FULL ANALYSIS OF FENCES BY WILSON AUGUST
ANALYSIS OF FENCES BY AUGUST WILSON
August Wilson’s play Fences, the sixth of his ten-part “Pittsburgh cycle,” examines the aftermaths of slavery and discrimination of Black people in America, the cycle of damaged Black manhood, and the choice between pragmatism and illusion. First published in 1986, the play takes place in 1957 and is staged entirely at the Maxson family home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Wilson’s repeated use of the same setting foregrounds the different news and events that progress over the course of the play.
The main protagonist, Troy Maxson, has a name rich with meaning.
His first name alludes to the ancient Greek city whose epic fall was highlighted in Homer’s Iliad, and
Act One begins on pay day, Friday, with Troy
and his loyal and attentive friend, Bono, drinking at Troy’s house. Wilson
forces the audience to acclimate to the world of the play by gathering
information from their conversation. Both men work as garbage collectors and
Troy is fighting for the right to be able to drive the garbage trucks—which
white workers do—instead of just collecting the trash. Troy is concerned about
his own survival in his stagnant, disappointing life, and fails to understand
how his loved ones have learned to cope by seeking simple pleasures and luxuries.
For example, his wife, Rose, enjoys playing the numbers, the game serving as a
metaphor for the various hopes and gambles that each character will take on in
their lives.
The major conflict in the play is between Troy
and his son Cory—thus between two separate generations—regarding Cory’s future.
Troy also has an elder son, Lyons, to whom he cannot relate, scoffing at his
choice to become a musician. Cory wishes to play football and attend college,
although Troy wants him to work. In the play’s inciting incident, as the two
build their home’s fence together, Cory tells his father that he has given away
his job at the local A&P because a coach from North Carolina is coming to
watch him play football. Troy, enraged, demands that he get the job back.
This specific conflict also represents
conflicting interpretations of history: Cory is optimistic about the present
and sees that the world can be a more accepting place for talented Black men
like himself. Troy, stuck in the past and bitter that he never made it to
baseball’s Major Leagues, wants to protect his son from the discrimination and
disappointment he experienced. Ironically, he does not realize that his
protection suffocates and stifles Cory by limiting his chances for
success.
Both baseball and fences serve as interwoven
motifs throughout the play. Baseball shifts meaning over the course of the
play, evoking everything from Troy’s life philosophy to his relationships with
his son and eventually, to Death. Fences are symbolic of relationships that can
both bond and break, and they also indicate physical and emotional
boundaries—as well as geographical and legal ones. Rose, perhaps, wishes for
Troy and Cory to work on the fence together as a bonding experience and because
she loves her family and wants to keep physically close to them. Troy, though,
pushes people away.
As the play’s rising action begins, Troy
reveals to Rose that he is having an affair with Alberta, who represents a
world of illusion and escape for Troy that is separate from his responsibilities
and disappointments. Rose reprimands him, and Troy grabs her arm, but Cory
surprises him by attacking him from behind. Another key event occurs when Troy
signs papers to commit his brother Gabriel, who suffered brain trauma during
military service, to a mental institution. This action further drives a wedge
between Troy and his family, especially as Troy admits he has used Gabriel’s
government money to pay for their house, which is another humiliation, bringing
Troy’s capabilities as provider for his family into question. As the play moves
toward the climax, Alberta goes into labor early and dies during childbirth,
leaving a baby girl behind. Rose vows to care for Baby Raynell as her own
child, but refuses to be dutiful as Troy’s wife.
In the play’s climax, Troy picks a fight with
Cory over what he perceives to be a lack of respect from son to father. Through
their argument, Wilson underscores the idea of failed manhood and fatherhood
when Cory points out how Troy could not even pay for his own home. The fight
becomes violent when Troy confronts Cory with a baseball bat, an echo to Troy’s
own experiences with his father, and he kicks Cory out of the house.
As the play’s falling action unfolds, seven
years have gone by, and Troy has died from a heart attack. Cory returns home
for his father’s funeral, after joining the Marines. He speaks with Raynell,
and the audience comes to understand that she has disrupted the pattern of
generational violence in the Maxson family; Raynell is emblematic of the new
hope for the future.
As Fences reaches its resolution, the Maxson family
is together in their home, except for the now deceased Troy. Gabriel, released
from the hospital, improvises a dance and cries to the heavens, “That’s the way
that goes.” His ability to create something joyous out of despair and hardship
allows the play to end on a note of hope, suggesting that Black men and women
are free to create their own destinies in a changing world.
