Fences by August Wilson - Essay Example

'Fences' by August Wilson 'Fences' is a prominent specimen of African-American drama. In 1987 it brought Pulitzer Prize to the In "Fences" August Wilson builds the character of Troy Maxson, a personality with strange ideas and qualities whose life can be described as a frustration. According to Robert Brustein, 'August Wilson larger purpose depends on his conviction that Troy's potential was stunted by centuries of racist oppression. "Fences" takes place during a period of time when the fights against segregation are barely blossoming results' (Brustein, 1986, p.205). This state of affairs is evidently highlighted in Fences with Troy's disappointment with life. Wilson's idea is based not merely on racist domination, but also on family values, and life issues such as powerlessness against main problems such as time and death. The beginning of the play is a payday, when Troy and his friend Bono are drinking and talking. Troy's character is illuminated through his soliloquies about how he (Troy) went up to Mr. Rand (their director) and inqiuered why black men were forbidden to drive the garbage lorries (they work as garbage collectors). Then Rose, Troy's wife and Lyons, Troy's son come to the stage. Lyons comes to borrow some money, and knows that his attempt will be successful. Cory,a younger son of Troy, starts playing football and Troy regrets about his own lost past, when he was a promising sportsman and now he feels dishearted with the years of playing baseball during the leisure time. He also is a little envious, so he tells football coach that Cory is not allowed to go in for sports. Troy is a breadwinner, he has to think about the whole family and to be a good employee: his brother, Gabriel, asks Troy to bail him out of jail, Cory and Lyons sre too young and need money, Rose is a housewife, so she doesn't work at all. In addition, Troy has an affair with Alberta, who is pregnant from him. Everybody needs something from Troy, he has to dive into this reality, and no-one can leave him alone. Troy fells tired of living in this world, tired of people who take from him, but, in turn, give him only moral devastation. Troy finally confesses to Rose to his affair with Alberta, and tells about the pregnancy of his mistress. Rose is distressed and talks how she "planted my seed" in Troy, realizing well that it will not "bloom."(Wilson, 2000, p.101) When Troy grips her arm, Cory comes from his back and pushes Troy down. Troy is torn in two, since he lives in two houses simultaneously, but none of them is his real home. "The next scene picks up when Troy leaves to see Alberta at the hospital. He comes back carrying Raynell, the baby, and news that Alberta died during childbirth. When Troy asks Rose act as Raynell's mother, she complies but tells Troy that he is now a "womanless man." (Wikipedia, 2003, par.7) Troy has a terrible row with Cory and kicks him out from home, thus, Cory has to earn his living. In some time, Troy dies, and it is highlighted that he had got to paradise. Fences is a drama about a national, American leisure. The famous white baseball player, Babe Ruth, died at the age of 53; Troy is 53 at the beginning of the play, and a comparison of Ruth and Troy is both persuasive and relevant. Babe Ruth had all traits Troy has: large-spirited, alcohol drinker, womanizer and physically strong. It goes in accordance with August Wilson's purpose, probably, to describe their different destinies. If Yankee Stadium is, by reputation, associated with Ruth, then Troy is associated with fairly different things: a back-alley of Pittsburgh, the life his family has on his garbage man's salary, the rag ball he hits with a dirty boot. The era described by Wilson-- the end of 1950s and the sunrise of the civil rights campaigns -- enables a dark experience of the past to conflict with the developing hope of the future. 'Troy, distrustful of his own experience, consequently fails to understand his son's aspirations. Troy, a responsible man belittled by an irresponsible society and its racism, needs the strength beyond endurance to accommodate his wasted potential' (Bertin, 1986,p.131). In the situation of growing demands, he becomes careless, hurts family and associates. His character contradicts with his oppression in a terrible image of the self-inflicted wound of racism. With more importance in him, Troy has more to lose; he is bitterer as a result. Troy lives under the circumstances of social and financial inequality, since he has to work as a garbage collector and only dreams of big sport. He is ambitious, but extremely oppressed by the life. On the other hand, Wilson is not fashioning a sufferer for a cause. If Troy is deeply wounded by racism, not all victims of racism act similarly to Troy. 'How deeply Wilson explores the race issue is a question. He kills Troy before the end, with the final word being spoken over his grave. He thereby avoids an issue and misses an opportunity. What happened to Troy in the missing intervening years between the final scenes' (Bertin, 1986,p.132) Did he make peace with his son Did he understand, why his father had been so cruel with him Troy dreams of professional sport, but has to be content with his work and home. He feels even more frustrated when he finds out that Jackie Robinson, a black sportsman, has broken through the segregation of professional baseball, but the new chances for black baseball players comes too late for Troy Maxson. 