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Play Overview: Fences By August Wilson

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Overview: Fences is a play written in 1983 by August Wilson. The play follows Troy Maxson, a garbage worker, and his family in Pittsburgh during the 1950’s. This play focuses on the conflict between Troy and his son Cory due to their contrasting perspectives of success and their idea of the opportunities available to African Americans during this time.

Structure: The play Fences is split into two acts composed of individual scenes occurring chronologically, with a time jump occurring as the play moves past the 1950’s to the year 1965 between the final two scenes.

Character List:
Troy Maxson: Troy is a fifty-three year-old, African American man who works for the sanitation department, lifting garbage into trucks. Troy used to be a successful baseball player in the Negro Leagues before he was declined acceptance into the major leagues …show more content…

Cory Maxson: The son of Troy and Rose, Cory is a high school senior who gets good grades and is on his high school football team. Cory is being scouted by colleges to play football in college, however Troy discourages him from following this path.
Jim Bono: Jim Bono is Troy’s best friend of over thirty years, after they met in prison playing baseball who looks up to Troy as a role model.
Lyons Maxson: Lyons is Troy’s eldest son and is from his previous marriage and is a musician who frequently returns to visit Troy, often to borrow or pay money back to Troy.
Gabe Maxson: Gabe is Troy’s brother who is a WWII veteran and received financial compensation for a traumatic head injury he received during the war. Using this financial compensation Troy bought the house he currently lives in with Rose and Cory. Due to this injury, which required Gabe to get a metal plate inserted into his head he believes he is Saint Gabriel, a biblical figure who blows his trumpet to indicate when a person should be admitted into

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The outside of the fence represents a blur where strangers live and where problems for the family emerge, like the act of the infidelity that Troy committed. Trying to fulfill the American Dream, Troy builds a white picket fence around his house. Ultimately, he dies within the barrier, one in which death was not welcomed. 2.) The play “Fences” unfolds distinctive features that makes the play about African-American.

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