Fences
The title of the play is a sign of
the primary theme of how people protect themselves from forces powerful than
they are but trap their loved ones in the relationships conflicts. Different
emotional fences are created by each character in the play as they try to
control other people and protect themselves from their loved ones. Wilsons spends the first scene by introducing
the characters, black people working class and the relationships they had.
Troy, the play's protagonist, is introduced in the first chapter as a man of
many layers (Elkins 9). He has children
and a wife, but we are also told that he is controlling and
unfaithful. He fights for the equality of the blacks and wants his children to
have all that he did not have in his
childhood.
Troy has a friend named Jim Bono whom he loves
so much, and this is seen when he says “I love you†to him, words that he has never
told his sons (Elkins 17). This is a representation of the African-American Brotherhood loves and bond that exist and is much stronger even
than the intimacy created by family. Rose is Troy’s wife who has the strength
to love their children and still love Troy although he is not faithful. His sons,
Lyons and Cory represent his worst and best qualities. Lyons rejects the
proscriptions of the society while Cory always fights with his father.
The
relationship with his family and his friend is a study in contrast as he makes very rude and funny sexual advances to his wife
but drinks and gossips jovially with Bono. The appearance of his son Lyon is a
sign of father-son conflict as he does
not like his lifestyle. However, he has to pretend to because he does not have
control over Lyon, this is symbolically proven
when he loans Lyons money (Deedari11). He
does not want to support his son with the ten dollars
to raise his jazz music, but Rose comes up with ways and sorts Lyons out. The
declaration that his son had made on jazz music makes him feel that his life
had no other meaning other than devotion to others.
In the second scene, Troy’s brother
Gabriel is introduced, and he is disabled
after losing part of his head in the Second World War. He believes that he is
angel Gabriel, but this is meant to be
humor to the audience apart from the sympathy for how his right mind and life were taken from him. Apart from serving for
comic purposes, part of his story provides an intriguing subplot as just like his brother trot, he is
concerned with his independence and freedom. Although he cannot make it alone,
he moves out of his brother’s house as he wants to make it his own.
In the play, besides the clown role
Gabriel plays, he also functions as a kind of Greek chorus. A chorus is a group of players that provides a
background and summary information to the audience to direct them to the type of
the reaction required at a particular part of
play according to the ancient Greek literature (Deedari 31). He functions in
similar ways as he brings back the story of soldiers who contributed and
sacrificed their life to go and fight for
their country. H also acts as a reminder to Troy that larger forces are working
and he is not always the controller. He loves his brother and respects him but
the acts that he does make it
complicated. He took his disability payout and built the house that they are
living in and even uses his monthly check for the family expenses. Now that
Gabriel is out, he faces challenges in meeting the needs of the family and from
this; the audience learns that he is not all that powerful.
In the next scene
is a conversation between Troy and his son Cory about the TV which is an illustration of the father-son bond and how the realm is moving
without Troy. The TV itself is a representation of how the African Americans
have advanced in the current years in social,
economical ways. Cory describes the television as fundamental change on how individuals
relate in the world and argues that “they got
lots of things on TV.†By this, he
tries to show Troy of how Pittsburgh has developed beyond his knowledge. He
tries to make his father understand the change and support in college football
as his future depended on him. Cory wants his father to understand the world has changed and it is still changing, and so he needs to adopt the new ways.
Troy,
however, does not understand, and
he is not ready to deal with this idea,
and so he resists the idea of the television and insists on the domestic scenes.
He argues that the TV costs the same price that would be needed to repair the
roof and by so doing he reveals the shame of not taking care of his
responsibilities. The conversation grows into an argument, and Troy fights his son to strip his future manhood which
makes him hate him more (Glasco 17). The argument reveals Troy’s disappointment in his son’s
football career and Troy is so obstinate about signing the scholarship papers. He
boasts of the leagues he used to play
back in the days and tells his son that neither he
nor his teammates can be better than they
were. Troy feels that he never got an
opportunity to show the talent he had to the world and due to the absence of a
cause, the develops a mistrust of the power held by the black Americans by the whites. He tells Cory that he ought
to get "book-realizing" so that he "can work… up in that A&P
or figure out how to settle autos or manufacture houses" rather than
playing soccer. This makes him ask his
father why he does not like him. It is expected that Troy will answer this in a
loving way, but he gets cruel and gets
physical with his son demanding on the laws that say he does not like him.
