Fences Theme Essay

“Fences”, written by American playwright August Wilson, is a play set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the 1950’s that explores the evolving African-American experience and examines race relations, amidst other themes. The focal point of Wilson’s attention in “Fences” is Troy Maxson, a 53-year-old trash collector who often struggles with providing for his family, not only financially, but he tends to neglect them from the love and support that a family needs. Troy is married to Rose, his wife of almost 18 years and together they care for their teenage son, Cory. His eldest son Lyons, is in his thirties, and was fathered with a woman Troy met before meeting his current wife. He also has a younger brother, named Gabriel, a former soldier whose war injury to the head has caused him noticeable psychological damage. The family isn’t perfect and that what makes the appeal of the play so universal. This play is full of dreams, family, and betrayal and

It becomes quite difficult to find any dissimilarities in their lines, but there are quite a few in the setting itself. Most of the action in “Fences” takes place in one family’s back yard, the one belonging to the Maxson’s, or at least this was the case when reading the play. In the film, we are taken beyond the small area and we see things that were mentioned in the play, but were never used for any interaction. In the movie, Troy always talked about “going down to Taylors,”, the local bar he would go to with his best friend and colleague Bono, yet there were never any scenes taken place there, and in the film, we got to experience a very important scene between the two while at the bar. Although confined to one “set”, most people don’t notice how many different places we see in the film like the mental institution where Gabriel stayed at and even inside the Maxson’s home. This gave the film personality and it made it feel less like a play and more like a motion