The idea of the fence has a number of symbolic meanings in the play. You have Troy’s baseball, Raynell garden, and the fence. This play focuses on the symbol of a fence which helps readers receive a better understanding of these events. “Fences” symbolizes a great struggle between the literal and figurative definitions of humanity and blackness. Of course, this fence is much more than just a fence – it's a complex symbol that pretty much sums up the whole play.…
The play Fences by August Wilson revolves around the front yard of the main characters Troy and Rose Maxson between the years 1957 and 1965. Rose is a long, responsible mother, wife, and friend who tends to show forgiving and selfless character traits. Many of her words and actions also show that she is a strong and assertive yet tender woman. Her husband Troy, on the other hand, is pretty much her opposite. Troy’s character is very dominant. He is and imaginative and boastful person who mostly comes off as selfish and bitter. Within the eight years, which the play takes place, Rose and Troy find themselves in a tragedy. Troy’s character changes between Act I and Act II, however, both his and Rose’s character are responsible for the tragedy.…
August Wilson’s famous play “Fences” is a drama set in the 1950’s. Being a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for the best play of the year, this play has had many positive responses to blacks and whites in this society. It is about protagonist Troy Maxson as well as his african american family that is filled with drama and excitement. In Wilson’s Fences by Joseph Wessling he expresses, “Fences is about the always imperfect quest for true manhood. Troy’s father was less of a “true” man than Troy, but he was a hard worker and a provider. Troy, even as a runaway, carried with him his father’s virtues along with a considerable lessening of the father’s harshness and promiscuity”(5). In this essay you will learn about the characters, the author’s background, the meaning of the play’s title, Fences, and the conflicts between the relationships in the family and life.…
“ Nigger as long as you in my house, you put that sir on the end of it when you talk to me”. Troy Maxson, the Protagonist of Fences, quotes. Troy Maxson is a 53 year old man who is a father and husband. He has led a hard life from being abused by his father to going to jail for fifteen years due to robbery and murder. While in jail, he became a sharp baseball player. He is determined to protect his son Cory from the disappointments and opportunities loss because of the color of his skin. Troy lives in the past and fails to recognize that the world has changed. Troy father was controlling and bitter so he feels as though he must act the same way towards Cory. Troy tries to escape his responsibility of taking care of home, his wife and son by having an affair with Alberta and getting her pregnant. Troy keeps most of his emotions bottled up inside, building imaginary fences between friends, family and even himself.…
Troy from Fences is very outspoken, opinionated, and proud. Troy’s characteristic as to being proud and accepting towards his economic status is one major difference between Richard and himself. Troy and Richard both are low income and struggle to get ahead. While this is a similarity between them the way they handle these situations is where they differentiate. Troy uses his deprivation of things to push him to obtain more and progress. The readers sees this when Troy says’ “Right now, as soon as I get two hundred and sixty four dollars, I’m gonna have this roof tarred.”( Wilson 33) Troy shows no hesitation to provide the fact that his roof is leaking and no shame in providing the fact that he can't afford to pay it at the time. On the other hand…
In “The Great Gatsby” by Scott Fitzgerald, Myrtle Wilson plays a role in not only her own death, but also the tragic demise of J. Gatsby. In chapter 2 she is described as “in her middle thirties and faintly stout” (29). Myrtle Wilson is the wife of degenerate garage owner George Wilson. She expresses her feelings for her decision on marrying George as “The only crazy I was was when I married him. I knew right away I made a mistake” (34-35). As a result, she bemoaned being married to her husband. She “thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe” (34), feeling as if her husband George wasn’t good enough for her. By her words, she displays her true feelings for her husband. This showed the character is selfish…
When navigating between one’s own mental security and one’s familial pressures, sacrificing often becomes a disheartening reality. In August Wilson’s Fences, a play revolving around an African-American family living in the 1950s, the balance between sacrifice and personal well-being becomes a challenge in the marriage between Troy and Rose Maxon. Troy Maxon, a former baseball player, has devoted himself to taking care of his family for eighteen years, but he finds himself giving that up in order to regain his happiness. Rose, Troy’s wife, has willingly given up her dreams to build her family and believes that Troy should have the same devotion when it comes to being there for his family. While Rose prioritizes sacrificing for her family over…
