August Wilson’s Fences, written in 1985, follows Troy Maxson, in segregated Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during the 1950s. Fences is the third play in Wilson’s “Pittsburgh Cycle” which aims to tell authentic stories of Black Americans that are both relatable and educational. This cycle began in the 1900s and ended in the 1990s. Fences fell in the 1950s and tells a story related to the barriers or fences most Black Americans came up against at this time due solely to their Blackness. August Wilson, being a Black man himself, had grown up in the segregated Pittsburgh area during the fifties and experienced or at least witnessed much of what he discusses in this play. In this essay, Freytag's Pyramid and diverse sources from authors like Sandra G. …show more content…
(1.4.236-248) The similarities between these two moments are a clear example of the damage generational curses caused in Black American families during this time. Both fathers had focused on putting fear into their family's hearts in exchange for respect, rather than supporting their families in the ways they needed. Troy and his father both created internal barriers that pushed their families even further away from living the American dream. Wilson’s decision to write that Troy did not use the bat on Cory suggests that Troy, at that moment, realized he had become very similar to his father, the man who, for the first half of his life, had held him back. This moment feels like an attempt at breaking a generational curse, but by the end of this moment, Cory and Troy’s relationship has officially boiled over and there will be no chance for recovery. This scene showcases the fact that for most Black Americans, once they had gotten to the root of generational curses, it was too late to fix the issues that arose because of it. As a result of Troy's actions, he loses his sons, his wife, his brother, his “mistress”, and eventually his …show more content…
The death of Troy serves as Wilson’s falling action, which is, in the case of Fences, where things continue to devolve for the protagonist. Troy’s death ends up bringing his entire family, including his daughter, together in Act Two Scene Five. In this scene, relationships are both created and renewed. It is the day of Troy’s funeral in act two, scene five. Cory and Gabe, the people Troy had pushed away, have both come home, and Lyons, Rose, and Troy’s young daughter Raynell are already there. Cory attempts to tell Rose he will not be attending the funeral but then the two talk and it ends differently than Cory intended: CORY. Mama. I don’t know how to tell you this. I’m not going to Papa’s funeral. ROSE. Boy, hush your mouth.I raised you to come to this? You standing here all healthy and grown talking about you ain’t going to your daddy’s funeral? I don’t want to hear it Cory. You just get that thought out of your head. CORY. I can’t keep carrying Papa with me everywhere I
“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
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.
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.
In a simple fictional world, characters are either good or bad, heroes or villains. The heroes almost always win and defeat the villains. In August Wilson’s Fences, Troy Maxson is more complex than that. He has both good and bad qualities. He is both a hero and a villain. Because of this, Troy can be considered an antihero.
In a country born from rebellion and proven on the racial genocide that is the American Civil War, it is no mystery as to why cross-cultural conflict remains a festering wound for the people of America. As a major topic of discussion, many books, plays, and even movies are produced, focusing on the hate and prejudice experienced by minorities. This conflict occurs and perpetuates itself between two groups with different cultural ideals. The play Fences written by August Wilson focuses on a brief period in the life of the Maxson family that stresses the racial inequality they experience in the town of Pittsburgh. Likewise, Walter Mosley writes his crime novel Devil in a Blue Dress from
Losing the respect and company of people was one of the few things that caused him to feel some form of remorse for what he did to Rose. However, Troy did nothing to fix the problems he created, except to drink and pretend he was still respected. It becomes especially clear that nobody respects Troy when Cory blatantly says “I ain’t got to say excuse me to you. You don’t count around here no more” (II iv, 85). Although nobody else says it as obviously as Cory, most characters realize Troy’s failure. Even though he may have provided for his family in the physical sense, Troy neglected them a great deal emotionally. This once again proves that Troy is unsuitable to be a proper father for Cory and a respectable husband for
One of the differences that complicate their relationship is that they have grown up in completely different time periods. A great deal has happened between the times when Troy was growing to the time period that Cory is growing up in. This issue itself causes many other concerns. For instance, Cory is a very talented athlete. He would like to play football in college and would probably receive a scholarship for it. However, Troy does not want Cory to play football, because he himself was once let down by a sports experience. Troy use to be the baseball star for the "Negro Leagues." However, his athletic ability was no longer superior when the Major Leagues started accepting blacks. As a result of this, Troy tells Cory that he does not want him to pla...
