Essays on August Wilson

The experiences that people go through in life help shape their characters and actions. The behaviors that people exhibit cannot be looked at exclusively from an idealistic moral perspective. It is therefore important to look at an individual’s past situations before throwing a blanket judgment on them. This is the case with Troy Maxson in the play “Fences” written by August Wilson. An abstract look at his behavior would suggest that he is a selfish and egoistic man, yet a closer look at his life experiences suggests that more often than not, there was an underlying justification for ...

The play Fences by August Wilson is set in the American urban setting in 1957. After the end of the Civil War and the Reconstruction, it is clear that the White Americans and the Black Americans had been segregated in almost all areas of life (Tribute To August Wilson 1). These arenas included buses, schools, and even in sport, for instance, baseball. The play gives a practical example of a great player whose dream is crushed along racial lines, despite being good in the game of baseball. Troy Maxson, who is the protagonist in the play, defines his life ...

Introduction

Fences is a play acted by Troy on the American stage of a modern-day tragic hero who destroyed his son’s dreams to pursue football and college as he chose his course of action in the family. His role in the household had a greater impact as his family members knew he is a man of great personality and his decision was final.

Troy’s inability to accept other people's decisions in life. An example, disagreeing with his friend Lyons’ decision to be a musician and also denying his son a chance to play football while in college. His ...

Theater Studies: Stage Production of August Wilson

Introduction The play fences, written by August Wilson, received recognition in the 1950s but became produced in 1983. It entails the sixth piece comprised in August Wilson’s ten part “Pittsburgh Cycle” which revolves around the exploration of the evolution of African-American experiences as well as the examination of racial relations. The play employs a setting based on activities carried out in 1957 where a small dirt front yard of the Maxson household depicts an ancient two-story brick house set back off a small alley. The picture portrayed in the setting entails the impoverished inner-city Hill District in Pittsburgh. ...

Sight is a very prevalent theme in a great variety of fiction; it can often be a symbol for understanding, comprehension, and enlightenment. Hindsight and foresight are often rewarded as virtues, or at least play heavily into the plot of a story. A blind person is often thought to ‘see’, or comprehend, more than the normal person, and sometimes people are not aware of a shocking truth, despite it looking them straight in the face. These scenarios are found in August Wilson's play Fences, as Troy, the patriarch of the family, is completely undone by his pride and lack of awareness of ...

When it comes to the topic of slavery, one’s heart immediately jumps up and cries out for justice. It is a dark mark on this country’s and the world’s past. What makes August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson so interesting is that the Charles family’s ties to the time period are so close, they not only remember who owned them, they know the family personally. It is this fact that creates the dilemma of the first act. Boy Willie wants to sell the family’s piano in order to buy the land of the Sutters, the ...

Character Analysis of Troy Maxon in “Fences” by August Wilson

August Wilson wrote the drama Fences in 1983, in which he explores the life of the Maxon’s family. Troy Maxon is the protagonist through which Wilson portrays the struggles of the black American people who yearn for justice and fair treatment during the 1950’s. Troy also is representative of the black males in that era, who are reluctant to recognize and accept social change. All the characters in the play are African Americans who must live through the trials and tribulations that exist during the time before the civil rights movement. The main character Troy Maxon is a ...

Thesis statement:

‘Fences’ is a play full of allegorical allusions and deals with the problems faced by African Americans in society with the production seen at the Duchess Theatre in London particularly enticing and compelling especially with the great Larry Henry in the title role.

Overview:

- The full name of the play is ‘Fences’ - The theatre company presenting the production is the London Theatre Company - The physical theatre is the Duchess Theatre in London - I saw the show on the 21st August 2013 at 8pm - The ticket cost GBP 20 and was made online. ...

The aim of this paper is to present you with the way in which Troy and his wife Rose build fences in their interpersonal relationship. Troy and Rose are the hero and heroine retrospectively of the novel ‘Fences’ which was written by August Wilson in 1983 and represents the life of the black community in the 60’s. The main thematic core of the novel is the way in which Troy, who is the main hero, leads his way to come in terms with his personal failures and reflections drawn upon the way he lived his life. The novel ...

Fences by August Wilson

Introduction Rose is a depiction of a classic African American woman. She has devoted her life in serving as a committed wife to Troy although her life with this husband has not been fulfilling her desires. However, Troy has also established an affair with another lady. He cites his dissatisfaction with his married life as the reason for having an affair with another different woman. This move does not solve the predicament he faces. In fact, this exacerbates the situation given that the husband completely ignores his duties and responsibilities with regard to taking care of Rose. Troy stays put in ...

Sight is a very prevalent theme in a great variety of fiction; it can often be a symbol for understanding, comprehension, and enlightenment. Hindsight and foresight are often rewarded as virtues, or at least play heavily into the plot of a story. A blind person is often thought to ‘see’, or comprehend, more than the normal person, and sometimes people are not aware of a shocking truth, despite it looking them straight in the face. These scenarios are found in August Wilson's play Fences, as Troy, the patriarch of the family, is completely undone by his pride and lack of awareness of his situation. ...

Essay

Before speaking about literary techniques it should be mentioned that two stories themselves. One of them - the drama of August Wilson's called “Fences”, a second one is a work which is a part of the story called “Battle Royale” by Ralph Ellison. Both stories tell to readers about the plight of African-Americans who lived at that time in America. About how society has forced them to humility, as how it turned away and did not understand them. The stories tell about problems with which that people should deal with. Authors tell us about different stories of different people, but the goal ...

