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Fences essay on the characters
Fences theme and characters essay
Fences essay on the characters
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Sacrifice is an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy. Remarkably, this is especially true in Fences, where the wife sacrifices her wish for the sake of her family. Rose, the wife, wished to not have any step children in her family, although her husband, Troy, had another lady whom he was seeking a child with. After the death of the lady her husband had been secretly seeing, Rose had to make a decision to take the mother’s place in the child’s live despite her wishes. Ultimately, Rose put her family's needs before her own showing that her family is more important to her than herself. She sacrifices her wish to not have any stepchildren, for the sake of her own family. Rose’s loyalty to her family showed a load amount of strength in character. Even though she was not the mother of the child, who would eventually be named Raynell, she still stepped up to the task, even if it was against what she wanted in life. In the play Fences it states, “Okay Troy.. you’re right. I’ll take care of your baby for …show more content…
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.” Despite her not wanting to raise the baby in the first place, she did it for the child and for the well-being of her family. Loyal and devoted are are two of the most righteousness aspects to Rose.
She must stay loyal to her family, even though her family hasn't been loyal to her. She must remain devoted, or loving, to the child, although the fact it is not her own flesh nor blood. In the plays Act 2, Scene 5, Raynell is running around calling Rose “Mama” which the audience can infer she doesn’t know about the death of her mother, due to her young age. The play states, “Mama, can't I wear these? Them other ones hurt my feet.” This was said after Rose told Raynell to put on another pear of sneakers, followed by telling Raynell not to talkback. This shows Rose being both loyal and devoted. She remains loyal to Raynell, treating her as her own, while staying devoted and loving her at the same time. Rose puts the responsibility to her family before her wishes, which shows her loyalty and devotedness, even though it had its
expense.
Rose of Sharon incessantly asks Ma Joad if “it’ll hurt the baby” throughout a majority of the novel, and adopts an attitude of superiority over others with her precious possession. She all but refuses to help the family pack the truck for California for fear of disturbing her fetus, even though she knows her help is needed. Her selfish antics and complaints are patiently absorbed by Ma, who tolerates her primarily because of her condition. Rose of Sharon knows that she is now an exception to the normal rules and exploits her position to its fullest potential.
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
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
Next, consider the text trying to express her frustration with life: “She wants to live for once. But doesn’t quite know what that means. Wonders if she has ever done it. If she ever will.” (1130) You can sense her need and wanting to be independent of everything and everyone, to be truly a woman on her own free of any shackles of burden that this life has thrown upon her. Also, there is an impression that her family does not really care that she is leaving from her sisters to her disinterested father. “Roselily”, the name is quite perplexing considering a rose stands for passion, love, life; while the lily has associations with death, and purity. Still at the same time the name aptly applies to her because the reader knows she is ultimately doomed to wilt away in a loveless marriage in Chicago. Even though she is convincing herself that she loves things about him it is all just a ploy to trick herself into believing that this marriage could be the answer to all her problems. Now on to the men of Roselily’s past most of which are dead- beat dads that could not care about what happens to their children, or where they go.
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.
As the ceremony goes on it seems like her whole life must be flashing before her eyes. She starts to think about a fourth son that she had, but that she let the father keep him since he was pretty well off money and education wise. She goes on to say he couldn’t live with “Roselily”, which brought me to the conclusion that maybe her name is Roselily. Which of course brings light to the picture because everything her name stood for she wasn’t, except for the fact that she was trying to be righteous in getting married and making a new life for her other three children.
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 a situation is resolved is when Rose tells Troy that Alberta died having his baby, Raynell.
Throughout the novel, Charlie’s mother, Rose is portrayed as two people to him. Before Norma’s birth, Rose’s only wish is to make Charlie normal. She sends him to many doctors and tries to teach him how to act like he should. When Norma is born and Rose is sure that she is normal, she becomes abusive to Charlie and beats him if he does not act normal. Knowing that her son is abnormal, she starts reading books and magazines on the subject. She then believes that being tough on him and punishing him will help him improve and become like the others, and even better. When she gives up on trying to make him normal, she threatens to kill him if he does not get sent away. When gaining intelligence, Charlie is haunted by the memories: “It was Rose’s face that brought back the frightening memories. She was two people to me, and I never had a way of knowing which she would be” (Keyes 167). When he visits her, after being separated from his family for a long time, she is a different person. Charlie talks to Rose and tries to make her understand that he was the subject of an operation that made him intelligent. By saying this, Charlie wants her to be proud of him; however, she does not understand that. When Norma comes home, she is relieved and happy that her brother is back. She spends time talking to Charlie and catching up on the years they’ve
Fences is a play that was written by August Wilson, it follows the life of Tony Maxson, a garbage man, who throughout the play is building a fence around his home. The title, Fences, has more significance than one may have thought at first glance. The title is very symbolic in the perspective of almost every character in the play. Within Act 2, Scene 1 of the play, when discussing the reason as to why Rose wanted the fence up, with Cory and Troy, Bono says “Some people build fences to keep people out… and other people build fences to keep people in. Rose wants to hold on to you all. She loves you.”. In the perspective of Rose, she wants to keep people in and with Troy it is the complete opposite.
