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The Theme Struggle And Dominance In Fences By August Wilson
The Theme Struggle And Dominance In Fences By August Wilson
The Theme Struggle And Dominance In Fences By August Wilson
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In the play Fences by August Wilson, Troy is shown as a man who has hurt the people who are closest to him without even realizing it. He has acted in an insensitive and uncaring manner towards his wife, Rose, his brother, Gabriel and his son, Cory. At the beginning of the story, Troy feels he has done right by them. He feels this throughout the story. He doesn’t realize how much he has hurt them.
Troy is the son of an abusive father. His father was hardly around to raise him. When he was around, he made him do chores and if he didn’t do them he would beat him. One time, after Troy tied up the mule, just as his father told him to, he went off to the creek with a girl to “enjoy himself.” The mule got loose, and his father found out. His father came looking for him. When he found them at the creek, he had the leather mule straps; he started to beat Troy. Troy was naturally scared so he ran away. He looked back at his father and realized that his father didn’t care about beating him, he just wanted the girl. Troy came back; he ripped the straps out of his father’s hand. He then started to beat his father with them. His father, not afraid of Troy, beat up Troy. Troy was left there, his eyes were swelled shut. He didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t go back to his father’s house, so he went to another town 200 miles away. This is when Troy became a man at the age of 14.
In the town, Mobile, it was hard for him to survive. He had to steal food, and eventually money. A man sh...
However, he finds redemption in the eyes of his brother without sacrificing his individualism. Sonny manages to use music to bridge the gap, taking a greater responsibility for his reintegration into family and community than the prodigal son.
Troy was met with many hardships in his life that left him feeling like he needed to protect himself from the things that have hurt him and could hurt him. The fence that Rose told Troy to build symbolized the barrier that he puts up to protect himself from the things that have hurt him and could hurt him in the future. Troy uses the fence to symbolize the emotional separation and neglect he has towards his family; Rose and Cory in particular. The main reason why the fence took the whole play to complete is because Troy neglected it and spent his time with his mistress which symbolized his neglect towards his family. Cory brings this to attention when he tells Troy that he "don't never do nothing, but go down to Taylors'", which is obviously his mistress’s home (Henderson). This was Troy’s f...
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.
Troy Maxon experiences a tumultuous life, beginning with his departure from his parents’ home at the age of fourteen. Living on an impoverished farm in the Deep South, Troy describes his father, who beats him regularly and only cares about work, as the devil. In Troy’s dialogue with Bono and Lyons, Troy remarks, “My daddy turned to face me, I could see why the devil had never come to get him.cause he was the devil himself” (Wilson 52). The most influential person in Troy’s early life was, as Troy believes, the devil. His father, an extremely negative role model, lays the foundation for a difficult, grueling childhood.... ...
In Sonny’s Blues, art plays a central role by serving as a bridge between the two alienated brothers. For a long time, their personal shortcomings have kept the two brothers apart. Sonny’s failure to speak and his brother’s listening inability have always prevented the siblings from having an honest conversation with one another and thus have never understood each other. Watching the street revival music brings the siblings very close and prompts their first authentic conversation in their lines of work. Astonishingly, just at the peak, Sonny’s music aids his brother to finally understand his life and trials. The connection facilitated by art becomes the channel for an authentic epiphany in Sonny’s
He fails to Parent Sonny as he promised to his belated mother. As a result Sonny indulges himself into drugs to avoid the pain of loneliness and his brother abandoned him. He ends up being in jail and rehabilitation. But Sonny shows his undying morals in reply to his brother’s letter when he says, “I’m glad mama and daddy are dead and can’t see what’s happened to their son and I swear if I’d known what I was doing I would never have hurt you so, [...] and who believed in me”(254). Eventually Sonny becomes a jazz musician as he always wanted to be. Music is his salvation from the darkness he put himself into. When the narrator saw his younger brother trying hard to shape his identity as he once struggled to achieve, the narrator states, “he seemed to have found, right there beneath his fingers, a damn brand new piano” when music and his family helped Sonny get back to his healthy
In August Wilson’s drama, “Fences,” a man named Troy struggles with feelings of unfulfilled dreams and extreme pride. Troy is unable to come to terms with his own fallacies throughout the play, and he fails to see the world through other points of view. He becomes prideful and arrogant because he feels he knows exactly how the world works, or should work, and he inadvertently destroys the lives of everyone around him. Troy’s pride causes him to believe dreams and hopes are useless in the real world. This belief causes him to ruin his own son’s dreams and causes his wife to despise him for the rest of his life. Pride is a harmful thing. Being too prideful can ruin one’s own life and the lives of his or her loved ones.
Wilson does a creative job by using the fence metaphorically and literally. The fence was supposed to represent protection and family ties for the Maxson family. However, Troy’s past has left him with many scars. As he continues to make decisions for Rose and Cory, the layers of paint begin to strip away, revealing Troy’s failings to all, even to Death. After Troy’s failings become obvious to readers, the fences throughout the play begin to take form. The literal fence becomes a symbol that seals up the whole play. Readers see how if one continues to fence their loved ones out then eventually they will be left alone with their worse fear.
