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. Troy was raised by a very dominate male figure who was abusive. His father would be little him and made him like he would not be able to overcome racism. Troy despised his father who was mean and never showed him any love. Although Troy feared and hated his father he would later realize he had traits similar to the devil himself. Troy has a job as a garbage collector and he
Bear VandiverMay 23, 2017English Masculinity Troy and Atticus both express true and false masculinity in the eye of Joe Ehrmann. They both are fathers of two and have substantial influences on the people they are close to. Troy, the protagonists in the play Fences, is a middle-aged man living with his family in Pittsburgh. One of Troy’s many flaws is having a stable relationship, which was one of Ehrmann’s subjects in his Ted Talk. Atticus was also a middle-aged man living in the 1930s, where he is a lawyer trying to defend a black man who goes by the name of Tom Robinson.
Similarly, Wilson in Fences was also conscious that such a mixture, where money and race are put together, is poisonous since it leads characters to destructive conflicts like the ones between the father Troy and his son Corry or also between black and white minorities. However, these conflicts are still of paramount importance because of the historical and human significance they give to the play. Starting from the
Troy Maxson is an African American man who has a wife and three kids who is raising a family in the middle of 1957. Being an African American during the 1957’s was hard due to the racism and the judgement. Troy wants to be closer to his family but never does due to his arrogant and aggressive ways. In a way, Troy was like a baby bird. He was pushed out of his nest young and lived through many struggles.
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.
In the play Fences, the main character Troy and the side characters grow up in a poor region of Pittsburgh in the 1950s. The play follows Troy, his family, and the struggles they face living in a segregated and racist society. Literary devices such as metaphors, motifs, and setting represent why these characters act the way they do. The same situation would exist in their environment with an abusive father. Troy's behavior would be described as irritated and harsh.
His father was cruel and showed him negative things such as Troy saying in one of the Acts, “All he wanted was for you to learn how to walk so he could start you to working.” ( August Wilson 50 ). He didn't seem to love any of his kids so then Troy couldn't. He also saw his father rape a girl that he
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.
Eventually, Troy's association of the Devil as a omen of death comes to speak for his struggle to survive the course of his life. Many epilogue in the play end with Troy speaking a monologue to Death and the Devil. In Act One, Scene One, Troy spins a long yarn, or tale about his fight for several days with the Devil. The story of the Devil endears Troy to audiences early on by revealing his capability to imagine and believe in the absurd. In another story, Troy turns a white salesman into a Devil.
"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.
Troy chose to escape his reality by having an affair that gives him some laughs and good time every now and then. However, despite the flaws in Troy’s character, he was a providing family man who wants to insure a better life of his sons than the one he had. Based on the play’s time period, which took place at the 50’s, apparently the main problem of Troy Maxson’s character was racism against African Americans at the time that had prevented him from achieving his dreams. Throughout the play, Troy expresses his dissatisfaction in several scenes with the other characters.
“I’m gonna build me a fence around what belongs to me. And then I want you to stay on the other side” (77). This indicates he does not want to lose anyone else close to him. Troy is afraid of his two worlds colliding, the meaning behind building the fence. He builds the fence to try and keep his affair with Alberta and death on one side, and his home, his family and his friends on the other.
Troy is controlling and often verbally abusive to his family members because he lacks a sense of control in other areas of his life, he is unable to achieve his dream of becoming a pro-baseball player or advance in his career and this makes him feel inadequate. Troy’s wife Rose represents a stereotypical mother and dutiful wife role. Rose has two disadvantages in her life because she is not only African American, she is also a woman and in some ways she is the wife you would expect during the 1950s era. Rose however, is not weak minded because she recognizes how times have changed and this what makes Troy and Rose so drastically different throughout the play. Their contrasting ideologies represent two different aspects of the “African American Experience” by showing a major question many African Americans faced during the 1950s and that is: “are times really changing?.”
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
In August Wilson’s playwright Fences, the narrator portrays racism in a social system, in the workplace, and in sports, which ultimately affects Troy’s aspirations. Troy Maxson is constantly facing the racism that is engraved into the rules of racial hierarchy –– fair and unfair, spoken and unspoken. Troy suffers many years of racism when he plays in the Negro major Baseball League; therefore he decides to protect Cory from ever experiencing those blockades in his drive for success. In the end, although Troy is always driving to obtain agency, Troy always succumbs to the rules of racism because those racist ideologies are too hard to overcome. Throughout the play, Troy is perpetually confronting the racist social system that displays unspoken
Victims and Victimization Often in society, people face many decisions that can change the outcome of their lives. It’s argued how social constructs are the force behind these choices, and as a result any consequences brought upon people is society’s fault. An example of this occurrence is presented throughout August Wilsons 1986 play, Fences. Set in the 1950’s Fences reveals the thoughts and hidden motivations behind an African American community faced with difficult obstacles such as segregation, and poor economic status. Troy Maxson, the protagonist in the play is a struggling African American father who is trying to support his family.