Inheritance by Hannie Rayson is a play about the war between two families, the Delaneys and the Hamiltons, over property. Rayson questions the authenticity of Australian values, due to the human weaknesses the characters present in the play. The Australian values Rayson challenges in this play include a fair go for all and strong family ties.…
The first defense is the usage of the piano. In Wilson's novel, Berniece never uses the piano, Boy Willie: " You can't do nothing with that piano except sit up there and look at it", Berniece, "That's just what I'm gonna do" (p.50). The piano is a "sentimental value" (p.51) to Berniece. Her father died over the piano (p.42-46). Boy Willie argues even though the piano is of sentimental value, Berniece is not using it. He wants to sell it in order to buy land, seed, and workers, which will in turn produce a crop, and something will come out of that (p.51).…
Some things/objects are more than just that, it can have a sense of identification with it. Which is exactly what Boy 21 by Matthew Quick does. The main theme is identity, it helps you find and build your own while reading about people who are struggling to find theirs as well. Finley, a kid who traditionally keeps to himself and focuses on basketball, is asked by his coach to take an all-star basketball player obsessed with space under his wing.…
In the story A Raisin in the Sun, written by L. Hansberry, the Younger family resides in a small, beaten down home. In this family, only one member is well educated. Miss Beneatha is attending school and plans to become a doctor. Her mother, Lena, receives a life insurance check from her husband who has passed. Lena uses part of the check as a down payment on a new house for the family. She gives the rest of the check to her son, Walter, trusting him to put a portion of the money back for Beneatha’s schooling. However, Walter is irresponsible and spends the entire check on himself (Hansberry, 1959). This situation is similar to the events of the play Fences, written by A. Wilson. In this story, a little boy named Cory is also part of a poor family. Cory dreams of becoming a professional football player. However, his father believes that because he is black, he will not be successful as a professional player (Wilson, 1987). In these stories, both Beneatha and Cory have high hopes for the future and the resources to act upon them. However, after the unforeseen circumstances in each character’s situation and the attitudes of society in the time period, Cory is…
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.…
This play is about the experiences of a dying school boy, it is a celebration of life and the power to heal through gaining insight.…
August Wilson wrote the play “Jitney” about a group of African-American men working in a Jitney cab station in Pittsburg during 1977. The play explores the lives of the characters, each dealing with a different quarrel in their lives. They are all brought together by the Jitney station in which we are able to explore their characters through Wilson’s expertly written dialogue. The play explores racism, economic anxiety, gender roles amongst other things; however, one of the main concepts of the play, and the one this paper will focus on is on the patriarchal role. There is an emphasis on the dominant male figure in the play in several of the relationships. There are different types of patriarchs shown; Becker as a head of the Jitney station, Becker as Boosters father and Youngblood’s relationship with Rena portray the most apparent patriarchal roles.…
Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun explores the universal ideas of family, dignity, and hope. Hansberry set her play in an old, once well-furnished and loved apartment in Southside Chicago after World War II. It is the story of an African American family’s struggle to prioritize futures and dreams and decide whose dream is most prevalent; once the family makes the choice to purchase a home with part of the money, they face an entirely new plight. One of the major themes of A Raisin in the Sun is the need to band together as a family and fight discrimination as a unified group, as opposed to a group that cannot stop fighting within itself.…
In the 1920’s, many African-American families had left the southern states and migrated north to Chicago’s South Side in search of the “American Dream”, dreaming of freedom, equality, and the opportunity that was supposed to be available to every American. This “American Dream” was sought by many African Americans in the U.S. Written by Lorraine Hansberry and produced in 1959, The play: A Raisin in the Sun, gave readers a strong meaning about the values of dreams and the struggles in fulfilling them. Unlike other plays that contain one main character, A Raisin in the Sun consisted of having two main characters: Walter and Mama. The audience may find that one of the main characters from the play, Walter, showed a hard time in understanding the values of dreams. The audience may also find Walter’s character to be portrayed as both: a sympathetic and an unsympathetic representation of African-American men in Chicago’s Southside during the 1950-1960’s.…