Even though Troy does not physically abuse his children like his father did to him, he verbally abuses them. He treats Cory very callously and unjustly. In a way, Troy is taking out his frustrations of having an unsuccessful baseball career by not allowing Cory to pursue his dream to play football. Troy crushed Cory’s dream. In Act One, scene four, Cory expresses his misery. “Why you wanna do that to me? That w...
Should a neglected, discriminated, and misplaced black man living in the mid 1900s possessing a spectacular, yet unfulfilled talent for baseball be satisfied or miserable? The play Fences, written by August Wilson, answers this question by depicting the challenging journey of the main character, Troy Maxon. Troy, an exceptional baseball player during his youth, cannot break the color barrier and is kept from playing in the big leagues. That being his major life setback, Troy has a pessimistic view on the world. His attitude is unpleasant, but not without justification. Troy has a right to be angry, but to whom he takes out 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 displeasures. 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 in 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.
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.
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 shaped 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.
Racism is everywhere; it is all around us and at most times it resides within us. Racism basically refers to the characterization of people (ethnicity based) with certain distinct traits. It is a tool with which people use to distinguish themselves between each other, where some use it to purposely inflict verbal, physical or mental attacks on others while some use it to simply distinguish or differentiate from one another. It all depends on the context in which it is used. The play Fences by August Wilson, takes place during the late 1950’s through to 1965, a period of time when the fights against segregation are barely blossoming results. The main protagonist, Troy Maxson is an African American who works in the sanitation department; he is also a responsible man whose thwarted dreams make him prone to believing in self-created illusions. Wilson's most apparent intention in the play ‘Fences’, is to show how racial segregation creates social and economic gaps between African Americans and whites. Racism play a very influential role in Troy’s but more importantly it has been the force behind his actions that has seen him make biased and judgmental decisions for himself and his family. Lessons from the play intend to shed light on how racism can affect the mental and physical lives of Troy Maxson and his family.
"Sometimes I wish I hadn't known my daddy. He ain't cared nothing about no kids.” (50). Troy and Cory have a misunderstanding on what to do for Cory’s next step in his life for college. Troy wants Cory to stop playing football so he can just have the job and be at school. Troy does not want Cory to have any other distraction from the two. Cory is being recruited by a college, everyone in the house is happy for him except his father. The relationship between Troy and Cory is bitter and stressed mostly because Troy is trying to treat Cory the same way he was treated by white people in sports and how he was treated by his father. Troy feels that Cory is disobeying his rules or what he tells him not to do which is to stop playing football. Which counted as strike one. Strikes were warning of disobeying rules told by Troy. If someone gets three strikes from Troy, they will be removed from the house. Life for Troy as a kid was a struggle, living on a farm with ten siblings and a father who barely cares for his kids. His father just wanted his kids to learn how to walk so they can get the working and help around the farmhouse. Before Troy even thinks about leaving his home as a fourteen-year-old, his mother already left because she did not feel comfortable around Troy’s father “evilness”. So, once she left that influence Troy to think about leaving his home which he did because his father kicked him out the
Later Troy and Cory get into a big argument in the front yard and Troy kicks Cory out of the house and looses his son’s respect. In the last scene Troy dies and is sent to heaven with Gabriel’s trumpet, he is forgiven and is redeemed as a flawed hero. In August Wilson’s “Fences” Troy is viewed as a tragic hero, to be a tragic hero one must have dignity, something to fight for, and a downfall, Troy is the perfect example of a tragic hero because he possess all three of these qualities.
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