August Wilson’s Fences Essay

venerable Wil intelligences Fences The immigration of Afri earth-closets to America as slaves has had a great pith to slicey topics including literature. Despite their experiences in this unlike land, they brought with them a antithetic cultivation that had non been experienced in the American indian lodge. The stories and experiences of African-Americans hold back learnn authors write books and interprets being staged with large audiences. This is due to the different precisely almost similar stories that these people have to tell regarding their move to America and how difficult it was for them to fit in the orderliness they found. IntroductionIn 1983, the American contributewright August Wilson released a flow titled Fences. The play has a setting of the 1950s and it explores the evolving African American experience with line of achievement relations as wiz of the worldy themes depicted in this play. The play revolves around a 53-year-old man named troy who i s an African-America. He is assay to erect for his family and although he is a baseball player his food contort in is a bar for him being able to join professional baseball thus receiving poor money to suffer his family. This paper seeks to analyze the play and check on why it was apt(p) the title Fences (Wilson).Analysis of the play Fences by August Wilson As preferably stated, the play is ab by a man named troy weight. The play shows how troy is struggling to non only provide for his family but excessively to fit in a social club in which people ar judged by their skin color. The theme of race discrimination is portrayed good throughout the play. First, in the 1950s in which the play is set, people of color were seen as those who do non deserve any good thing in the society. They were associated to social crimes and death up in jail for a crime non committed was a normal phenomenon (Wilson).However, emotional unplug with the society they lived in and failure to secure a job so as to earn a vivification was greatly contributing to them ending up being involved in these social crimes. In the play, troy weight is shown as a baseball player a game he had learnt and played while in prison. He had finish up in prison for an accidental murder he had committed during a robbery. From this puzzle out it is evident that due to his failure of securing a job, troy weight had ended up involving himself in robbery so as to earn himself a living but this cadence it turned out ugly and he ended up in prison.Further, discrimination is seen at work place where nigh jobs could not be make by an African-American but rather they were reserved for the whites. This is seen when troy manages to secure a job with a drool collecting firm and he is heard asking Mr. Rand who he refers to as the boss, why black men were not catered to drive garbage trucks. This shows that indeed there was race discrimination at work place where African-Americans could not be bestowed with some responsibilities. The act of being denied an opportunity to drive a garbage truck can be seen as a critical yett.It can be viewed in the way that unconstipated if garbage assembly was being seen as dirty work that could only be done by those who were seen as less fortunate in the society, the concomitant that brainish a garbage truck was seen as literary driving a vehicle, an African-American would not be allowed to drive the truck since they were cut back to do so during that fourth dimension (Tamura). In addition, the play shows Rose who is Troys married woman with whom they have a son named Cory, however, Troy has a son Lyon from a previous marriage but he does not leave with him.Gabriel is Troys younger brother who has notable mental damage after he suffered head injuries when he was serving as a soldier. This new development of Gabriela having served as a soldier brings subscriber line of sen erants of race discrimination and at the same time it can be viewed as one way in which discrimination of people of the color was being cemented. First as a contrast, this play shows how certain jobs were being reserved for whites. Soldiers were people who not only deserved respect from the society but also received a good pay.Therefore, Gabriels duty as a soldier, contrasts the theme of discrimination where some jobs such as a being a soldier were being reserved for those the society thought they owed respect to. However, it can be viewed differently in the intellect that owing to the tasks, experiences and challenges that faced soldiers in the battle fields, African-American men were seen as the right people for the job. This follows, the understanding that most of those who served in the army died in war or if one was luck to survive they would come theater having sustained severe injuries like in the case of Gabriel.This can be seen as a form of discrimination where those who were less regarded in the society were being recruite d as soldiers since the society would be seen not to worry even if it lost them (Tamura). The play unfolds on a payday when Troy and his friend Bono argon drinking and chatting. His son Lyon comes to him asking to be lent 10 dollars assure to refund the money soon since his girlfriend had secured a job. Troy gives him a hard time but after persuasion from his married woman Rose, he finally lends his son the money.From this scenario, one can see that the family is really struggling to survive owing to Lyons inability to raise even 10 dollars thus leading him to borrowing from his father. This shows that African-Americans were struggling a lot so as to survive in a society where living standards were highschool and a society where job opportunities were rare given the much grow racial discrimination (Wilson). Further, as the play continues, Cory tells his parents of an opportunity for a college football scholarship. Troy vehemently condemns his sons thought of applying it and they argue.Troy does not want his son to play basket ball since he does not him to experience the racial discrimination he went through during the time he was