When he found Sonny, he was living in a crack house, and immediately the other brother became furious with his current situation. The two brothers had a terrible argument and the narrator stormed out. When the narrator finally leaves the house that is when the flashback ends. Sonny lived with his brother for a couple of weeks. This flashback makes the narrator think he has to search his brother's room for help finding clues. Sonny comes home and invited him out to a jazz club. When the narrator goes and sees Sonny in his element, the people love him, the music come natural to him and he sounds amazing playing the piano in tune with the other musicians' instruments. The narrator finally understands his brother, his life, and what kept him
And after supper he went back to the piano” -(pg577). When sonny was living with Isabel and her parents all he would do is play the piano in his free time. This shows the persistence that sonny has when trying to accomplish his dream of being a jazz pianist. He takes every single second he had and dedicated it towards perfecting this instrument. Sonny learned this instrument by himself without the help of his brother. Sonny was forced to encourage and push himself to accomplish his dream. “I couldn’t tell you when mama died but the reason I wanted to leave Harlem so bad was to get away from drugs” -(pg584). This was said by sunny when talking to his brother about why he wanted to leave Harlem when he was still in school. This shows how sonny has a lot of drive in his life to accomplish his dreams. He knew about the dangers of drugs and he wanted more for himself but was incapable of leaving because his brother prevented it. Sonny wanted more out of his life than living in Harlem and he was the only person who was going to make that happen. “He lit a cigarette and nodded, watching me through the smoke. I just wanted to see if I’d have the courage to smoke in front of you. He grinned and blew out a great big cloud of smoke to the ceiling. It was easy”- (pg576). This was done by sonny in front of his brother when he returned back from war for his mother’s funeral. This was a bold move by Sonny and shows how much of a risk taker he is. It shows how he is willing to take risks to do things in life like accomplish his dreams. Sonny channels this kind of energy into his music and it is this energy that helped him accomplish his goal of being a Jazz
Troy Maxson is portrayed as a big man with a very big personality and a lot of dignity. He is a bitter guy who believes that he owes his family absolutely everything, from his money down to even his own soul. He is the type of man who wants more than what he can get and that is what drives him but it is also that very “want” that leads him into a very tragic life. Writing on the idea of Troy being a tragic hero, Martin says “Troy’s strengths are found in his willingness to fulfill his duty at all times. He also speaks directly to his dignity regarding his position of work and his career in baseball) Martin, 2) “Fences” Troy has many
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...
Troy?s relationship with his father was one, which produced much tension, and had a strong influence on Troy?s relationships with his loved ones as an adult. He had very little respect for his father because his father did not, in Troy?s mind, make his family a priority. At an early age, Troy?s father beat him ?like there was no tomorrow? because he caught Troy getting ?cozy? with a girl (549; I,4). Troy said that ?right there is where [he became] a man? (549; I,4). It was at that moment that Troy made the decision to free himself from his father?s power. Despite the fact that he did eventually escape his father?s wrath, the struggle with his father?s aggressive behavior and lack of love resulted in a coldness that resided in Troy?s heart toward life and love. His father did not care about his children; children were there to work for the food that he ate first. Troy describes his feelings toward his father by saying, ?Sometimes I wish I hadn?t known my daddy. He ain?t cared nothing about no kids. A kid to him wasn?t nothing. All he wanted was for you to learn how to walk so he could start you to working? (548; I,4). Although Troy had very little respect for his father and vowed to be nothing like him, many of his father?s harsh personality traits show up in his own personality. Despite Troy?s continuous attempts to push himself away from anything he had ever known about his father, the inheritance of such irrational behavior was inevitable because it was all he had ever known. The inheritance of this angry behavior was, in turn, the cause of his damaging relationships with his own family. Just as Troy endured his father?s cruel ways, Troy?s family is left with no choice but to try to learn to live with his similar ways.
The narrator allows Sonny to move into his apartment. By allowing Sonny to live with him he has allowed to trust him again. For example, the narrator explains, “The idea of searching Sonny’s room made me still. I scarcely dared to admit to myself what I’d be searching for. I didn’t know what I’d do if I found it. Or if I didn’t” (pg. 91). This shows how the narrator had the opportunity to search his brother’s room, but had the ability not to. Tension grew among brothers while living under one roof. This starts the climax of both arguing in the apartment. The narrator doesn’t understand why his brother wants to be a musician. This argument was built of emotion both had and not yet discussed among each other. Such as the narrator expressing his anger towards his brother’s drug use and Sonny’s frustration towards the narrator not understanding his plan to become a jazz musician. For example, the narrator states, “I realized, with this mocking look, that there stood between us, forever, beyond the power of time or forgiveness, the fact that I had held silence – so long! – when he had needed human speech to help him” (pg.94). The argument with his brother made him realize that he abandon his younger brother when he needed him the most. He realized that if he would have spoken out and talk about his drug use that he wouldn’t have to go
Even though the men are all about the same size, Ashurnasirpal is still raised and is the highest part of the relief to suggest that he as a ruler, is more important than everything and everyone around him. Also in regard to the difference between the other men and Ashurnasirpal is the way they are standing. Ashurnasirpal’s men are all standing profile but the king himself is standing in a frontal view with the exception of his head. The reason for Ashurnasirpal to be shown standing a different way from the others could be to show that he is different from everyone and that he is not equal to but greater than all other