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Analysis of august wilson's fences
Analysis of august wilson's fences
Historical approach for Negro by langston Hughes
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Slavery in America began in 1607. Blacks and a small percentage of whites were owned by people whom were called masters. The majority of slaves were involved with the responsibility of field work and picked such things as cotton, sugar, crops, etc. The blacks that were not slaves had only a limited amount of rights which included their own water fountain and the backseat of the bus. Throughout the first half of the 19th century, a movement to end slavery was in progress. By 1865, President Lincoln signed The Emancipation Proclamation and the Land of the free had began. A New Song by Langston Hughes and Fences by August Wilson were both based on black characters. Both the poem and the play base their theme on their inherited history and the difference with today and back then.
A New Song by Langston Hughes is a poem that expressed black history. Condensed in a few stanzas, Hughes managed to capture the past, as well as the future, of the blacks. The poem’s begins with “I speak in a name of the black millions.” (365) It is obvious that Langston Hughes’ purpose of those words is to have the reader relate to the blacks. He wants the reader to be inside the head of a black person to reveal real thoughts and feelings. As Hughes continues, he embraces the reader with the bitterness of the narrator. “Bitter was the day when I bowed my back Beneath the slaver’s whip.” (366) This feeling of bitterness and the history of this poem relates to August Wilson’s Fences.
Fences focuses on a man named Troy who is living in his past. Troy strived during his youth to make it as a professional athlete. Even though this was years ago, Troy refuses to perceive a historical change in the acceptance of blacks, and he carries this sense of doubt with h...
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...istory. A New Song took experiences of a slave and molded it into a short poem. Fences ,explained in more modern day, was about a man who lived before and after slavery and couldn’t seem to distinguish the difference between the two. The characters in Langston Hughes’s poem revolted against whites and won their freedom. Hughes gave specific examples and used careful words to engage the reader thoroughly. August Wilson did the same in engaging his reader with a story that anyone could relate to.
Works Cited
Wilson, August. “Fences” Literature: Craft and Voice. Nicolas Delbanco and Alan Cheuse. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009.53.Print
Hughes, Langston. “A New Song” Literature: Craft and Voice. Nicolas Delbanco and Alan Cheuse. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009.53.Print
Webster's New Millennium Dictionary of English, (v 0.9.6) Copyright 2003-2006 Dictionary.com, LLC
Fences was published in 1983 but the setting was the 1950s in August Wilsons home town. Wilson’s main purpose of this play is to show how the separation of humans into racial groups can create social and finance instability and can have a huge effect on African Americans and whites. The 1950s was the middle of the civil rights era. The Maxsons Family is African American, In the 1950s there was not many jobs for African Americans; most people believed that this is what pushed Troy to steal things in order to provide for his family. Troy went to prison for murder and when he got out he was determined to do good deeds and to turn his life around; shortly after he got out of prison he got a job as a Garbage man. Troy is a tragic figure and a villain; he is a tragic figure because he made great effort to do good deeds for his family, but he allowed his imperfections to get in his way which led to a horrible death. Troy is a villain because of what he did to his wife Rose. (Shmoop; Editorial Team)
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.
Wilson, August. " Fences." Approaching Literature Reading, Thinking, Writing. 3rd Ed. Peter Schakel, Jack Ridl. Boston: Bedford St.Martin’s, 2012. 959-1018. Print.
The first time I read August Wilson's Fences for english class, I was angry. I was angry at Troy Maxson, angry at him for having an affair, angry at him for denying his son, Cory, the opportunity for a football scholarship.I kept waiting for Troy to redeem himself in the end of the play, to change his mind about Cory, or to make up with Ruth somehow. I wanted to know why, and I didn't, couldn't understand. I had no intention of writing my research paper on this play, but as the semester continued, and I immersed myself in more literature, Fences was always in the back of my mind, and, more specifically, the character of Troy Maxson. What was Wilson trying to say with this piece? The more that this play stuck in my head, the more I was impressed with Wilson as a playwright. What talent, to create such a character, to produce a work that wouldn't leave me alone, but, as time wore on, produced more and more questions.
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...
Wilson, August. Fences: A Play in Two Acts. New York, NY: New American Library, 1986.
Wilson uses the character of Troy, his family, and his friends in Fences to pour out his life, his
Fences is an American play written by August Wilson. It was based on the tough time faced by the African Americans during the time of Civil rights movement. It is the story of a character named Troy who is depicted as a baseball player who had to leave his game because of color discrimination prominent in that era. The play revolved round the family of Troy, who has to live miserably by doing a menial job of garbage collector. He lives with his wife and son and his younger brother who was an ex – soldier and received a head injury which rendered him psychologically ill. The play was written in 1983 but it was based on the happenings common in 1950s as it was the prominent time in which Civil Rights Movement was at its peak. The protagonist of the play was thus black who is just managing to meet the needs of his family. The other characters were his son from a previous marriage, a lady with whom he has an extra marital affair and his friend Bono.
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.
John Thorn, baseballs official historian, is of the opinion that baseball encompasses national models such as fair play, the rule of law, equal opportunity and brotherhood among others and a former president of Yale University, Bart Giamatti, is of the opinion that baseball is the remaining unadulterated space where an American can dream (Koprice). The mythology and history behind baseball have been used to contest the validity of the American dream. Troy is full of resentment and is of the opinion that is one is a black person, “you born with two strikes on you before you come to the plate,” (Wilson 744) while referring to the limited opportunity and persecution of the black people. The author deconstructs the meaning of baseball as a symbol of the American dream and instead uses it as a mark of defiance by the protagonist. ‘Fences’ is filled with imagery regarding baseball, which have varying symbolic meanings. Troy was denied a chance at professional baseball because he was black. The disappointment of this injustice stayed with him for many years, essentially turning him into a bitter man.
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.
The play “Fences”, written by August Wilson, shows a detailed interpretation about the life of a typical African-American family living in the twentieth century. Troy Maxson, the main character and the man of the house, a strict man with the family, hardworking, and at the same time a pleasure seeker. Jim Bono is Troy’s best friend from thirty odd years, a very friendly fellow who works with Troy and is really close to him. They both enjoy the company of each other every Friday on a bottle of an alcoholic beverage. Both characters are characterized based on being typical African American men living in the twentieth century. Even though Troy and Bono are very close friends, their actions and personalities sometimes conflict each other; this essay will focus on similarities and differences between the two characters to prove that even though they are close friends and acquire similarities, they still have different believes and behaviors.
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.
Have you ever had the opportunity to do something great but someone held you back? Also have you ever had someone that tried to control everything you do and everyone around you? If so you can relate to the book “Fences” By August Wilson. Fences is about a African American man Troy that is trying to keep food on the table for his family, and raise his kids as best as he can. Troy has a wife name Rose two sons named Cory, and Lyons and has a brother named Gabe. In Fences expect to see what seems like a happy family on the outside but in the inside everything is not as good as it seems. Masculinity/Manhood is an important theme in Fences because it shows how true takes care of his family but also shows how controlling and arrogant he can be, and it also helps show August Wilson’s way of saying a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.