The Use Of Tension In Fences By August Wilson

August Wilson’s Fences is a play about Troy Maxson, and how his values influence his family’s. The play takes place in 1950’s Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Troy Maxson is a black, middle aged man working for a garbage company. Each member of the Maxson family has a special relationship with Troy, that affects their behavior throughout the play. In life you learn the most from your parents. They teach you how to walk, speak, and respect one another. Your parents also give you a set of values for life. As you grow up as your own individual, your values will change from your parents. There will be things that are much more important to you, and not as important to them. In the play Fences Troy Maxson has a very strong set of values that he believes are true in how you should live life. Troy imposes these values on everyone in his family to the best of his ability. Each character in Fences is at a different stage in their life, so Troy can’t push his values onto characters that already have their own beliefs. The character that Troy has the most influence on in the play is Cory. Troy is in Cory’s life throughout his childhood, and as his father Cory must respect Troy. Troy is very firm with Cory, because he wants Cory to be successful. Cory has a dream of becoming a football player, and this does not follow Troy’s values. Troy influences Cory so much that Cory will always be like Troy whether he realizes it or not. “Your daddy wanted you to be everything he wasn’t … and at

A literary strategy often used by the greatest of writers to make their work feel more real to life is creating a morally ambiguous character. August Wilson is among those writers in how he portrays Troy in Fences. In the play, some ways August Wilson portrays Troy as a morally ambiguous character is through Troy’s treatment and care for his family. August Wilson also depicts Troy as a morally ambiguous character in the way of his interactions with Cory, how Troy holds Cory back from playing a sport that Cory really loves, yet he says that he wants the best for his family. Finally, August Wilson portrays Troy as a morally ambiguous character in how Troy always wants to be better than his father, but then he falls right back into the pattern his father set by not taking his family seriously. This moral ambiguity of Troy is significant to the play because it makes the reader connect more with the play and keeps the reader entertained by having such a static character. It also makes the work feel alive and fluid as the reader goes through the play, not knowing what to expect next from Troy.

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.

Throughout time there have always been conflicts of morality and injustice. August Wilson wrote this play about issues that were prevalent in the 1950’s but also still are sadly present today. In Fences, there is an abundance of evidence of cultural clashes. In this play these clashes span over racial, generational, and even gender lines and its effects on the characters.

The theme of August Wilson’s play “Fences” is the coming of age in the life of a broken black man. Wilson wrote about the black experience in different decades and the struggle that many blacks faced, and that is seen in “Fences” because there are two different generations portrayed in Troy and Cory. Troy plays the part of the protagonist who has been disillusioned throughout his life by everyone he has been close to. He was forced to leave home at an early age because his father beat him so dramatically. Troy never learned how to treat people close to him and he never gave any one a chance to prove themselves because he was selfish. This makes Troy the antagonist in the story because he is not only hitting up against everyone in the play,

The play, “Fences” by August Wilson describes the life of an African-American family that is por. Troy Maxson, the father of the family, was a baseball player in the

Lives are lead with anxiety over certain issues and with apprehension towards certain events. This play, Fences written by the playwright August Wilson deals with the progression of a family through the struggles of oppression and the inability to obtain the American Dream. The characters in the play develop throughout the story and can be viewed or interpreted in many different ways, but one man remains constant during the play and that is Troy. Due to certain events that transpired as he was growing up, Troy is shaped into a very stubborn yet proud man. To be a man who was black and proud ran the risk of getting destroyed, both physically and mentally. The world of the 1950s and 60s was rapidly changing and

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.

Conflicts and tensions between family members and friends are key elements in August Wilson's play, Fences. The main character, Troy Maxon, has struggled his whole life to be a responsible person and fulfill his duties in any role that he is meant to play. In turn, however, he has created conflict through his forbidding manner. The author illustrates how the effects of Troy's stern upbringing cause him to pass along a legacy of bitterness and anger which creates tension and conflict in his relationships with his family.

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

Wilson uses the character of Troy, his family, and his friends in Fences to pour out his life, his

We will first discuss the play “Fences” this is a story in which the main character is a hard working African American Man. He is a good provider for his family. His wife is able to be a great homemaker and mother to his children, one of which is from another woman. Troy, who is the main character, has to make decisions not only for his family but also for his brother who is handicapped from the war. This places a lot of responsibility and pressure on Troy. Troy feels discrimination from many areas

“Jesus be a fence all around me every day. Jesus, I want you to protect me as I travel on my way” (Wilson 1.2.21). The play Fences follows the journey of an African American family, the Maxons, and their struggle to handle the appearance of both physical and metaphorical fences. Fences shows the difficulties that the Maxons face in an attempt to balance love, loss, and laughter. The Maxson family lives in Pittsburgh during the 1950’s, and they meet tensions when searching for equality within their relationships and in their larger community. Throughout the play, tension builds between characters. To portray this tension, the author, August Wilson utilizes the narrative elements of parallel plots through storytelling, developing characters

In this unit we read a play written as a book, called “Fences”. Fences is about racism written in the 1986. The play is based around the main characters Troy and Rose, and their son Cory. Troy has stated that he has felt the need to provide a life for Cory but doesn't need love him. Troy is wanting Cory to stop playing football and get a real job at the A&P so he can provide for himself. Rose has been trapped in between all of this. All in all, the play Fences written by August Wilson uses the narrative element of characterization of Troy and Rose, the metaphor of sports, and conflict that Troy creates to show tension.

The play Fences by August Wilson centers around the character of Troy, a middle-aged African-American man. Troy struggles to keep his family together, mostly as the result of mistakes he has made as a husband and parent. These mistakes reflect certain personality traits that make up Troy’s complex character, including his obsession with providing financially, his inability to love his family, and his stubborn insistence on others following the paths he decides for them. These character traits can be explained by the social, racial, and economic climate of the time. Fences takes place in late 1950’s Pennsylvania during the beginning of the Civil Rights Era, and Troy’s character is shaped by the disappointments that have come along with racism and economic difficulty, along with not being up to date on the changes happening in the Civil Rights movement. Although Troy and his character traits are responsible for the tragic decisions he has made, it is possible that the social context of the time has shaped him into the person he is.