CHARACTERS
Troy Maxson
The protagonist
of Fences, a fifty-three year-old Black man who works for the
sanitation department, lifting garbage into trucks. Troy is also a former
baseball star in the Negro Leagues. Troy's athletic ability diminished before
the Major Leagues accepted Black players. Hard-working, strong and prone to
telling compelling, fanciful stories and twisting the truth, Troy is the family
breadwinner and plays the dominant role in his over thirty-year friendship with
fellow sanitation worker, Jim Bono. Troy's character is the centerpiece that
all of the other relationships in Fences gather around. Troy
is husband to Rose, father to Lyons, Cory, and Raynell, and brother to Gabriel.
Troy is a tragic-hero who has excessive pride for his breadwinning role. Troy's
years of hard-work for only meager progress depress him. Troy often fails to
provide the love and support that would mean the most to his loved ones.
Rose
Maxson
Troy's wife and mother of his second child,
Cory. Rose is a forty-three year-old Black American housewife who volunteers at
her church regularly and loves her family. Rose's request that Troy and Cory
build a fence in their small, dirt backyard comes to represent her desire to
keep her loved-ones close to her love. Unlike Troy, Rose is a realist, not a
romantic longing for the by- gone days of yore. She has high hopes for her son,
Cory and sides with him in his wish to play football. Rose's acceptance of
Troy's illegitimate daughter, Raynell, as her own child, exemplifies her
compassion.
Gabriel
Maxson
Troy's brother. Gabriel was a soldier in the
Second World War, during which he received a head injury that required a metal
plate to be surgically implanted into his head. Because of the physical damage
and his service, Gabriel receives checks from the government that Troy used in
part to buy the Maxson's home where the play takes place. Gabriel wanders
around the Maxson family's neighborhood carrying a basket and singing. He often
thinks he is not a person, but the angel Gabriel who opens the gates of heaven
with his trumpet for Saint Peter on Judgment Day. Gabriel exudes a child-like
exuberance and a need to please.
Cory
Maxson
The teenage son of Troy and Rose Maxson. A
senior in high school, Cory gets good grades and college recruiters are coming
to see him play football. Cory is a respectful son, compassionate nephew to his
disabled Uncle Gabriel, and generally, a giving and enthusiastic person. An
ambitious young man who has the talent and determination to realize his dreams,
Cory comes of age during the course of the play when he challenges and
confronts Troy and leaves home. Cory comes home from the Marines in the final
scene of the play, attempting to defy Troy by refusing to go to his funeral,
but Cory changes his mind after sharing memories of his father with Rose and
Raynell.
Jim
Bono
Troy's best friend of over thirty
years. Jim Bono is usually called “Bono” or “Mr. Bono” by the characters in
Lyons
Maxson
Troy's son, fathered before Troy's time in
jail with a woman Troy met before Troy became a baseball player and before he
met Rose. Lyons is an ambitious and talented jazz musician. He grew up without
Troy for much of his childhood because Troy was in prison. Lyons, like most
musicians, has a hard time making a living. For income, Lyons mostly depends on
his girlfriend, Bonnie whom we never see on stage. Lyons does not live with
Troy, Rose and Cory, but comes by the Maxson house frequently on Troy's payday
to ask for money. Lyons, like Rose, plays the numbers, or local lottery. Their
activity in the numbers game represents Rose and Lyons' belief in gambling for
a better future. Lyons' jazz playing appears to Troy as an unconventional and
foolish occupation. Troy calls jazz, “Chinese music,” because he perceives the
music as foreign and impractical. Lyons' humanity and belief in himself garners
respect from others.
Raynell Maxson
Troy's illegitimate child, mothered by
Alberta, his lover. August Wilson introduces Raynell to the play as an infant.
Her innocent need for care and support convinces Rose to take Troy back into
the house. Later, Raynell plants seeds in the once barren dirt yard. Raynell is
the only Maxson child that will live with few scars from Troy and is emblematic
of new hope for the future and the positive values parents and older
generations pass on to their young.
Alberta
Troy's buxom lover from Tallahassee and
Raynell's mother. Alberta dies while giving birth. She symbolizes the exotic
dream of Troy's to escape his real life problems and live in an illusion with
no time.
Bonnie
Lyons' girlfriend who works in the laundry at
Mercy Hospital.
Mr. Stawicki
Cory's boss at the A&P.
Coach Zellman
Cory's high school football coach who
encourages recruiters to come to see Cory play football.
Mr. Rand
Bono and Troy's boss at the Sanitation
Department who doubted that Troy would win his discrimination case.
Miss Pearl
Gabe's landlady at his new apartment.
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