Symbolism in Fences and The Piano Lesson Humans spend their entire lives searching for meaning beyond the surface. In August Wilson's plays, Fences and The Piano Lesson, symbolism rises through the phrases in the stories and becomes the center for which the plays revolve. The fence in Fences and the piano in The Piano Lesson both represent keeping a family together, but the neglect of those symbols also shows lack of commitment to family. Although in Fences, the fence represents keeping some people out and other people in, whereas in The Piano Lesson, the piano represents a symbol of power and triumph over hardships. In Fences, Rose wishes to have the fence constructed so that it will hold her loved ones together. In The Piano Lesson, Doaker …show more content…
sees the piano as an attempt to keep the family together. Rose sees the fence as something that would help protect her house and her family. Family holds great importance to Rose as she says to Troy,"I told him if he wasn't the marrying kind, then move out the way so the marrying kind could find me" (60). To Rose, a fence becomes a symbol of her love. She wishes that Troy would build the fence so that she can keep her family together and protect it from the outside world. To Doaker, the piano became a symbol of keeping the family together and a physical record of their family's history. The piano created a way for their family to remember their history and where they came from in a positive light. With the piano and the carvings on it, beautiful music filled their house and their family, accompanied by family stories and their history. Doaker recognized the piano as a way for their family to bond and stay together. The fence and the piano both are identified the family members in each of the stories as a way for them to hold their families together. Contrarily, Troy's reluctance to working on the fence shows his lack of commitment to his marriage and family in Fences and Boy Willie's lack of understanding for Berniece and her attachment to the piano in The Piano Lesson brings out his disregard for his family's history and his general lack of commitment to his family. Troy complains about having to build the fence and he sees it as a chore. Troy tries to force Cory to work on it with him, which just creates more tension and negative feelings around the building of the fence. Troy shows his lack of devotion to his family when he leaves the house consistently to go visit another girl. Troy doesn't try to understand why Rose wants the fence built, similar to how Boy Willie neglects to consider Berniece's feelings towards the piano and the part it plays in their home. Boy Willie keeps saying how he doesn't care what Berniece wants and he doesn't care about the carvings on the piano. He only views the piano for how it can better him in his lifetime. Boy Willie is not committed to preserving his family and their history. Boy Willie and Troy think in a self-centered manner with neglect towards the symbols in their respective plays and that accurately reflects in their attitudes towards their families. Additionally, in Fences, Bono also observes that some people build fences to keep people out and push people away, other people build fences to keep people in.
However, in The Piano Lesson, Doaker expresses how the piano is a storytelling device through the carvings on the sides of it. Fences are walls that only protect us in our minds. 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” (61). Rose is the type of person who wants a fence built to keep people together. As Cory slowly builds the fence, he pushes Troy further and further away. Doaker reminds his family of the importance of the piano by telling how “[Boy Charles used to] say it [the piano] was the story of our whole family and as long as Sutter had it he had us. Say we was still in slavery” (45). The fence is a physical symbol representing the emotional boundaries in contrast to the piano that is a meaningful long-time family monument which now since they own it is proof of their freedom and a reminder of how far their family has come. In conclusion symbolism plays an important role in Fences and The Piano Lesson. The fence in Fences and the piano in The Piano Lesson both represent holding family together, but the ignorance towards these symbols shows a lack of commitment to their families. In contrast, the fence is used to keep some people out and other people in, whereas in The Piano Lesson, the piano is used as a symbol of power and triumph over hardships. The symbols themselves are used along with the character's interactions with the symbols to convey depth and
meaning.
, ‘My apples will never get across and eat the cones under his pines, and I tell him. He only says, good fences make good neighbours.’ This shows that there is clearly no substantial reason for the wall to be built but one neighbour carries the view that ‘good neighbours make good fences’ and no
Fences is a play that deals with boundaries that hold people back and the trials and tribulations of those who try or wish to cross them. The characters are African-Americans in a time before the civil rights movement, living in an industrial city. The main character, Troy Manxson, is a talented baseball player who never had the chance to let his talent shine, with restrictions on race and his time in jail as the main obstacles that held him back. He is now hard working and loves his family. However, he tends to exaggerate and has his faults, most prevalent a wandering eye when it comes to women. His wife, Rose, is younger than him and loyal, but she may not have known about all of his faults when she married him. At the beginning of the play, Troy has a son from a previous marriage, Lyons, and a son with Rose, Cory. Also appearing are Bono, Troy’s drinking buddy, and Gabriel, his brother.
Conflicts and tensions between family members and friends are key elements in August Wilson's play, Fences. The main character, Troy Maxon, has struggled his whole life to be a responsible person and fulfill his duties in any role that he is meant to play. In turn, however, he has created conflict through his forbidding manner. The author illustrates how the effects of Troy's stern upbringing cause him to pass along a legacy of bitterness and anger which creates tension and conflict in his relationships with his family.
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and Fences by August Wilson have similar themes of conflicts between fathers and sons, conflicts between husbands and wives, and the need to focus on a small unit of space in order to achieve success. In the process of developing these themes throughout the two plays, three similar symbolic elements are used including the insecure father figure, the "other woman," and the garden.
Boy Willie is the protagonist in the play The Piano Lesson, which is written by August Wilson. He is a foil character to his sister Berniece. He wants to sell the family piano. His biggest obstacle is his past, and his sister. Berniece wants to salvage the piano and keep it as a namesake. The quarrels revolving around legacies is the central conflict of the play. Boy Willie’s “Super-objective” contains two parts: fear and legacy resulting in memory.
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 any one a chance to prove themselves because he was selfish. 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 shape 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. The complication begins in Troy’s youth, when his father beat him unconscious. At that moment, Troy leaves home and begins a troubled life on his own, and gaining a self-destructive outlook on life. “Fences” has many instances that can be considered the climax, but the one point in the story where the highest point of tension occurs, insight is gained and...
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
...in character of “Fences,” fights to be a father with nothing to go on but the harsh example set by his own father, which resembles a symbolic fence separating the relationship between father and son. There is also Troy's son, Cory, a boy becoming a man, coming of age under Troy's sovereignty. The play shows that no matter how old you are, you're constantly measuring yourself against the example set by your parents. Even if the reader’s family is nothing like the Maxsons, one may possibly connect with this basic human struggle.
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.
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.
"Mending Wall" is a poem written by the poet Robert Frost. The poem describes two neighbors who repair a fence between their estates. It is, however, obvious that this situation is a metaphor for the relationship between two people. The wall is the manifestation of the emotional barricade that separates them. In this situation the "I" voice wants to tear down this barricade while his "neighbor" wants to keep it.
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.
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.
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...
August Wilson created many themes throughout his famous play, Fences, but the most prominent one is the relationship between fathers and sons. The three father-son relationships introduced in this play seem to be complicated or difficult to understand. However, it is clear that the relationships built between Troy Maxson and his son Cory, Troy and his other son Lyons, and Troy and his own father are not love-driven. The parallelism of actions, events, and tension amongst each of the father-son relationships in the play illustrate how the sons try to break free from the constraints the father has set, yet in the end, these attempts seem to be pointless as the father leaves an everlasting effect on the sons, ultimately creating a cycle of actions