The play Fences by August Wilson happens in 1957. It's about a father and son conflict in a black family. The play's protagonist is Troy Maxson, and he is married to Rose Maxson and has a son named Cory. Troy played baseball when he was younger, but never got to go big because of racism that existed back in the day. Troy stole until he ended up in jail and after he got out, then he met Rose and had Cory. In the play, Rose is ten years younger than Troy. "Her devotion to him stems from her recognition of the possibilities of her life without him: a succession of abusive men and their babies, a life of partying and running the streets, the Church, or alones with its attendant pain and frustration". Rose is kind and as a mother, she is a caring …show more content…
person. Rose is also loving and honest and strong, and her conflicts with Troy make up part of the play Fences. It the story, Rose is very forgiving and kind to both Troy and to her son Cory. Troy treats her bad a lot of the time, but Rose ignores it and brushes it aside. She makes food for Troy and for the other guys and she takes care of them. For example, in the exposition of the story, Troy tells rose that "This is men talk, woman" (Wilson 1552), but she brushes it off and says "What I care what you all talking about?" and then she asks Bono if he wants to eat anything. Troy also says inappropriate things about Rose and to Rose, but just ignores it and tells him to quit it. Rose is also very kind to Gabriel. Gabriel is Troy's brother and he fought in the war, but got hurt and now he's messed up in the head. When he comes by the house, Rose is always very nice to him and asks him if he wants something to eat. He always brings Rose a rose. Even though Gabe is Troy's brother, Rose cares more about him than Troy does because she says things like "He ain't eating right. Miss Pearl say she can't get him to eat nothing" (Wilson 1563). This shows that Rose checks up on Gabe and that she cares about him. Also, she wants to put Gabe in the hospital where they can take care of him, but Troy says no. At the end of the story though, Troy puts Gabe in the hospital but only when he can get half of his government check, and when Rose finds out, she is mad, which shows that she cares about Gabe and thinks Troy has betrayed his brother. She says that "You did Gabe just like you did Cory. You wouldn't sign the paper for Cory . . . but you signed for Gabe. You signed that paper" (Wilson 1586). Rose is also strong because she ignores a lot of the things Troy does to her. The story says that "She recognizes Troy's spirit as a fine and illuminating one and she either ignores or forgives his faults, only some of which she recognizes" (Wilson 1552). This is true because Rose stays with Troy even though he treats her badly a lot of the time. Troy drinks every Friday and he can get really irritating. He also argues with her a lot and puts her down about things like her doing the lottery. Sometimes Rose says something back, like in the play she says "You got something to say about everything. First it's the numbers . . . then it's the way the man runs his restaurant . . . then you done got on Cory. What's it gonna be next? Take a look there and see if the weather suits you . . . or is it gonna be how you gonna put up the fence with the clothes hanging in the yard". Other than being strong, Rose is also tough because she doesn't give in to Troy when he talks about Cory playing football. She always sticks by her opinions, like in act one when she says that "Why don’t you let the boy go ahead and play football, Troy? Ain't no harm in that. He's just trying to be like you with the sports" (Wilson 1569). She even calls Troy out because he lies about a lot of stuff, like when he lies about signing the papers for Gabe. In the play Fences, Troy is cheating on Rose with a woman named Alberta.
She lives down the block and Rose doesn't know until Troy tells her after his friend Bono talks to him. When Rose finds out, she is very angry and sad and she and Troy get into a huge fight. Troy grabs her by the arm, but Rose is strong enough to tell him to let her go, and she doesn't get scared by Troy. She stands up to him when Troy tries to fight Cory too. When Alberta has the baby, she dies, and Troy goes to get the baby girl and brings her back to Rose. Rose is so kind that she takes the baby in as her own, even though it's not related to her in any way. She tells Troy that "I'll take care of your baby for you. . . 'cause . . . like you say . . . she's innocent . . . and you can't visit the sins of the father upon the child. A motherless child has got a hard time. From right now . . . this child got a mother. But you a womanless man" (Wilson 1588). This shows just how kind and strong Rose is because she takes the baby in and raises her, but she separates herself from Troy because she can now see how horrible he is. Still, when Troy dies, she arranges everything and goes to his funeral, and when Cory comes home and says that he doesn't want to go to the funeral, she makes him go. She is kind enough that she still wants Cory to show up at his dad's funeral and for Troy to have people remember
him. In the play Fences by August Wilson, Rose is a very important character. Even though the story is mainly about Troy, she is Troy's wife and without her, the story wouldn't have the conflict about Troy cheating on Rose with Alberta. Also, when Troy doesn't want Cory to play football, Rose is the one who fights for him and wants Cory to play football, so without Rose Troy wouldn't have anyone to argue with. Rose stands up for both Cory and for Gabe in the story, and she takes care of all the men in the play. Because of all this, Rose is very important to the play's plot.
The diction used in this scene shows the strength in Rose’s voice. “I’ll take care of your baby for you… cause… like you say… she’s innocent… and you can’t visit the sins of the father upon the child. A motherless child has got a hard time. From right now... this child got a mother. But you a womanless man.” This scene is very emotional and climatic. The bluntness of Rose’s words and the lack of sympathy she has for Troy shows the reader how little love Rose has left for him. The last sentence of the quote is really what leaves the reader’s jaw dropped. Wilson allows Rose to say so much with so little. In addition, her strength in this scene is very admirable. For me, I see my own mother in Rose. Most people admire their mother and see them as a mentally strong person. That being said, I am able to empathize with Rose because I am able to relate her to my own mother. I think that if my mother was in the same situation as Rose, she would have taken the baby in as her own as
“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
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.