Troy is one of the main character in the play Fences by August Wilson. He is the provider for the family, a fatherly figure, a husband, and a hard worker among other things. However he is also a cheat, a womanizer, a strict man, an unloving father and an unreasonable man. The question is despite the characters pros and cons, how is he a hero, especially a tragic one. The play is sad in a sense that there is a sad past, sad present and perhaps a sad future. Troy was unable to play for major leagues because at first he was not allowed to play because of his color and then his age became an issue. Troy’s inability to play baseball because his lifelong regret which he imposed on his son Cory and did not allow him to play college football. He was harsh on his son, however he had good intentions. Troy had a loving wife and he loved her but then again he cheated on her with is affair with Alberta. Troy plays an unsympathetic role for much of the play because of the emotional boundary he builds to keep his family from interacting with his softer side, and we see this as the metaphoric sense, The Fence. We can see this when Cory asks Troy “why don’t you like me?” and Troy’s response is rather unorthodox because instead of reassuring his son, he informs Cory, that he is just doing what a father is supposed to do. That Troy is just fulfilling his duties as a parent and nothing more. Troy is a prime example of a tragic hero. He starts the play where is he is admired and loved and he successfully gets away with his secret affair, however eventually, Troy dies and leaves many negative attributes which in return are inherited by his family. So the question remains, is Troy really a hero after all?…
Fences by August Wilson is a dramatic and powerful play about Troy Maxson, a hard, gruff man, who has had to learn to survive in a world he does not understand. Growing up, Troy had an awful example of a father. He ran away from home at the age of fourteen, and had to find a way to live even though he had nothing. Now a father himself, Troy finds himself becoming as angry and hard as his father, although he has only ever tried to be a responsible man. Lyons, Troy’s oldest son from his first marriage, is the opposite of Troy. A struggling musician, Lyons’ fatherless childhood condemned him to be an irresponsible dreamer who believes in a future of liberation.…
The character I chose to render a costume design for is Troy Maxson from the play Fences by August Wilson. Troy is the family’s main source of income and his character is a very strong willed and stubborn 53-year-old man. Troy relentlessly told his son, Cory, multiple times that his football recruitment was a waste of time and that he should get “…recruited in how to fix cars or something where he can make a living” (8; ch.1, sec.1). Therefore, from Troy’s actions, I knew that his costume should entail a sense of seriousness such as nothing brightly colored or crazy patterned clothing. Another area in the script that influences my costume choices was the setting of the play. The play was set on a dirty entrance of an old brick building house…
In fences, there’s the strength in that his choice for setting was simplistic yet powerful. It’s all recorded in one scene: the yard of the main character. This gives the play a powerful aspect as it allows the audience to concentrate on the sentimental issues in the relationship of a father and his son. The nature of the setting allows the audience to appreciate and relate the emotional experience of the main character Troy. The play is very educational as the playwright informs the audience at the onset of the play about the experience of African Americans at that time. He says that they sold the work of their hands, they did people’s laundry and cleaned homes, and they were quietly desperate and outwardly proud. He continues to say that the African-Americans sometimes stole asnd that they too chased a…
Fences is a "tragedy of the common man” who challenges the affront to his dignity. Troy Maxson’s downfall was caused by his response to the challenge that racism posed to his personal dignity. Although Troy was able to knock a baseball out of the park like it was nothing, he constantly "missed the mark" in his personal life. Troy had a tragic flaw, which was that he did whatever he thought was right without thinking of the consequences. In an attempt to respond to the indignities he suffers, he distorts history, denies facts, and lies. The circumstances that shaped Troy to the character he is, led to the development of a begrudging mentality. As Troy did not amount to much, he did not want others to surpass him and diminish his self-reputation. In addition, although prison has a negative connotation, it was a positive turning point for Troy. Also, it can be inferred Troy suffered from athazagoraphobia. Racism played a key role in Troy’s refusal to accept his circumstances.…
Societal prejudice affects individual's ability to be happy which can be seen in August Wilson's play "Fences." For Bono, the societal prejudices he faces are racism, poverty, and prejudice against convicted felons. These prejudices affect his happiness because they influence the opportunities that Bono has to be financially stable.…
When you read a book with a tragic end you think it ends with a sad ending right? Well that’s not quite right. Even though books and movies may end in tragedy it still has a happy ending to it. The book Fences is a prim example of how tragic ends in a happy ending. Rose in this case has moral reconciliation. She learns how to move on, forgive and see things different.…
Another scene where race was clearly a factor was when Troy described that in some public places blacks were mistreated, unlike whites, “A Negro goes in there and can't get no kind of service. I see a white fellow come in there and order a bowl of stew. The black Priest picked all the meat out the pot for him. Man ain’t had nothing but a bowl of meat.” This statement shows that even the Priest, who is black treats whites better than blacks. Racism was so strong back in the 1950’s that not only white where treating blacks wrongly, but also blacks themselves where discriminating against each other. The reason why blacks discriminated on blacks was to be accepted by the white community and have more opportunities when it comes to getting jobs. In addition, the quote from Fences demonstrated the poor treatment that blacks received in…