blood. At the beginning of the play, we learn that Troy has two sons, Lyons and Cory. Lyons is Troy's son by a previous marriage and Cory is Troy's son by his current marriage. Neither Lyons nor Cory share a close relationship with their father and Troy is mostly to blame for that.
The play “Fences”, written by August Wilson, shows a detailed interpretation about the life of a typical African-American family living in the twentieth century. Troy Maxson, the main character and the man of the house, a strict man with the family, hardworking, and at the same time a pleasure seeker. Jim Bono is Troy’s best friend from thirty odd years, a very friendly fellow who works with Troy and is really close to him. They both enjoy the company of each other every Friday on a bottle of an alcoholic beverage. Both characters are characterized based on being typical African American men living in the twentieth century. Even though Troy and Bono are very close friends, their actions and personalities sometimes conflict each other; this essay will focus on similarities and differences between the two characters to prove that even though they are close friends and acquire similarities, they still have different believes and behaviors.