Conflicts and tensions between family members and friends are key elements in August Wilson's play, Fences. The main character, Troy Maxon, has struggled his whole life to be a responsible person and fulfill his duties in any role that he is meant to play. In turn, however, he has created conflict through his forbidding manner. The author illustrates how the effects of Troy's stern upbringing cause him to pass along a legacy of bitterness and anger which creates tension and conflict in his relationships with his family.
Troy was secretly having an extramarital affair with a woman named Alberta. Troy’s friends all knew the truth, but Troy continually denied any involvement with Alberta. Troy’s best friend, Bono, however, managed to convince Troy what he was wrong for continuing the affair. Troy then came clean to Rose, telling her he was going to be the father of a child Alberta was pregnant with. Rose became heartbroken. She told Troy, “I been standing with you! I been right here with you, Troy. I got a life too. I gave eighteen years of my life to stand in the same spot as you. Don’t you think I ever wanted other things? Don’t you think I had dreams and hopes?” (1606). Rose had given up her entire life to be with Troy. However, Troy never once apologized. Troy continually defended himself, and he went as far as to justify himself. Troy claimed Alberta was an escape for Troy. Troy stated, “It’s just… She gives me a different idea… a different understanding about myself. I can step out of this house and get away from the pressures and problems” (1605). Rose was hurt, however, and Troy never apologized nor stopped seeing Alberta. He continued to live in an illusion that he could keep both his family and his secret life separate. However, Alberta later died in childbirth. Her daughter, Raynell, was to be raised by Troy and Rose. Troy effectively destroyed his marriage because of his excessive pride. He refused to believe he was in the
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...
The role of a father could be a difficult task when raising a son. The ideal relationship between father and son perhaps may be; the father sets the rules and the son obeys them respectfully. However it is quite difficult to balance a healthy relationship between father and son, because of what a father expects from his son. For instance in the narratives, “Death of a Salesman,” and “Fences” both Willy and Troy are fathers who have a difficult time in earning respect from their sons, and being a role model for them. Between, “Death of a Salesman,” and “Fences,” both protagonists, Willy and Troy both depict the role of a father in distinctive ways; however, in their struggle, Willy is the more sympathetic of the two.
The theme is gender roles in the 1950s in Fences by August Wilson. Gender roles are social and cultural standards that determine how males and female should think, speak, dress, and interact in the society. To know if a play is accurate or not we need to look up its historical context or background, research the author in order to know if he or she is speaking from experience, and analyze a character to show how well we understand what went on in the play. Understanding the historical context gives us better insight into the background. In this play fences are a metaphor that represents keeping people in figuratively for Rose by being motherly and sympathetic, and keeping people out for Troy
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.
Throughout the play, readers see an incomplete fence which symbolizes Rose (Troy’s wife) and Troy’s drifting relationship. Rose wants Troy and Cory to build a fence to keep her loved ones protected. This is evident when Rose is seen singing the church hymn, “Jesus, be a fence all around me every day. Jesus, I want you to protect me as I travel on my way” (I. ii). This insinuates the fact that Rose wants to keep her family close. Rose and Troy’s relationship seemed to be breaking down after eighteen years and the fence may have also been a way to keep Troy in Rose’s life. Yet, Troy has been in no rush to finish the fence. He sees it as some sort of confinement. Fences contain a lot of barriers that Troy tries to keep down; one barrier being his marriage. Troy claims that he has so much love for Rose, but readers see that exclusive relationships makes him feel caged in. He keeps the fence unfinished because he knows that if he finishes it than it will symbolize the end of his escape to his mistress, Alberta. Troy’s affair builds a fence that separates his marriage causing his actions to affect Rose by caging her in with a daughter that is not hers: “From right now . . . this child got a mother. But you a womanless man.” Rose tried to use a fence of divine power to keep her family protected. Troy neglected this by committing adultery, leavi...
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.
life in the mid to late twentieth century and the strains of society on African Americans. Set in a small neighborhood of a big city, this play holds much conflict between a father, Troy Maxson, and his two sons, Lyons and Cory. By analyzing the sources of this conflict, one can better appreciate and understand the way the conflict contributes to the meaning of the work.
August Wilson wrote the play “Fences” based on his view of what African American family had to endure during the civil right era. In the play “Fences,” August Wilson employs setting, characterization and conflict to reveal theme in the play that determination can overcome the most horrible situation.
August Wilson’s Fences was centered on the life of Troy Maxson, an African American man full of bitterness towards the world because of the cards he was dealt in life amidst the 1950’s. In the play Troy was raised by an unloving and abusive father, when he wanted to become a Major League Baseball player he was rejected because of his race. Troy even served time in prison because he was impoverished and needed money so he robbed a bank and ended up killing a man. Troy’s life was anything but easy. In the play Troy and his son Cory were told to build a fence around their home by Rose. It is common knowledge that fences are used in one of two ways: to keep things outside or to keep things inside. In the same way that fences are used to keep things inside or outside Troy used the fence he was building to keep out death, his family, and his disappointments in life while Rose used the fence to keep those she cared about inside and help them bond.
August Wilson created many themes throughout his famous play, Fences, but the most prominent one is the relationship between fathers and sons. The three father-son relationships introduced in this play seem to be complicated or difficult to understand. However, it is clear that the relationships built between Troy Maxson and his son Cory, Troy and his other son Lyons, and Troy and his own father are not love-driven. The parallelism of actions, events, and tension amongst each of the father-son relationships in the play illustrate how the sons try to break free from the constraints the father has set, yet in the end, these attempts seem to be pointless as the father leaves an everlasting effect on the sons, ultimately creating a cycle of actions