Troy Maxson has been described as a tragic character due to the unpredictable behaviour he displays in the novel. In the opening scenes, troy is displayed to be a responsible man who engages in all manner of odd jobs just to provide for the needs of his family. He is also a man who is concerned about the rights of the black man which is displayed by his desire to move from just being a garbage carrier to a truck driver. Considering his younger years of growth, we learn that troy was a hardworking man who was also passionate about sports. It is because of ...

August Wilson’s use of rhetoric devices

Most plays all over the world feature the work of August Wilson, a great play writer in the late twentieth century, who presented outstanding skills of utilizing literary devices appropriately. He received two Pulitzer drama prizes in two different decades to affirm his position as one of the greatest literacy minds (Gamerman 31). Having identified his career early, Wilson had to confront his family to allow him be a writer and not a lawyer as favoured by his mother and other family members. However, his zeal and commitment in writing make his material admirable whenever they come into use at any place. ...

Dear Mr. Luby,

I hereby request for an opportunity to stage the famed play Radio Golf by August Wilson. As highlighted in the previous letter, the play seeks to highlight the American history in the light of African American perspective. The Play Radio Golf was written by August Wilson in 2005 just before his unprecedented death. It was his last play in a series of 10 plays that he had written before representing the African American historical background. The play was a form of a summary of the other plays in which Wilson attempted to trace down the history of African American from the ...

August Wilson Paper

Introduction Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, a 1982 play by August Wilson chronicles the African American experience in the twentieth century. The play that was set in Chicago advances the issues of religion, art, race and the historic exploitation of recording artists of black origin by white producers. The author of the play uses it to comment on various social problems in America. August Wilson uses Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom to show the intra and interethnic conflicts that manifested in the form of economic, racial, gender, religious and artistic disparities and the exploitation of the black population by ...

1) Which sentence in the article do you consider to be its thesis? What point or argument does the article try to make about August Wilson, his work, or King Hedley II? In "'She Make You Right with Yourself': Aunt Ester, Masculine Loss and Cultural Redemption in August Wilson's Cycle Plays," authors Cynthia L. Caywood and Carlton Floyd explore themes and motifs that appear throughout August Wilson's work. Primarily, the authors discuss the need for divine intervention, a "Redeemer of the African-American community," to appear in these plays to give characters direction in the face of difficult choices about their ...

Music and Heritage in August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson

Music plays both an obvious and a subtle role in the action of August Wilson’s play, The Piano Lesson. The most obvious part is because of the piano itself. The piano is a part of the Charles family history. It was bought by the Sutter family during the time that the Charles family was owned as slaves by the Sutters. Robert Sutter bought the piano for his wife by trading two slaves for it; however, his wife, who plays the piano, decides she wants her slaves back because she misses them. Since the Sutters are unable to get the slaves ...

August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson

As part of August Wilson’s ten play cycle, The Piano Lesson concerns issues that African-Americans deal with in the 1930s, primarily the effect of the past, its bearing on the present, and the consequences for the future. The weight of the past in the play is represented by the piano. This piano once belonged to the Sutter family, slaveholders who owned the members of the Charles family who currently possess the piano. As Doaker reveals when he explains to Boy Willy why Berniece will not consent to the sale of the piano, members of the Charles family stole ...

Themes in August Wilson’s Fences

August Wilson’s Fences gives a clear description of the sufferings that many people, particularly people of African American decent, go through when they move to the city while on a poor family that really struggles to stay together. Wilson centers his focus on the head of the family, Troy Maxson, a 53 year old man who happens to be the key character in this play whose location is not clear though is set in the hard times of the 1950s. Other characters in the play include Rose Maxson (Troy’s second wife), Gabriel Maxson (Troy’s brother), Lyons Maxson (Troy’s ...

"Cathedral" and Fences: Sight and Stubbornness Sight is a very prevalent theme in a great variety of fiction; it can often be a symbol for understanding, comprehension, and enlightenment. Hindsight and foresight are often rewarded as virtues, or at least play heavily into the plot of a story. A blind person is often thought to ‘see’, or comprehend, more than the normal person, and sometimes people are not aware of a shocking truth, despite it looking them straight in the face. These two scenarios are found in Raymond Carver’s short story “Cathedral" and August Wilson's play Fences, as both main characters are ...

Drama Analysis of August Wilson’s Fences

At the beginning of the play, Fences, the audience gets to know about the family of Troy Maxon a garbage collector, and his friend Bono. The play depicts Troy as a man who responsibly supports his family. He does everything in his capacity to provide for his family and even gets a promotion to be a truck driver. He has a son from his previous relationship by the name Lyons. Lyons is struggling to make an impact as a musician, a path that his father did not approve. The audience also meets Rose, a loyal and faithful wife to Troy, ...

The American Dream is about becoming your own person – struggling against impossible odds to meet a goal and thrive amongst your peers. Whether it is standing up to your father, or striving to succeed in professional baseball, the American Dream is the chance for a new life, one free of the shackles of the past. Both August Wilson’s ‘Fences’ and William Faulkner’s ‘Barn Burning’ feature protagonists who follow the American Dream, but in vastly different ways – Troy Maxon distinctly fails in his pursuit, while Sartorius Snopes is well on his way to accomplishing it. Both journeys feature a separation from ...

In August Wilson’s Fences, we follow Troy Maxon, a disillusioned, bitter middle-aged man who used to play baseball in his prime – however, since he played before the color barrier was broken in major league baseball, there was no chance for him to shine. This has left him a broken shell of a man who clings to what mild successes he had in the past and participates in an extramarital affair which tears his family apart.

This failure in baseball and other life pursuits is contrasted strongly with Jackie Robinson, the person who ended up actually breaking the color barrier years after ...