Fences, a play written by August Wilson, is a dramatic master piece revealing the outrageous reality of an African American around the 1950s. Within this American play, we are confronted essentially to how happiness, love, friendship but also grief, conflict and misery can exists among a family. In fact, one could wonder, how the title of the play is actually related to all the previous themes. In August Wilson’s Fences, the significance of fences represents the importance of keeping a family together. This is shown through symbol and stage directions.
Wilson’s play demonstrates how the significance of fences represents the value of keeping a family together through its use of symbol. As a matter of fact, Rose is definitively the symbol
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that represents the fences in the play considering she is the one who always tries to hold her family tight: "TROY: I’d appreciate it if you’d help me take care of [Raynell]. ROSE: Okay, Troy…you’re right. 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. (She takes the baby from him.) From right now…this child got a mother. But you a womanless man" (2, 3). This passage makes it explicit that Rose plays the role of the protective figure in the family because she accepts to take care of Raynell even if she is not her "own flesh and blood" (2,3).
She keeps Raynell in but exclude Troy from her life because he is the reason why the family couldn’t be entirely close. Indeed, his selfish decisions build the bridge between him and his relatives. On the positive side, those decisions help some characters to bound even more. As a matter of fact, the relationship between Cory and Rose is stronger due to the similar situation they both live; trying to stand up against Troy. In fact, Cory will firmly defend his mother, when she and Troy were fighting over the Alberta incident, by pushing Troy away from her: "(CORY comes up behind TROY and grabs him. TROY, surprised, is thrown off balance just as CORY throws a glancing blow that catches him on the chest and knocks him down)" (2,1). Thus, Rose carries Raynell within the yard, where the fences surround them, but rejects Troy’s presence around her family. It is evident that this symbol illustrates the relation between the proximity of the Maxson family and the significance of the fences surrounding their yard. Hence, through the use of symbol, this play shows how the significance of fences represents the importance of preserving members of a family …show more content…
close. Wilson’s play demonstrates how the significance of fences represents the value of keeping a family together through its use of stage directions.
Every conversation, physical interaction or report of important stories between the characters happens in the yard of the Maxson family, where the fences surround them: "The setting is the yard which fronts the only entrance to the MAXSON household" (Setting). Then, it is possible to conclude from the previous passage that the family members are always interacting in the yard. There is no dialogue in the house or outside on the streets. With this in mind, the playwright wants to put the emphasis on this particular location to make the readers understand the significance of the fences around the yard. In fact, there is a general belief that the house is commonly the symbol that keeps the members of a family together. Consequently, the house is usually taking care of to make sure it is a safe place for the relatives: "An ancient two-story brick house set back off a small alley in a big-city neighborhood. The entrance to the house is gained by two or three steps leading to a wooden porch badly in need of paint" (Setting). However, in this case, it is the fences that play this gathering and protective role. This is the place where the family laugh, argue and fight together. It is evident that those stage directions illustrates how the fences are crucial for the well-being of the MAXSON family. Hence, through the use of stage
directions, this play shows how the meaning of fences represents the seriousness of keeping the members of a family proximate. In conclusion, this play demonstrates how the fences symbolize the importance of holding a family together. This is shown through Rose, being personify as the fences since she always fights to keep her family as a whole. It is also shown through the stage directions, which makes it explicit that all the interactions among the members of the family are made within the yard, where the fences circle them. Additionally, it could be interesting to seek for more information about the African American situation in the 50s and compare it to Wilson’s play in order to determine the similarities.
“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
August Wilson’s play, Fences, follows the formal conventions of its genre, which helps convey the story to the audience because he uses stage directions, theme, symbolism, and figurative language. Theme and symbolism are an important factor in the play. These two things are the main focus of the play because it gives us a message that the author wants to give us to secretly while we read. A theme that was given in Fences is that oppression does not choose to hurt people of color, but gender as well.
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.
In the play Fences, August Wilson uses symbolism throughout the story to emphasis the physical and emotional barrier between the protagonist, Troy Maxon, and everyone around him. Troy loses his career as a professional baseball player because of his race. This causes him to be a bitter man and he eventually loses his friends and family because of it. Wilson uses both literal and figurative symbolism to express the themes in this play.
