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August Wilson Fences Literary Analysis

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August Wilson's play Fences addresses a great content of interpreting and inheriting history. Throughout Fences, much of the conflict emerge because the characters are at disparity with the way they see their foregoing and what they want to do with their forthcoming. Fences explores how the damaged aspirations of one generation can taint the dreams of the next generation on how they deal with the creation of their own identity when their role model is a full of dishonesty. Wilson illustrates his qualities primarily through his use of symbolism in the play Fences. In the play Fences by August Wilson, there are numerous symbols including baseball, Gabriel's trumpet, Raynell's garden, and countless others. One of the key textual symbols in the …show more content…

He persistently criticizes and neglects his two sons, which thus draws them away from him.Troy pushes Lyons away by refusing to hear him play his "Chinese music". He also scars hisrelationship with his other son, Cory, by preventing him from playing football and rejecting his onlychance to get recruited by a college football team. Also, Troy states that Cory's things will "be on theother side of that fence" when he kicks Cory to the street. Through this scene Troyacknowledges the fence as an actual, physical divide between him and his son. It additionallyconveys the emotional barrier that Troy puts between them. Furthermore, Troy ruins his marriageby cheating on his wife, Rose, by having an affair with another woman named Alberta. Howeverunlike Rose, who strives to build a fence around her family, Troy attempts to evade capture in thefence. He doesn't have the capacity to understand that Rose wants to keep the family close becausehe never truly had a close family. As a result, Troy ends up driving everybody away just like hisfather. He becomes a "woman less man". In addition, the fence appears to symbolize thedifference in personalities of Troy and Rose. It takes Bono to make Troy realize that "Rose wants tohold on to [him]", for Rose gives everything she has to Troy, including her entire life andlove. Yet, in contrast, Troy's in no rush to build any type of fence. He …show more content…

Eventually, Troy's association of the Devil as a omen of death comes to speak for his struggle to survive the course of his life. Many epilogue in the play end with Troy speaking a monologue to Death and the Devil. In Act One, Scene One, Troy spins a long yarn, or tale about his fight for several days with the Devil. The story of the Devil endears Troy to audiences early on by revealing his capability to imagine and believe in the absurd. In another story, Troy turns a white salesman into a Devil. Troy calls a man the Devil who tried to sell Troy furniture in exchange for monthly payments by mail. Again, providing the logical version of the story, Rose explains why Troy invents stories about the Devil. "Anything you don't understand, you call the Devil." Troy examines door-to-door salesmen and the process of layaway for the first time and in his dumbness, turns a present-day instance into a fabled

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353 Words | 2 Pages

August Wilson’s play Fences was written in 1983. Fences is the sixth play in Wilson’s Pittsburgh cycle. Pittsburgh is important because it represents a better life for blacks; it provides them with jobs and helped them to escape the poverty and racism of the south after the civil war. It represents promises and promises that were broken. I feel like Fences represents the struggles Troy and his family faced because of their complexion and their constant disappointments as black people.

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670 Words | 3 Pages

In the book, Fences, Troy is a Despicable man. You can see it when coming across people he doesn't really agree with or like discussing with. When it came to the time where that person would make him a little angry he would burst out and also become a different person. But thinking about it and looking back to history, he really didn't get raised with proper love from his family. He didn't really have people show him real or anytime of love from especially from his father.

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811 Words | 4 Pages

The Faults of Troy Maxson August Wilson brings out the struggle of Troy Maxson in his play, Fences. All that matter to him end up feeling this struggle, for it remains constantly inside of him. Ultimately it proves to overcome Troy and make many lose the respect and love that was once felt. Troy’s actions and failure to fix them makes his true character known. By giving way to his own desires, becoming a continuation of his father and failing those he loves Troy Maxson proves to be a man flawed at his core.

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766 Words | 4 Pages

The title of the play, “Fences" , symbolizes the function of a fence literally, which is to keep people in and out. Troy & Cory are in the same bubble, because they are father and son. This bubble is guarded by a fence. In that bubble, they experience things together, including the conflicts they have about Cory wanting to play football. Cory understands in order for him to be able to move on with his life, he needs to come at peace with the resentment and anger he has towards his father.

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524 Words | 3 Pages

The hardships that people face, coming from racial and gender injustice, can sometimes affect not just those directly concerned, but their families as well. These injustices, such as the treatment to Troy in Fences during his younger years, change the ways he acts to his sons and the rest of the characters and is the source of much of the conflict they face. Many of the conflicts in the play arise because the characters disagree with the way they see the past and what they want to do in their respective futures. For example, Troy and Cory see Cory's future differently because of the ways they have been treated in their pasts.

