August Wilson Fences Literary Analysis

The end scene of Fences and Keepers of the House both represent the possibility of redemption in the face of the sins of the fathers. In his play Fences, August Wilson shows to the reader how a person can redeem himself if he is able to embrace both the evil and good of the man and find forgiveness of the father’s sins. However, Shirley Ann Grau presents that a person cannot redeem itself once the sins happen and the characters are stuck in the cycle of vengeance due to their unyielding characteristics.

As a villain, Troy Maxson exhibits characters that display him using his failing flaw as being stubborn and egocentric. Fences is a play written by August Wilson whose setting can be traced back to the middle of the 20th century (Weber). The central theme addressed in this play is a life of a man who is faced with discrimination and failures. In the play, Troy is a black man in his early fifties and he exhibits traits that paint him both as a villain and a hero. The way he talks and behaves creates a picture in people’s minds that he is a cruel and challenging person to relate with, but he also has good and admirable character and sense of humor.

"When the sins of our fathers visit us, we do not have to play host. We can banish them with forgiveness; As God, in His Largeness and Laws"(Wilson X).This epigraph by August Wilson provides an insight into the importance of the topic in the play Fences. In Fences, the play depicts the relationships of the Maxson family and their friends. Troy Maxson, a middle-aged African American man, is happily married to his wife Rose and takes care of his son Cory whilst occasionally interacting with his other son from a previous relationship. However, the complexities of Troy 's past create issues for him and his family and their relationships begin to deteriorate. Throughout the play, the characters look at faith, race, opportunities, fatherhood and

This is similar to the poem Mother to Son by Langston Hughes. In the play, Cory is unwilling to sacrifice the way he feels for the sake of his family. Rose explains to him that she understands Troy wasn’t the easiest person to deal with and “being disrespectful to the memory of his father isn't going to make him a man.”. If she would have read Mother to Son to Cory it may have changed his opinion on Troy. Rose had to endure life with a man who felt his purpose was defeated. She had to put her wants and needs to the side to be with Troy, so Cory should be able to put his emotions to the side and attend the

The play, Fences by August Wilson, is about Troy Maxson and his struggling family relationships. A recurring idea throughout the story is the construction of a fence around Troy's home. Troy's fence could symbolize two things, Troy is trying to protect his family from the outside world, or Troy is isolating himself from his own family. As the construction of the fence progresses, the more severely damaged Troy's relationships become. In this play, the underlying message is that, despite the fact that fences can both protect and isolate, Troy’s fence isolates him from his family rather than to protect his family.

“A lot of parents will do anything for their kids except let them be themselves" -Banksy. In the play “Fences” ,Troy, Cory’s father does exactly this. He doesn’t allow his son to achieve what make him happy, which is playing college football. He thinks by doing this, he's doing what’s best for him. Because of this, Cory begins to bear a grudge towards his father. Wanting to be able to move forward with his life and not be the same person as his father, he attends Troy’s funeral, as a way to make peace with their relationship.

Around the early 1900s, racism was prominent and wasn't sugarcoated either. African Americans had to deal with many obstacles around this period because of the discrimination involed in their lives. These actions effected many African Americans because it forced some of them to hate the world and limit many of their opportunities in life. Racism is sad reality in our nation that affects all types of people and it continues to shake and alter lives. People use racism as a sort of way to detect the differences with their peers and spike bias towards a group of people. Some people go the extra mile in insulting, attacking or mentally attacking others because of racist ideals they believe in. In the play Fences by August Wilson, Troy's dreams of

August Wilson faces a lot of difficulties in his life. He begins writing Fences in the twentieth century, and he portrays the African American experience between the 1900s to 2000 (Wilson 11). In Fence August Wilson tells the story of a father, Troy Maxson’s lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Troy was a very talented baseball perspective with hopes to play in the major leagues. Maxson’s had the bad luck of having to grow up when racism was the biggest part of America. This meant that all professional baseball teams were still not for black people from playing. In fences, the troy character is very negative just because, he suffered in his past. In Fences, August Wilson shows that troy is a villain because he is unfair to his wife, wants to control everyone, and mean with his son.