The next scene has based on
confrontation, the first one between Troy and his family and the final one that
destroys the bond holding the family together. Troy enters the yard with Bono
boasting of how he stood up to his boss,
and he became the first African-American
garbage driver in the Hill District. It
is a good impression to the family as he will work longer and bring much more
income to the family. He feels that the
persistence he has on standing up to the forces if now paying off better as it had never done in his baseball career.
After
celebrating the news with his family who had joined in the yard, he started another story of how his
father was independent at a tender age of fourteen. He tells them proudly that
although his father was a bitter and mean man, he was dedicated to his family (Jose 49).
He further reveals that their relationship finished when his dad discovered him
having intercourse with a young lady and pursued him away just to have her for
himself. He fought his father and began his journey to the north and thus he
feels that he got what was best for him,
dedication to his family and loyalty. Troy,
however, does not realize the irony that he has taken his father’s
cruelty and bitterness. Troy is a good
example of African American experience of manhood as they face a lot of
contradictions and seclusions, but they
still have to find a way in life. According to him, the challenges should be accepted and one to avoid involvement with materialistic things that may lead to
submissiveness. Although he narrates of how he rejected his father’s actions, he goes on to embrace his son Cory and tells
his coach not to let him play for his team because he is not good enough.
Six
months later, Troy and his wife’s life is
unraveled, and they have not spoken for months. Troy has not taken any
concern to make any amendments on the issue,
but instead, he spends most of his time
playing checkers and cashing checks. He
is lately not concerned with the other relationships that he has or the
responsibilities (Jose 61). Rose accuses
him of sending his brother Gabe away so that he can take and keep his money
which is correct to the audience as he is so dependent on the money the
government pays his brother. In the turn of events, Rose is shown as the
responsible character as she is so worried about the death of their daughter
Alberta. The events of the death of Alberta make Wilsons play have a very strong feminist statement here as at this
particular point Rose is not only seen as a domestic partner but also as the
family foundation. It is more true and
clear when she takes Raynell as her own.
The
deaths of Alberta make Troy realize that he was not good to his family and he
starts worrying about his death. He is affected by pneumonia in several instances, and he
casts himself escaping death narrowly. He
realizes the fall of his family because
of him abandoning his roles as the father and a normal human being (Shannon 42). His fence now becomes fence of safety, instead of keeping his family
away, he is now meant to hold everyone inside. He accepts to take Raynell as it
is powerful in showing what they had lost and gained in the play which shows that he is not completely heartless. He
is however out of power and cannot ask for help from Rose, and his selfishness is just seen by the audience as he
protest by explaining the reason why he does not apologize
The
infidelity illustrated by Troy is a image of the devastation of the American
dream, and the play is an evaluate of the fantasy. Wilson utilizes this play to
demonstrate the group of onlookers the strengths that have characterized
American dream outside the group. Troy’s dream
had a good flow as he had a house, family and was slowly rising to middle class
until he encounters flaws that destroy his dream. Wilson is trying to show how
the flaws of humanity make possible dreams
to be impossible. The dream is seen to be destroyed during the Troy and Cory battle at
the yard when Cory is forcing his father to confront his inadequacies, yet he has more power. This makes Troy kick
his son out of the house just as his father did in this scene and the cycle,
Troy becomes the thing he hated most.
.
References
Deedari, Reza, and Mahdis Faghih Nasiri. "The Catastrophic
Effects of African Americans’ Marginalisation in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man
and August Wilson’s Fences: A Comparative Study." Sino-US English Teaching 9.11 (2012): 1702-1710.
Elkins,
Marilyn. August Wilson: a
casebook. Vol. 1626. Routledge, 2013.
Glasco,
Laurence A., and Christopher Rawson. August
Wilson: Pittsburgh Places in His Life and Plays. Pittsburgh History &
Landmarks Foundation, 2011.
Jose,
Soumya, and Sony Jalarajan Raj. "Generational Dissension in August
Wilson’s Fences." International
Research Journal of Management Sociology and Humanity 5.2 (2014): 568-582.
Shannon,
Sandra G. "Subtle Imposition: The Lloyd Richards-August Wilson
Formula.â€." August
Wilson: A Casebook 1626
(2013): 183.
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