The Assassin It is dark, pouring with rain, but he does not shiver. He crouches in a small puddle under a large dead oak tree near an old wooden bridge; waiting. A full moon shines through the bare branches of the tree, casting ghostly shadows on him. He is wearing a trench coat and a large pair of boots. A cigarette is lodged in a gap in his teeth, unlighted. Over his eyes is a pair of dark sunglasses. One would not expect him to see, except this is no ordinary man. Cloned for one purpose, the assassin sees perfectly well and knows what he is meant to carry out. The time is near. A small, old car with a damaged headlight approaches the bridge slowly but, just before it changes gear, the assassin pulls a weapon resembling a long and shiny piece of metal from his trench coat. He points it in the direction of the speeding car and fires, once. The only potential threat has been countered. There is only one thing left to do. He breaks from the crouched position he was in, and makes his way to the old and dilapidated house that looms strikingly in the reddish-black sky. A flash of lightning briefly illuminates the house. It is large, with hefty walls and a great wooden door for an entrance. Some windows are broken, but the superstructure is sound. The car stops just a few metres from it. The driver inside the car has literally been frozen stiff by the advanced weapon the assassin used. She is still attached to the steering column. He pushes the car over the bridge with ease. He calmly carries on walking at a steady, unrelenting pace towards the house, as if he has done nothing out of the ordinary. All that obstructs his path to the house, now, is an old fence that is enclosed in rust and soaring weeds. Climbing the tall fence would not have been a problem for him, but at the apex is barbed wire. He will have to linger.
...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.
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In the play , the fence functions as a physical, emotional and a societal barrier. There is a physical fence
There are two kinds of fences: those which are built with a hammer and nails, and those that subconsciously build a physiological wall around one’s mind. In either case, both are built from similar premises, and take on a role that functions to comfort those who have built them. Fences, both metaphorically and literally, are purposefully constructed barriers, that aim to protect oneself from what
Some people use fences to keep worlds divided, and live two different lives. Troy Maxson is a prime example of a person who wanted a life that was adaptable to his situation. Troy's character is the centerpiece that all of the other relationships in “Fences” gather around (SparkNotes). His home was his foundation, and something sturdy that he could come back no matter what, but when he was in the outside world he felt that he could have an immoral lifestyle without any repercussions. Troy's fence was only illusory; there was nothing
Imagine living in Los Angeles and being afraid every night that an unknown man could break in rip your family apart. There were many prolific serial killers throughout the seventies and eighties that struck fear in many people. In that time only one man was terrorizing the greater Los Angeles area. In the span of one year from June 28, 1984 until August 24, 1985 Richard Ramirez killed sixteen people going as far as seventy six miles south of Los Angeles. He was known as the “Night Stalker”.
War is a very controversial dilemma, which could be solved in an orderly fashion rather then a callous disaster where young men and women die. This cataclysmic story takes place in a short story written by Liam O'Flaherty, the story takes place in Dublin, Ireland during the 1920's where a Republican sniper is involved with a terrible accident. He suffers dramatic injury to the soul and heart when someone that he loves dearly is shot. The story's theme is intensified through situational irony, which shows the pointlessness of armed conflict.
Without fencing to keep cattle in, the bovines grazed freely competing for grass and water and destroying crops like wheat, oats, barley, and rye. The invention of barbed wire changed the way the west was constructed. Barbed wire limited the open range and started many fights over land, it also limited the freedom of ranches and cowboys. Barbed wire singular purpose was to keep in and to keep out it was first put to use on the Great Plains of American West in the late 19th century to restrict cattle and, implicitly, to secure territory by expansionist settlers and demarcate possessions. Barbed wire had a major impact on settlers and native americans living in the west. Not only did barbed wire stop cattle from eating farmers crops it also ended the open range ranching. Unlike the open-range ranches, livestock farms sheltered their animal during the bitterly cold winter months, feeding them stored fodder when snow covered up the grazing lands. Barbed wire enabled hundreds of thousands of farmers to translate their fencing revolution into a communications revolution making them for a few decades the best networked population in the nation. With that been said, barbed wire changed america’s west by revolutionizing the cattle business and sounded the death knell for the open range (Langley) (Barbed
If Boomer can't get near the fence, he won't be able to dig underneath it to es...
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.
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.
As you may know, literal fences are used to keep certain things in or out. Throughout the play, there is only one literal fence. Troy Maxson, who is the main character in Fences, started to build a wooden fence to surround his house because his wife Rose told him to. Troy puts off the fence and takes forever to finish building it. In the play, Rose says, “ Where are you going off to? You been running out of here every Saturday for weeks. I thought you was going to work on this fence” (1164,line 219). He keeps putting off the fence because he doesn’t want to deal with it.
Throughout the play the reader sees how 'fences' are used to protect the characters mentioned. Early on, Rose protects herself by singing, 'Jesus, be a fence all around me every day. Jesus, I want you to protect me as I travel on my way' (Wilson 21). By Rose signing this song, one can see Rose's desire for protection. To Rose, a fence is a symbol of her love. Her longing for a fence signifies that Rose represents love and nurturing within a safe environment. However Troy and Cory think the fence is a burden and reluctantly work on finishing Rose's project. Bono indicates to Troy that Rose wants the fence built to protect her loved ones as he 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? (61). While reminiscing about the 'project', Bono asks Troy why he 'got to go and get some hard wood' (60) as he says, "Nigger, why you got to go and get some hard wood? You ain't doing nothing but building a little old fence. Get you some soft pine wood. That's all you need" (60). Troy choosing to use hard wood instead of soft pine wood shows the reader that Troy wants hard wood to protect him harder from Death and all of his problems. Although each character in the play interprets the concept of a fence differently, they all see it as some form of protection.
The Butler is an amazing account of the life of Cecil Gaines. Mr. Gaines was raised on a cotton plantation in 1926 in Macon, Georgia, His parents were Share croppers. Their life on the plantation was difficult at best. Cecil’s mother was raped and his father was killed by the plantation owner. When Cecil was a teenager he left his mother and the plantation life behind. The events that transpired took a devastating toll upon his mother. His mother became a mute, due to these events.
As with most works of literature, the title Fences is more than just a title. It could be initially noted that there is only one physical fence being built by the characters onstage, but what are more important are the ideas that are being kept inside and outside of the fences that are being built by Troy and some of the other characters in Fences. The fence building becomes quite figurative, as Troy tries to fence in his own desires and infidelities. Through this act of trying to contain his desires and hypocrisies one might say, Troy finds himself fenced in, caught between his pragmatic and illusory ideals. On the one side of the fence, Troy creates illusions and embellishments on the truth, talking about how he wrestled with death, his encounters with the devil, later confronting the d...