'This situation causes a frustration in Troy's life pushing him to live in an ordinary way as a dissatisfied employee' (Bertin,1986, p.130). Troy realizes that from the moment of birth, everyone enters the race of life. The race to be successful, to live triumphantly, or to win this lifelong race. In general, we can say that victory means completion of something attempted. Thus, anyone can be triumphant. On the other hand, he believes society holds unworkable values for a significance of success. August Wilson's "Fences" illustrate a personality who fall short of society's vision of success. "Why you got the white men driving and colored lifting"(Wilson, 2000, p.9). The citation given is an example of how Troy believes he will never achieve anything since he is a black man in the "white man's world". Therefore, Troy limits his world to everyday routine, he tries to avoid thinking about the life, because it is a complete frustration and nothing more: ordinary wife, ordinary children with a large set of negative features, ordinary blue-collar job. His self-image is also ordinary: a middle age black garbage collector who believes to be held back by the "white man". In the play we can also see the world of Troy's dreams. 'His American Dream is something that all-American citizens undergo and it is the hope for a better life' (Timpane, 1994, p.20). Though he wants the American dream, he defeats himself in quite a strange way: instead of trying to realize his dream, he continues complaining about his life and expressing dissatisfaction. Troy defeats himself with his uncontrollable anger. He gets angry, when Cory tells father about his future as a football player, his destructive emotions and acts increase the gap between himself and his family. In the play, Troy is described as a man who has hurt his nearest and dearest people without even understanding it. He has acted thoughtlessly and callously to his wife, Rose, his brother, Gabriel and his son, Cory. From this position, he seems egoistic and irresponsible thinking merely about his own losses and sorrow. Troy gets fixed on the negative moments of life and refuses to see positive ones: he is healthy and able to work, has a family, people who love him and good friends. But he only remembers his bitter childhood and notes that nothing has changed in his life: he is still miserable and unhappy. 'Troy is the son of an abusive father. His father was never around to raise him. When he was there, he made him do chores and if he didn't do them, he would beat him' (Timpane, 1994, p.25). It is possible to say that Troy carries his childish troubles through the life, he was obsessed with feeling of total pointlessness of his life. He also inherited father's behavioural patterns and behaved cruelly with his own family. When Alberta, a woman he had an affair with, gave birth to a child, he imposed this baby to his wife Rose. In a relationship, people should trust each other and appreciate those who are closest to them. 'Troy is a father and husband who makes the decision derived from human imperfection and outside variables, to commit adultery and become involved in another relationship with a woman. By examining the racial tension of the late nineteen fifties, in combination with Troy's past life experiences and the events that unfold in the play, one can understand Troy's choice to commit adultery' (Timpane, 1994, p.28) . Troy doesn't know how to cope with the emotions he has towards his surroundings, so instead of trying to make friends with people he pushes them away. At the end of the play, "Fences", Troy has driven out from his life so many people that it looks like he is living surrounded by strangers. Though being supported by an excellent support system, wife and best friend, Troy is feeling alone as he had constructed fences to make the people he needs stay emotionally detached from him. Troy, his father, and for a short time his son, in a description of how these men serve to embody the conflict of men and how those conflicts are often inherited from generation to generation. As one can see from this paper, Troy's tragedy is his inability to look at the life from the other, more positive angle, and to understand that his real success is his family and friends, who always support him. Then, Troy's tragic fate can also be seen in his inability (and reluctance perhaps) to destroy fences between himself and people, who are attached to him, sinking in his gloomy memories (he was abandoned by his mother and cruelly treated by father) and problems (he considers himself underprivileged). One more important aspect of tragedy is a presence of death as a separate character. Rather than the vague mystery, death becomes an object that Troy tries to struggle. The uncompleted boundary marker that Troy is erecting around his house is finished only when Troy is threatened by death. 'In one of the stories he tells, Troy relates how he once wrestled with death and won. When the simmering conflict between Troy and Cory finally erupts and the boy leaves ills father's house for good, it is death that Troy calls upon to do battle' (Bertin, 1986,p.135). And at the end of the play, it is death that brings the family together and helps bring reconciliation to their lives. When Rosy, Cory and Lyons meet again at Troy's funeral, they are after all given an opportunity to put the sorrow and disappointments of their lives in the ground. In every epoch, in every society, human creatures have built fences, real or imaginary. Fences are the encumbering problems and barriers we have to deal within. We destroy some of them, and climb over others. Some of them, however, we believe to be impassable. This is the reality, in which people with different cultural, racial and ethnic background live. Bibliography 1) Bertin, M., 1986. 'Fences' by August Wilson. In 'Contemporary American dramatists'. London: Penguin books. 2) Brustein, S., 1986. August Wilson's Fences. In 'Contemporary American dramatists'.London: Penguin Books. 3) Timpane, J., 1994. Filling the time: reading history in the drama of August Wilson. 67-85 IN Nadel-Alan (ed.). May All Your Fences Have Gates: Essays on the Drama of August Wilson. Iowa City : University of Iowa Press 4) Wikipedia, 2003. August Wilson. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fences_%28play%29 5) Wilson, A., 2000. Fences. London: Penguin Books Read More