The Fences By August Wilson

The idea of a fence is simple. We set up a border with the hope that we can keep things about. The same idea even transferred over to August Wilson “Fences” as we see the main character Troy try to build a fence around his yard to keep what he loves in and what’s not needed out. Although this is the standard use of a fence what was the main metaphor of Fences that kept the storyline going? I believe that the fence Troy Maxson built a fence between death, his wife, and his children by pushing them away which led him to him nothing to protect on the inside of his fence to follow up with his death several years later.

Fences written by August Wilson is an award winning drama that depicts an African-America family who lives in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania during the 1950’s. During this time, the Mason’s reveal the struggles working as a garbage man, providing for his family and excepting life as is. The end of segregation began, more opportunities for African American people were accessible. Troy, who’s the father the Cory and husband of Rose has shoes fill as a working African America man. He is the family breadwinner and plays the dominant role in the play. Troy’s childhood was pretty rough growing up on a farm of 11 children. Overtime, he realizes the change of society. He builds a friendship fellow sanitation worker, Jim Bono while in the penitentiary. Troy planned to build a fence around his house to control the number of people on his property. The fence also plays a symbolic role throughout the drama. These motives and characteristics control is what makes Troy the friend, father, worker, and husband he is today.

In Fences, August Wilson introduces an African American family whose life is based around a fence. In the dirt yard of the Maxson’s house, many relationships come to blossom and wither here. The main character, Troy Maxson, prevents anyone from intruding into his life by surrounding himself around a literal and metaphorical fence that affects his relationships with his wife, son, and mortality.

In today 's society people have to deal with several issues that we can 't explain. For some of us we built fences to isolate ourselves from others or in some cases to protect ourselves. No matter what the issue is we, all have to struggle to be able to provide for our families. As a child I built fences when it came to my feelings. For example, growing up I was in the chunky side. Since I wasnt so skinny like the pretty girls in my class. I kinda isolated my self from the other students. That way my feelings wouldn 't get hurt. My fence was to protect me from what I thought was going to hurt me. Well the same thing happened to Troy Maxson. In the play, "Fences" written by the well-known playwright, August Wilson, is the story of Troy Maxson and his beloved family. Throughout the whole entire play, a fence is being built around the Maxson household. As the story unfolds to the viewers, the word fences may look like a simple title, but the truth is it has different symbolic meaning. The real definition of the word fence is revealed along with the personalities of the characters in the play. In "Fences", August Wilson uses different types of fences as a metaphor to explain how these people live.

Have you ever seen a father really not enjoy the presence of his own sons? In the book Fences, a man named Troy has a very interesting relationship with his sons. Troy puts his personal interests in front of his own son’s dream which causes conflict between Troy’s sons and himself.

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

August Wilson's Fences is a play about life, and an extended metaphor Wilson uses to show the crumbling relationships between Troy and Cory and Troy and Rose. Troy Maxson represents the dreams of black America in a majorly white world, a world where these dreams were not possible because of the racism and attitudes that prevailed. Troy Maxson is representative of many blacks and their "attitudes and behavior...within the social flux of the late fifties, in their individual and collective struggles to hew a niche for themselves in the rocky social terrain of postwar America"

One narrative element that August Wilson uses in his play “Fences” to create tension, is that of conflict which he uses to show the tension that exists between Troy and his oldest son, Lyons. Lyons was raised by Troy’s ex-wife but now frequently stops by Troy’s house to borrow money which he seldom repays. One day, after Lyons has stopped by asking for ten dollars, Troy makes a comment to his best friend, Bono, saying, “What I tell you, Bono? The only time I see this nigger is when he wants something.” (16) This shows a conflict over money that is present between Troy and Lyons which is caused by and adds to the tension that exists in the play between these characters and others. August Wilson’s addition of conflict with Troy and Lyons’ story is able to show the immense tension that Troy

Many individuals have found themselves putting up fences in their lives metaphorically and physically throughout their time being. In the play titled fences by August Wilson , some of its key characters put up fences within their lives figuratively speaking. August wilson uses the symbol of a fence in various occasions within the play. Characters lives mentioned change around the fence building project which serves as both a figurative symbol,representing the relationships that bond and break in the backyard. The fact that the character Rose Maxson wants the fence built adds significance to her character because she views the fence as something necessary and rather positive since she wants to keep her loved ones in. To her a fence is a symbol of her love and furthermore her motive for a fence signifies that she represents concepts such as nurturing and love within a safe environment.For troy the fence has a more symbolic definition since he keeps much of

The character from Fences, Troy Maxson, builds a fence, this symbolizes himself. He is the fence that keeps all of the characters together. This is shown in the novel where he is the one person keeping all the other characters together “inside” the fence. When Troy falls apart, all of the characters go their separate way. When Troy cheats on Rose, this is when he himself falls apart as a fence. “From now… This child got a mother. But you a womanless man.” (wilson 79) This shows when Rose leaves Troy after he cheats on her and crumbles apart as the “fence” holding everyone together. Another example of this is when it is discovered that Bono stopped being Troy’s friend soon after the incident with Rose. “You aint stopped by in a month of Sundays” (Wilson 82). This is where Troy talks to Bono about him not coming to visit. This shows the symbolism of Troy as a fence keeping everyone together, but he

The protagonist of August Wilson's Fences, Troy Maxson, is a flawed but well-meaning character. The root of Troy's flaws lies in his father's treatment of him when he was young; however, Troy's abnormal upbringing, experiences with racism, and his fascination with story-telling and fantasy all helped shape him into the man he is. The racial barriers Troy faced during his baseball career affects both his outlook on life and his interactions with his son, Cory. Troy's childhood traumas also affect his current relationship with his own son. Many of his defining character traits and his perceptions of reality are also a result of the way Troy's father treated him.

After all the central topics of the novel, such as love, death, and family. The future is found behind it, establishing the surface for it’s plot. Troy let his past life interfere with his present which affected his relationship with his family. As John F. Kennedy once said “For time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.” The theme revealed throughout August Wilson’s book is shown through the decisions Troy makes in the novel and the outcome those decisions gave

August Wilson’s play Fences brings an introspective view of the world and of Troy Maxson’s family and friends. The title Fences displays many revelations on what the meaning and significance of the impending building of the fence in the Maxson yard represents. Wilson shows how the family and friends of Troy survive in a day to day scenario through good times and bad. Wilson utilizes his main characters as the interpreters of Fences, both literally and figuratively. Racism, confinement, and protection show what Wilson was conveying when he chose the title Fences.

August Wilson’s play “Fences” utilizes strong metaphors in relaying the deeper meaning of the actual story. The main theme that provides the key to understanding the multiply imagery in this play has to do with how one's past affects their future, importance of family, the American Dream and personal/cultural history. Throughout August Wilson’s play “Fences”, it is clearly shown how much Troy, the father of an African-American family, is pulled economically by all of the characters surrounding him. Taking on the role of the breadwinner to his wife and children reminds Troy how his father hated doing the same thing and did so with antipathy. The influence of economics along with past experiences in Troy’s life makes him resentful towards his

One of the most famous plays written by August Wilson, Fences, features the struggles of fifty-three year old African American blue-collar worker, Troy, throughout the period of several months. Wilson’s protagonist, Troy, tries to pursue the American Dream while tending to his family in the oppressed time of 1957 but fails to escape his harrowing past and forces his experiences and inferences upon the people he loves, which is enhanced by the use of specific diction that relates the setting, meaningful symbols, and ample, life-altering conflicts. Beginning with précis stage directions, common throughout the play, it is clear that the play’s setting is in a tensional time period. Clearly, “By 1957,” the hard-won victories of the European victories