"Fences" and "The Piano Lesson" are two extraordinary works created by August Wilson. Throughout these two plays there is a constant struggle while at the same time these stories revolve around a similar theme or symbol. In "Fences", the idea of building the "fence" is very similar to the "piano" in "The Piano Lesson".…
While reading the play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, the reader quickly learns of a, sadly, typical tale of family strife. In this play a family struggles to find the way out of their secluded, seemingly solitary life. Amanda Wingfield, the mother of Tom and Laura, only craves for the best for her kids. However, this ostensibly adoring mother puts Toms needs at the bottom of list. As a family without a father figure Tom, being the only boy, steps up to help his mother and sister. Striving to live up to his father’s memory, Tom helps by paying for the rent while putting his personal goals on hold. The Wingfield family goes through much trouble and strife portraying the sad truth of what goes on in the everyday family and home.…
As an only child, Father had a happy childhood until his mother died when he was 14. He attended Groton and Harvard. His dad made a fortune in the Civil War, but lost everything due to unwise speculations. He died suddenly. Father’s constant unhappiness was established during his early adulthood. “His flamboyance had produced in his lonely son a personality that was cautious, sober, industrious and chronically unhappy” (181). He took the money and invested in a fireworks business. Starting his business with inherited money was archetypal during the Ragtime period.…
The Piano Lesson is a play based on a conflict between two characters, Boy Willie and Berniece. Boy Willie is persistent on selling the piano to buy land, while Berniece wants to keep the piano because it has a lot of sentimental value to their family. The piano stayed with their family for many generations and Berniece is not willing to give it up just for some land. In The Piano Lesson, August Wilson emphasizes that family is more valuable than money.…
“Fences” is one of ten plays written by August Wilson that document historic periods in Black American life. It is a colorful and thoughtfully written piece that tells the story of one family’s struggle in Civil Rights Era America, an empowering and complicated time for lower and middle class blacks struggling to attain an ideal of the “American Dream”. Troy and Rose Maxon’s family deal with complex external challenges, such as economic shifts in industry and working classes that shape the financial status, evidenced by Troy’s successful quest for promotion and increased responsibility at his blue-collar job. Their internal issues range from father-son power struggles, infidelity, and dishonesty as common moral dilemmas; which are presented as a dialogue that illustrates how socio-economic and cultural upheaval can affect the family dynamic. Influences of cultural traditions, such as modern expressions of black spirituality, are implied throughout the play as a source of elevation from present circumstance, seem to unite the Maxons during times of structural change and give cause for their working together to create a better way of life. Still, social change redefined and reshaped their definition of family, uniting them as it also separated them, as the black progressive movements did within the ranks of classes. Consistently mentioned throughout the story are religious and spiritual themes that describe the hope and optimism that anchors their day to day lives, clearly a constant and a comfort in the uncertainty of the times they faced. The climatic and deeply religious conclusion at the ending of the story center around Troy’s mentally ill sibling Gabriel, who fancies himself the archangel that guides lost souls to the gate of heaven, exemplifies this dedication to hope and spiritual grounding, and personifies the…
The play Fences is another phenomenal play penned by, one of the best authors of all time, August Wilson. Among Wilsons writings are: The Piano Lesson, King Hedley II, Ma Rainy's Black Bottom, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Seven Guitars, Two Trains Running, Jitney and Radio Golf. His plays have been produced all over the world. The play Fences tells the story of an African American family living in the 1950’s a time when racial discrimination was at its maximum. The story outline a man by the name of Troy Maxson, who undoubtedly is the major character of the play, who is struggling to make ends meet for his family. The family lived in a poverty struck home were they dealt with domestic dispute, infidelity, and embezzlement of money.…