He is the protagonist of Fences. He is a former baseball star in the Negro Leagues and a breadwinner in his family. He becomes the tragic hero of this play who experience good fortune to bad. In the middle of the play, he builds fence with Cory, his son. He wants his son Cory not to sacrifice his studies and his job only to become a football player. He doesn’t want his son live his life as a sports player just like him. However Cory still insists to become a football player, therefore he kicks his son out of the house. During his tension with Cory, Troy suffers difficulty at his work. Troy works for the sanitation department. His job is lifting garbage into trucks. However, there is a racial discrimination at his work. His boss will not allow Black people to drive the garbage trucks, but after Troy’s pleading, his boss allowed him to drive the truck and he becomes the first black man to drive a truck in the entire city of Pittsburgh. Troy has 3 children, which are Lyons, Cory and Raynell. He has affair with Alberta, but Alberta dies when she was giving birth to

In summary, the play “Fences “setting was set during the 1950’s in Pittsburg, where many African Americans were fighting for their rights. Many of the minority population were getting treated poorly and unfairly. Troy Maxson, his wife and son lived off a small alley in a big-city. The main character Troy was a sanitation worker and former Negro League baseball player. His talented son Cory is being hindered by his dad Troy from being a professional football player. Troy Maxson disagrees with his career decisions because of his past life, causing him to not be able to enter the leagues once getting out of jail. As a result, Cory and his dad got into a fight and Troy kicked him out of the house and eventually had

The play Fences is a drama written by August Wilson who was one of six children and also dealt with opeesrrions and racism when he dropped out of school due the struggles of racism. The play Fences presents the character Troy Maxson a person who has faced racism and discrimanation throughout his life. The Pulitzer Prize winning play is set in 1957-1965, a time when African-Amercians where hopeful for a better life. In Fences, racism haunts Troy Maxon’s life past and present. The play brings the view of racism in the world through Tory Maxson, family and friends. The play describes the life of Troy Maxson a middle age Africa-American man who was raising his family in time of racism. Troy is married to Rose and the father of three children. Troy has two sons Lyons and Cory, and a daughter named Raynell. August Wilson describes the life of Troy as someone who feels he is being oppressed and how different the culture was when his was a child growing up compared to his children’s lives. Troy’s outlook on life is more narrow minded however, his family is more optimistic for a better future.

A feminist look at August Wilson's play Fences will clearly show that Rose Maxson, as being the strongest, the more faithful and the more powerful of all the Maxsons. Her realization about her life makes us appreciate the epiphany process.

In the play Fences, August Wilson follows the struggle of a family that deals with injustice and racial segregation that creates a hardship that leads to a personal lack of self-esteem and uncontrollable circumstances. Troy, forced his family to deal with his struggles of past life experience. Troy was a hardworking man who did his best to provide for his family. Rose explained this to Cory, "Your daddy wanted you to be everything he wasn't...and everything he was...he meant to do more good than he meant harm" (1985).

Fences is a play written by the playwright August Wilson, who dedicated himself to writing plays capturing what it was like to be an African American in the United States during every decade of the 20th century. Fences was a play that was specifically written to provide an outlook into the lives of African Americans in America during the 1950s, during the process of demarginalization. Each character of the novel provides a unique perspective to capture different aspects of the “African American Experience” during this time period. In Fences, it was very important to August Wilson to truly capture “The African American Experience” and he was able to do so through the portrayal of the Maxson family, with his representation of African Americans during the 1950s in Fences, and with the multiple perspectives of African Americans captured

The play “Fences” by August Wilson shows the dynamics in relationships and the multiple dramatic means by which they are established by using one pinnacle point. Wilson uses his main character Troy to stem of four other types of relationships. He shows the complexities of marriage and love in the relationship between Troy and Troy’s wife, Rose. He shows the commitment and betrayal of in the relationship between Troy and Troy’s Brother, Gabriel. He shows the father and son complex in the relationship between Troy and Troy’s son, Cory. And finally he shows true friendship in the relationship between Troy and Troy’s best friend, Bono. Wilson masterfully crafts the novel to show many different types of relationships in a short three acts.