Caitlin Hensel
English 267
Dr. Patterson
17 November 2014
The Fence of Inequality: Racism and Its Effects in August Wilson’s Fences Anti-black racism is a powerful idea that permeates August Wilson’s Fences, to the point where it can be argued that it is the driving force behind the plot and characters of the play. The focus following the Maxsons, a black family living in late 1950s Pittsburgh, fills the entire play with implications of race and racism, though neither of those words are actually said in the entirety of the script. Like the title of the play itself, racism provides yet another fence for the Maxsons, encompassing the entire story’s narrative and influencing every facet of the characters’ lives. Despite the backdrop of the dawning
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In the play, these feelings of being trapped leave him willing to take thoughtless actions in an attempt to escape this life; namely, having an affair with Alberta, directly affecting the plot’s course. These feelings also leave him confrontational toward the systematic white supremacy he has suffered throughout his life; though it is never explicitly stated, Troy clearly resents white people’s privilege complaining about the unfair advantages they have in baseball, at his work as a garbage man, and in everyday life. He even goes so far as to call the devil a white man who will put a black man in debt, and associates death with the Ku Klux Klan as well by describing him in “a white robe with a hood on it” (Wilson 6). This view of white men and white power being downright evil also contributes to much of the conflict in Fences; though the dawning Civil Rights Movement and new opportunities arise in sports and in life, Troy continues to remain firmly pessimistic in the face of possible change, leading to contention within his family, specifically his …show more content…
Troy’s belief that the system hasn’t changed, that black people will never gain opportunities in white power structures, drives him to keep Cory from even trying (Koprince 354-5). Unfortunately, all this does is exacerbate Cory’s resentment of Troy, eventually leading to a confrontation that almost becomes physical and ends with Cory leaving Troy’s house for good in a strong parallel to the way Troy left his father’s house (Wilson 26-7). When the reader finds Troy and Lyons again in the final act, the similarities between both sons’ paths and their father’s is even more pronounced. Lyons is now in jail, but still pursuing his music, the same way Troy went to jail and pursued baseball; Cory has given up his dreams and joined the military, and like Troy has become bitter about his lost chances, unwilling to go to Troy’s funeral because of the bad blood between them (28-9). Cory’s mother, Rose, even remarks upon it, stating “You Troy Maxson all over again” (29). And like Troy before him, Cory wants nothing to do with his father, denies the idea of being anything like him. The failure of success and lack of opportunities for black people trapped each generation of Maxsons in a cycle where they end up trapped just like their father before them; from Troy’s father to Troy to Cory and Lyons, each bear the strong imprints of their upbringing despite their best efforts, implying that the racism that shaped their lives is
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...
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.
Throughout the play, pieces of Troy’s background are exposed to the reader. It quickly becomes clear that he was a talented baseball player who could have played professionally if not for the color of his skin. Instead of going on to a successful baseball career, Troy was forced to move on with his life and settle down as a garbage man. Although this is not what he truly wants in his life, it provides stability for him and his family. Similarly to his father, Troy’s son, Cory, is a talented football player who is being scouted for college. However, instead of encouraging him, Troy constantly scolds him, telling him he has to find a ‘real job;’ Troy even tells the scout to leave. This is ultimately because of his jealousy towards Cory’s success in sports, and the fact that Cory possesses the life Troy dreamed of. Many feuds and disagreements are born between the father and son because of their different views.
Then, in the play, Wilson looks at the unpleasant expense and widespread meanings of the violent urban environment in which numerous African Americans existed th...
Troy has a right to be angry, but to whom he takes his anger on is questionable. He regularly gets fed up with his sons, Lyons and Cory, for no good reason. Troy disapproves of Lyons’ musical goals and Cory’s football ambitions to the point where the reader can notice Troy’s illogical way of releasing his displeasure. Frank Rich’s 1985 review of Fences in the New York Times argues that Troy’s constant anger is not irrational, but expected. Although Troy’s antagonism is misdirected, Rich is correct when he observes that Troy’s endless anger is warranted because Troy experiences an extremely difficult life, facing racism, jail, and poverty.
