The Theme Of Gender Roles In Fences By August Wilson

The Theme of Gender Roles in the 1950s in Fences The theme is gender roles in the 1950s in Fences by August Wilson. Gender roles are social and cultural standards that determine how males and female should think, speak, dress, and interact in the society. To know if a play is accurate or not we need to look up its historical context or background, research the author in order to know if he or she is speaking from experience, and analyze a character to show how well we understand what went on in the play. Understanding the historical context gives us better insight into the background. In this play fences are a metaphor that represents keeping people in figuratively for Rose by being motherly and sympathetic, and keeping people out for Troy

August Wilson was born in 1945, in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. He was one of the most acclaimed American playwrights of the 20th century. His plays won two Pulitzer Prizes in drama, one for Fences and the other for The Piano Lesson, eight New York Drama Critics ' Circle Awards, and the highest honor on Broadway, the Tony Award. He married three times. His first wife was Brenda Burton, a Muslim, with whom he had a daughter named Sakina Ansari. After the marriage ended in 1972, he later married his second wife, Judy Oliver, a white social worker, who fiscally supported him during the early years of his career as a playwright. After their divorce in 1990, he later married his third wife, Constanza Romero, a costume designer, with whom he had a daughter named Azula Carmen. He died of liver cancer on October 2, 2005. Then two weeks later, the Virginia Theatre in New York City was renamed the August Wilson Theatre in his honor. Then on May 30, 2007, the State of Pennsylvania designated his childhood home a historical landmark. His mother’s name was Daisy, similar to Rose, is the name of a flower which symbolizes the love, kindness, care, and upbringing mothers show their kids. She practically had to raise four kids alone because of the absence of support from her husband. She is an example of the silencing of women. She was in an interracial marriage, which caused them to move to a new neighborhood where she was a victim of racial prejudice. During this time, whenever someone fell victim to racial prejudice people usually threw bricks through their windows in order to intimidate them to leave, so this might have been one of the problems his mom faced along with feeling out of place and getting bitter looks from the neighbors