contend baseball. The man does not back down his argument and following(a) his experience with racial discrimination he is not ready to be his son go through the same. As a result, Troy even approaches Corys coach and tells him that his son pass on no longer be playing football. Upon discovery of his fathers lies, Cory confronts him and they end up in a fight that causes Cory to be thrown out of the house by his father.This scenario shows the effect that racial discrimination had to Troys life. Following him denying his son the opportunity to play college football with an excuse of racial discrimination, one can see that indeed Troy had gone through tough time due to racial discrimination and he was nurseing his son. Despite his time of playing baseball and that of his son playing football being different, Troy could hardly be lieve that racial discrimination could have melted away, thus, the unmoved(p) stand exhibited by him(Wiggins & Miller).Consequently, after Cory is kicked out of the house, they no longer worry along with his dad. This can be seen during the final act when Troy dies and Cory refuses to face the funeral due to the long-standing resentment. However, after his mothers persuasion, Cory attends the funeral to pay respect to the man who had tirelessly struggled to provide for them even if he was hard headed. The rivalry mingled with son and father can be traced back to have been ca apply by racial discrimination. This is due to the fact that if Troy had not suffered through discrimination, he could not have denied his son to take the collegefootball scholarship and as a result they could not have argued to the extent of by and by not setting eyes on one another. One can see the indirect effect that racial discrimination had to peoples lives (Wiggins & Miller). Further, during Troys bu rial, Cory had just come from the military training. This can be canvass as a positive step towards fighting racial discrimination. This follows the fact that during his fathers youth days, certain jobs opportunities such as association the military were mostly given to the whites.Therefore seeing Cory feeler out of the military training it is evident that with time, racial discrimination had come to subdue thus allowing African-Americans be able to get job opportunities which earlier being people of color they could not easily get. In addition, throughout the play, Troy is shown as a man who had a different cultural yield or different socialization. First, this can be seen through his son Lyon who was from an earlier marriage. Further, in the play, Rose discovers that his husband has been having an affair with a lady called Alberta and he had made her pregnant.However, Alberta dies during childbirth and Rose accepts to adopt her daughter Raynell whose father Troy dies when she is seven years old. Being an African-American, the act of having more than one wife is not out of the norms owing to African culture with him. However, palpateing himself in a society where polygamy is viewed as a thing past by time, Troy could not marry Rose while still having the get-go wife and he could not bring Alberta as another wife thus he ended up having an affair with her other than coming to the light (Sofola)..In the African culture, to which Troy can still find some association, most communities allow polygamous marriages as this is seen as wealthiness as the man will have many children from these wives. Traditionally, in the African culture having more than one wife was seen as a prevalent sign that a man had more resources that would allow him to marry as many women as he pleased. However, the culture was against adultery and a man would not be allowed to bear children outside marriage unless he would later end up marrying the lady (Sofola)..Therefore, although t he African culture among the African-Americans was fading away, its play continued to affect them for years. Consequently, Troy was a man who had been influenced by this culture but the society which he currently lived in was not in support of the culture. Therefore, this explains his act in life of having a first marriage, because marrying Rose and finally having an affair with Alberta.Troys case shows the effect that migration to the West had to African-Americans it did not only give them a hard time trying to fit in a society where they were less regarded but it also eroded their cultures and presented them with a different and difficult socialization (Sofola). Having canvas the play, one would seek to answer the question on why it was given the title Fences. First, the theme of racial discrimination can be seen to have portrayed the title Fences. This is seen throughout the play where lines of racial discrimination were used to deny Troy and other African-Americans job opport unities.This judgment on bases of color is a fence in itself since it prevented them from getting good money to support their families. In addition, Troy could not join professional baseball playing due to the fence of racial discrimination. However, to Cory, his father is the fence that does not allow him to get the college football scholarship after he refused him on the rationality of racial discrimination. In addition and to the literal meaning, Rose wanted to take a leak a fence and forced Troy to start so that she could protect what is hers in the inside and leave what belongs to the society outside the fence. Conclusionthroughout the play, racial discrimination is shown as the cause of anything that Troys family is termination through. One can appreciate the writers overemphasize on this issue owing to the fact that this play is set in the 1950s when racial discrimination was still evidently being experienced. The play assists one to understand the effect that racial discr imination had on the lives of African-Americans as closely as the influence of Western culture to their socialization and culture. This play will assist in keeping the history of the experience of African-Americans in the American society and it will remain to be a crucial vox of literature.