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 written by August Wilson about a family living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1957. Troy and Rose have been married for 18 years and have two grown children; Lyons and Corey. Troy is an uptight, prideful man who always claims that he does not fear death, the rest of his family is more laxed and more content with their lives than Troy is. As the play progresses the audience learns more about Troy’s checkered past with sharecropping, his lack of education and the time he spent in prison. The audience also learns more about Troy’s love for baseball and the dreams he lost due to racism and segregation. In the middle of the play the author outwardly confirms what the audience has been suspecting; Troy isn’t exactly satisfied with his life. He feels that he does not get to enjoy his life and that his family is nothing more than a responsibility. Getting caught up in this feelings, Troy cheats on Rose with a woman named Alberta and fathers a child with the mistress. By the end of the play Troy loses both of the women and in 1965, finally gets the meeting with death that he had been calling for throughout the play. Over the
In the play Fences and 2 Trains Running written by August Wilson both have somewhat similar yet their differences despite being written by the same author. The play Fences, the main attention is on an African American family where the head of the house struggles to provide his family with needs. As for 2 Trains Running, this play displays many different cycles of the social and psychological presentation towards discrimination and race from perspectives of urban African American. Throughout both plays, a couple characters have displayed similar characteristics. From the play Fences, the protagonist Troy Maxson and West from 2 Trains Running. Besides those two characters, Cory Maxson, from Fences, and Holloway from 2 Trains Running, also demonstrates
This African-American struggle for equality is the focus of the play Fences. Troy Maxon, father in the Maxon households, meets many of the stereotypes held of black men during the time period. An unfaithful man with multiple children from multiple women, Troy often spends his afternoons drinking himself into a drunken stupor. Wilson shows that Troy’s humanity remains intact and thus the treatment he receives is unjust. Every issue he faces, Troy believes is due to the color of his skin. While Troy talks to Rose about why he never played professional baseball, she suggests that he was too old. Troy rebuttals that he is simply the wrong color, believing the issue to be his race and not his age (Wilson 39). While his longtime friend from prison Jim Bono agrees with and validates Troy’s answer, at the same time Troy tries playing baseball professionally, other African-American players such as Jackie Robinson succeed where he fails. The inclusion of this detail shows the effect prejudice has on Troys mindset, forcing him to believe all white men look down on all African-American men. To further enforce the idea of his oppressed mindset, Troy complains that only white men drive garbage trucks (2). While Troy is eventually promoted to a driver, the fact that up to that point only white men drive shows that Troy does experience real racial prejudice in his daily life. In a similar manner to the prejudice Troy receives from his boss, the main character of Devil in a Blue Dress, Easy Rawlins, faces an issue of pride when confronting his boss after losing his job. While speaking to his old boss Mr. Giacomo, Easy only thinks of refusing to bow down and kiss the ass of the white man before him to get his job back (Mosley 111-112). Instead of giving in and submitting to the same disrespect he received while working
In centuries leading to the 1950 and 1960s, racism in America was rampant. The years of slavery and segregation in America made it difficult for many African Americans to achieve their dreams and the Maxson family felt the effects of the racism that was negatively impacting America. For readers and viewers of Fences, it would have been a major disappointment if one could not follow his or her dreams because of the race or color of one’s skin. Inevitably, racism has had a devastating impact on the Maxson family as it has crushed their aspirations and taken over their lives.
In the play Fences, by August Wilson, the main character, Troy Maxson is involved in numerous relationships with family members throughout the entire eight years that the story takes place. Troy is a father, husband, and brother to other characters in the play. Unfortunately for Troy, a strong-minded and aggressive man, he constantly complicates the relationships with his family members. Troy's hurtful actions and words make it nearly impossible for him to sustain healthy relationships with not only his two sons, but also his wife and brother.
Alan Nadel argues that the object of the fence in August Wilson’s play, “Fences” symbolizes a great struggle between the literal and figurative definitions of humanity and blackness. The author summarizes the play and uses the character Troy to explain the characterization of black abilities, such as Troy’s baseball talents, as “metaphoric,” which does not enable Troy to play in the white leagues as the period is set during segregation (Nadel 92). The author is trying to use the characters from the play as examples of black people during the segregation years to show how people of that time considered black people not as literal entities and more like figurative caricatures. Stating that these individuals were considered to be in a kind of limbo between human and object. Nadel’s thesis is easy to spot, and is actually pointed out directly on page 88 of the text. It reads that August Wilson’s play actually investigates the position of black persons as the metaphorical “fence” between humanity and property, arguing that the effects of this situation interacts within the “context of white [America]” so that a wider range of people are able to view the internal struggles of the black community.
...fence it was already too late. His actions and decisions had already destroyed his family to the point where the meaning of the fence was rendered inert. The effects of racism clearly affected Troy’s entire role. The play also goes on to suggest that social and political forces are pivotal roles that impacted the lives of African Americans during the 1950’s and that years of oppression were factors that affected the way in which black people lived.
Although it seems as though Cory is determined to escape from what his father wants, he still takes the same path his father went on. This ironic situation is shown when Troy says "I don’t want him to be like me! I want him to move as far away from my life as he can get” (Wilson 481). Throughout the play, Cory is also trying to pursue this individuality, but ends up trying to chase after his dreams in a sport just like Troy. Cory faces a battle inside him as he tries to form a unique identity separate from his father; however, Troy is resistant to Cory's attempts at individuality. Troy's efforts to restrain Cory from being an individual character makes Cory take on drastic measures, such as verbal and physical violence, in an effort to become the person he wants to be. Troy restrains Cory from pursuing his dreams so much that it builds up to a point where Cory points out the truth that Troy is so afraid to hear; “Just cause you didn't have a chance! You just scared I'm gonna be better than you, that's all" (Wilson 493). Sports acts as a barrier between them from ever becoming close, even though they are both interested in them. This confrontation results in Troy counting numbers until Cory