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1222 Words | 5 Pages

Troy chose to escape his reality by having an affair that gives him some laughs and good time every now and then. However, despite the flaws in Troy’s character, he was a providing family man who wants to insure a better life of his sons than the one he had. Based on the play’s time period, which took place at the 50’s, apparently the main problem of Troy Maxson’s character was racism against African Americans at the time that had prevented him from achieving his dreams. Throughout the play, Troy expresses his dissatisfaction in several scenes with the other characters.

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1516 Words | 7 Pages

Troy’s inability to commit to building his fences despite his repetitive speaking of how he is going to finish his fence shows how his isolation from his wife stems from his inability to truly commit to his wife even though he always told her he loved her. He wanted to protect his wife from the truth that he cheated on her and has a baby on the way with her but the fence prevented true communication with his own wife. Troy's inability to see the change in civil rights during his time period because of the fence led to the isolation of his mindset towards African American rights and the straining of his relationship with his son. His struggle to be accepted into playing professional sports alongside white men lead to preventing his son from playing professional football despite the changing times in civil rights. Without isolation from change, his relationship with his son could possibly be a happy one.

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677 Words | 3 Pages

Many texts in literature are connected by similar themes. The play Fences by August Wilson and several modern poems by African American poets are connected by; sexism, sacrifice, lessons, and pride. These poems relate to the situations in Fences they have identical themes. The poem Homage To My Hips by Lucille Clifton and the topic of Alberta’s big stockings discussed by Troy and Bono in the play Fences by August Wilson are connected by the theme of sexism. The conversation between Troy and Bono points out how some men see women as sex objects.

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1249 Words | 5 Pages

A hero is a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements or noble qualities (Hero). A Villain is a person who has evil actions or motives to harm people (Villain). In my opinion, a hero is usually the person in the story that everyone likes or looks to for help and the villain is the misunderstood or worst person in a situation. As humans we can be portrayed as a hero or villain when diverse situations occur. In August Wilson’s play, “Fences” Troy Maxson’s past, present and future caused significant traits of being called a hero and a villain in segments throughout the play.

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884 Words | 4 Pages

This meant that all professional baseball teams were still not for black people from playing. In fences, the troy character is very negative just because, he suffered in his past. In Fences, August Wilson shows that troy is a villain because he is unfair to his wife, wants to control everyone, and mean with his son. In the fences, August describe how Troy is a villain because of the unfair to his wife.

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702 Words | 3 Pages

Although Troy feared and hated his father he would later realize he had traits similar to the devil himself. Troy has a job as a garbage collector and he

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985 Words | 4 Pages

The play “Fences” by August Wilson shows the dynamics in relationships and the multiple dramatic means by which they are established by using one pinnacle point. Wilson uses his main character Troy to stem of four other types of relationships. He shows the complexities of marriage and love in the relationship between Troy and Troy’s wife, Rose. He shows the commitment and betrayal of in the relationship between Troy and Troy’s

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1010 Words | 5 Pages

He has a softer tone in the dialogue with Rose which shows that he does care about Cory. He is tough on Cory because he doesn’t want his son to experience the same things as he, as a black male in the mid-century, endured. He believes that a sturdy hand will lead his son in the right direction and prepare him for a harsh world. Troy tells Rose, “He’s got to make his own way. I made mine.

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978 Words | 4 Pages

Fences is a play written by the playwright August Wilson, who dedicated himself to writing plays capturing what it was like to be an African American in the United States during every decade of the 20th century. Fences was a play that was specifically written to provide an outlook into the lives of African Americans in America during the 1950s, during the process of demarginalization. Each character of the novel provides a unique perspective to capture different aspects of the “African American Experience” during this time period. In Fences, it was very important to August Wilson to truly capture “The African American Experience” and he was able to do so through the portrayal of the Maxson family, with his representation of African Americans during the 1950s in Fences, and with the multiple perspectives of African Americans captured

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1457 Words | 6 Pages

"When the sins of our fathers visit us, we do not have to play host. We can banish them with forgiveness; As God, in His Largeness and Laws"(Wilson X).This epigraph by August Wilson provides an insight into the importance of the topic in the play Fences. In Fences, the play depicts the relationships of the Maxson family and their friends. Troy Maxson, a middle-aged African American man, is happily married to his wife Rose and takes care of his son Cory whilst occasionally interacting with his other son from a previous relationship. However, the complexities of Troy 's past create issues for him and his family and their relationships begin to deteriorate.

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