We all lead lives filled with anxiety over certain issues, and with dread of the inevitable day of our death. In this play, Fences which was written by the well known playwright, August Wilson, we have the story of Troy Maxson and his family. Fences is about Troy Maxson, an aggressive man who has on going, imaginary battle with death. His life is based on supporting his family well and making sure they have the comforts that he did not have in his own childhood. Also, influenced by his own abusive childhood, he becomes an abusive father who rules his younger son, Cory?s life based on his own past experiences. When the issue comes up of Cory having a bright future ahead of him if he joins the football team, Troy refuses to allow him. The root of this decision lies in his own experience of not being allowed to join the baseball team due to the racial prejudices of his time. He does not realize that times have changed and because of his own past, he ruins his son?s life too. His wife, Rose, also plays a big part in the way the story develops. Troy has an affair with another woman called Alberta. When Rose finds out about the affair, she is devastated. In this situation we find out what her own hopes and dreams were. All she wanted was a happy home and family life because of her unstable past. The theme of this story is how a black family, in the late fifties to early sixties, faces the problems that many families are faced with, but in their own...
issues of civil rights he struggled with in his life. The ―fences‖ in the play are a representation of
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
August Wilson’s play Fences brings an introspective view of the world and of Troy Maxson’s family and friends. The title Fences displays many revelations on what the meaning and significance of the impending building of the fence in the Maxson yard represents. Wilson shows how the family and friends of Troy survive in a day to day scenario through good times and bad. Wilson utilizes his main characters as the interpreters of Fences, both literally and figuratively. Racism, confinement, and protection show what Wilson was conveying when he chose the title Fences.
Wilson does a creative job by using the fence metaphorically and literally. The fence was supposed to represent protection and family ties for the Maxson family. However, Troy’s past has left him with many scars. As he continues to make decisions for Rose and Cory, the layers of paint begin to strip away, revealing Troy’s failings to all, even to Death. After Troy’s failings become obvious to readers, the fences throughout the play begin to take form. The literal fence becomes a symbol that seals up the whole play. Readers see how if one continues to fence their loved ones out then eventually they will be left alone with their worse fear.
In the dramatic play, “Fences” written by August Wilson, where there is a lot of symbolism, intertwined throughout the play. The most symbolism is directed towards a fence that the main character, named Troy and the main character’s son, Cory, are building together as asked by Rose, the wife of Troy. Although the symbolism is directed towards the same object it's seen in different point of views. For example, in Troy’s point of view, the fence symbolizes an obstacle. In Rose’s point of view, the fence symbolizes a safety net and in Cory’s point of view, the fences symbolizes a trap. The fence is symbolized in three different point of views by Rose as a safety net, Troy as an obstacle, and Cory as a trap in many ways.
I discovered that it was easy to disappear, and that my disappearance was borne lightly by the world at large. My absence left in the fabric of the Makeshiweg Festival was filled soon enough-filled, indeed, by Tony. The show rolled on, as shows do.
Humans spend their entire lives searching for meaning beyond the surface. In August Wilson's plays, Fences and The Piano Lesson, symbolism rises through the phrases in the stories and becomes the center for which the plays revolve. The fence in Fences and the piano in The Piano Lesson both represent keeping a family together, but the neglect of those symbols also shows lack of commitment to family. Although in Fences, the fence represents keeping some people out and other people in, whereas in The Piano Lesson, the piano represents a symbol of power and triumph over hardships.
The play “Fences” was based off of a family who all built a different type of fence. Their fences were based off of their character, which was very different. Everyone has their own personal fence or wall that they have to block people out or so they won’t get hurt for any reason. Some people build fences to keep people out, while other build fences to keep people in. In the play Rose wanted her husband Tory and his son Corey to build a fence around the yard to keep people out.
August Wilson uses the symbol of a 'fence' in his play, Fences, in numerous occasions. Three of the most important occasions fences are symbolized are by protection, Rose Maxson and Troy Maxson's relationship, and Troy against Mr. Death. Throughout the play, characters create 'fences' symbolically and physically to be protected or to protect. Examples such as Rose protecting herself from Troy and Troy protecting himself form Death. This play focuses on the symbol of a fence which helps readers receive a better understanding of these events. The characters' lives mentioned change around the fence building project which serves as both a literal and a figurative symbol, representing the relationships that bond and break in the backyard.
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