The situation is mostly a blur to Rose but when she tries to recollect what happens she is hurt. Her sadness is known when she writes, "I wanted Frankie Foyle to kiss me too and didn't want to miss my turn. But Frankie didn't kiss me. My turn never came (154)". Frankie's actions or lack thereof require Rose to fight that little voice in her mind that constantly compares her to Ruby. Additionally, his actions force her to not only deal with the repercussions of what happened that day but find acceptance in her condition and persevere through what she desires. Similarly, I have often compared myself to my step-sister who is the same age as me. Although we both have our strengths and weaknesses, she is more popular, prettier and overall, a better person. Growing up, I wanted to be exactly like her but as I got older, I realized it was more important to create my own image for myself. In this way, I believe Rose and I are different. I don’t think that Rose has reached the point where you realize your own self-image should come before some else's. Her likeliness to judge herself off of Ruby’s experiences and actions, prove that she has a long way to come in regards to
Instead, she chooses to accept decisions others make for her, which encompasses her with no control over the life around her. An instance where this takes place is when Rose reveals to her mother that she is separating from her husband Ted, and explains to An-mei “don’t tell me to save my marriage anymore. It’s hard enough as it is”, to which she retorts “I am not telling you to save your marriage, I only say you should speak up”. (193) Moments such as these can also be depicted in a previous instance with An-mei, where Rose mentions that “[she] used to believe everything [her] mother said, even if she didn’t know what she meant” (185). Through these passages, it is apparent that Rose lacks wood, one out of five Chinese elements, and therefore making decisions for herself makes her confused. As she listens to too many people but is unable to take her mother’s advice, she steers clear of making her own decisions which ultimately build up to her marriage with Ted to crumble. Since Rose was a child, An-mei pushed strongly for Rose to try and fight her divorce with Ted and take control of the situation, however, Rose allows her marriage to end and does not take her advice into consideration. As Rose allows others to make choices on her behalf, she becomes passive to those around her, specifically to her mother An-mei. Rose’s passivity conclusively contributes to their unhealthy relationships as Rose does not learn how to stand up for herself and is unable to pick up on her mother’s assertive qualities. From both of these traits, it causes this dynamic to suffer as the passivity of Rose and secrecy of An-mei conflict, as Rose does not see the importance of listening to her mother as she is unaware of where those traits come
...hand Rose wanted the fence built in order to keep the people she loved and cared about in it. These two different perspectives served to symbolize the difference between Troy and Rose in the story. At the end of the play you see Rose’s fence brings her family back together, showing that if you plants a seed, the idea of building the fence, and take care of it, building the fence, in time it will bear the fruit of your work and love, the family coming together.
This is the reason why Troy fights against his family and himself, because he feels like he is the only one who can protect them. To Cory and Rose, Troy is destroying the family because of his stubborn thoughts but to Troy he is saving the family from falling apart and this distrust causes the family to eventually fall apart. Troy really does try his hardest to be a good father and is bothered by the fact that Rose and Cory do not see it as him trying to protect them but more of him destroying the family. This hurts Troy because his family is his everything they are what he “fights” for he works day end and day out to put food on the table and try to give them a life he thinks the deserve. August Wilson in “fences” Troy says, “ I love this woman, so much it hurts. I love her so much… I done run out of ways to love her.”(1.1) Wilson uses to show how much Troy actually cares for his wife, to Troy Rose is his everything, she is the light in his darkness, she try’s to guide him back to a sane man. Another Way Wilson shows how much Troy loves his family is when Troy is talking to his family and says that “ You all line up at the door, with your hands out. I give you the lint from my pockets. I give you my sweat and my blood…”(1.3) Troy is saying that he will give them everything until he has absolutely nothing but the lint from his pockets. He will go out of his way to make
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
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...