What Does August Wilson Symbolize In Fences

Fences, written by August Wilson, is a play about a man, named Troy, struggling to support his family during the late 1950’s. In this play, we see that Troy hurts the people closest to him. He has been uncaring towards his wife, Rose, his brother Gabriel and his son, Cory. This is because Troy had nothing to go on but the harsh example set by his father. In Fences, Troy has felt like he has been fenced in all of his life, which causes him to fence others in.

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 the Fences, by August Wilson shows that life of African Americans in the U.S. in the 1950s with the story of Troy and his family. Wilson uses the symbol of the fence to show the desires of each character like Rose’s desire is to keep her family together, Troy’s desire is to keep death out and to be not bound forever, and Bono’s desire is to follow Troy, his best friend, as an example of the right way to live and to be with Rose and Troy who are basically his family. Rose and the other seen characters represent people and show gender roles of the time, like Rose is a housewife, Troy is the provider. Also Cory is the new generation of emotion over responsibility, Gabriel represents the war heros that were permanently disabled from war

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

There is also the literal fence in the play, which Rose wants Troy to build around their yard. Troy wonders why Rose would want a fence when they have virtually nothing of value to steal. Bogumil believes that, "A fence to Rose has spiritual significance, solace to comfort her during the times she must intervene in the dysfunctional relationship between her son Cory and husband Troy...(48). The beginning of Act One, Scene Two begins with Rose singing to herself, "Jesus, be a fence around me every day...." (Wilson, 21). While Troy is building fences to keep people out, Rose builds a fence to keep them in, as she, "dearly desires to preserve the family she has never had" (Bogumil, 48). Rose herself says to Troy, "...you know I ain't never wanted no half nothing in my family. My whole family is half.....Can't hardly tell who's who (Wilson, 68).

August Wilson’s Fences was centered on the life of Troy Maxson, an African American man full of bitterness towards the world because of the cards he was dealt in life amidst the 1950’s. In the play Troy was raised by an unloving and abusive father, when he wanted to become a Major League Baseball player he was rejected because of his race. Troy even served time in prison because he was impoverished and needed money so he robbed a bank and ended up killing a man. Troy’s life was anything but easy. In the play Troy and his son Cory were told to build a fence around their home by Rose. It is common knowledge that fences are used in one of two ways: to keep things outside or to keep things inside. In the same way that fences are used to keep

In the play “Fences” by August Wilson the play’s attitude toward women is biased, and if the play was written by a female I think it would have a stronger feminine influence. Issues such as racism and discrimination against blacks may be raised in the play that the author did not bring up, and the women in the story somewhat do generally typify women in the 1950s. To support my interpretation, the women in the play were homebodies, just worrying about the household because they felt like that 's what they were supposed to do and that 's all that was expected of them and etc.

Throughout history, civilizations have built fences to keep enemies out and keep those they want to protect inside. In society today, people create metaphorical fences in order to fence in their feelings, while others create literal fences in order to keep the unwanted away. In the play Fences, the Maxon family lives in 1950’s America whose love for sports and one another are questioned at times when they need to be together the most. In the play Fences by August Wilson, two main characters Troy and Cory Maxon build a fence, literally and metaphorically, which as the book progresses, becomes a symbol that allows each character to truly understand each other.

In 1965, August Wilson’s “Fences” was created as the fifth part of his Pittsburg Cycle of dramas of the 20th Century investigation of the evolution of black culture. The play has an abundance of symbolism and metaphors that tells the late life story of Troy Maxon and the family that surrounds him. Even from the beginning of the drama there is conflict and foreshadowing that can be attributed to his own belief that he has failed in life and that the world did not give him what he deserved. He takes this feeling of failure out on his family throughout the story. He believes that he must go outside of the family to find refuge and that is how the story begins and ends.

The most obvious meaning of the fence is expressed when Rose sings a song asking Jesus to protect her like a fence. It can be interpreted that she wants to keep her family safe both literally and metaphorically. By having Cory and Troy build the fence together it can be seen as an attempt to keep the family together and protect the father son relationship. Another interpretation later brought up in the play is that fences both keep people in and certain people out. At a climactic part of the play were Troy kicks out Cory he makes sure to leave his things outside the fence. Essentially, the fence can be seen as the divide between father and son. Overall, I think the play ends with a positive message. At Troy’s funeral Lyons recalls a phrase his father used to say, “you gotta take the crookeds with the straights” (94). Bad parts of life are just as common as the goo and one must make the most of the opportunities one has. By appreciating the bad to make the good points in life more enjoyable one has a fulfilling

Have you ever built a "fence" to keep things in? How about to actually build a fence to keep things out? August Wilson's play "Fences" uses the name as both a metaphorical and physical reference. There are four of these metaphorical fences that are referred to as well as the physical hardwood fence that Troy is actually building.

Troy Maxson is a difficult character to comprehend. In the complex play Fences, August Wilson depicts his main character as a harsh man; one who has been through hard times. The origins of his severity can be traced to many unpleasant times in his life. He has faced many struggles which ultimately affect his relationships. He is met with misfortune throughout his life which causes strain on his interactions with friends and family. However, with all of the despair that Troy and his family must endure, there is still hopefulness in each of them. While Wilson presents a character who builds a fence to protect himself from the world he feels is against him, he still offers a theme of hope of what can become in his provocatively written Fences.

Towards the end, the fence also symbolizes confinement for Rose. One afternoon, Troy tells Rose that he’s expecting a baby from another woman, Alberta. Upset and angry, Rose passionately argues and asks Troy why he did that to her. She tells him, “I took all my feelings, my wants and my needs and I buried them inside you. I planted a seed and watched and prayed over it. I planted myself inside you and waited to bloom” (2099). Rose, like every other person, is a woman with dreams, but for the sake of her husband, she placed them within him. Troy had a cruel and distressing effect on Rose. It didn’t help that Troy was bitter most of the time and made poor choices. Seemingly, Rose was not joyous the majority of the time. She wasn’t upset or outraged

Wilson uses characterization as a narrative element to implement tension between his characters in Fences. The author shows how Troy, the main character, and Rose, Troy’s wife, prioritize pride and love differently. Wilson’s characterization also portrays the impacts those choices have on their relationships. An example of this can be seen when Wilson writes, ”What law say I gotta like you?” (Wilson 37). This quote is from an excerpt in which Cory, Troy’s son, asks Troy why he never liked him. It illustrates how Troy believes that as a father, his duty to his children is to provide, not to show affection. On the contrary, Rose’s priorities are seen in the quote “I planted myself inside you and waited to bloom”(Wilson 71). The excerpt, spoken by Rose, depicts how, though Troy may not appear to be a good man, she had faith in the goodness in him, and was willing to sacrifice