Analyzing the Fences
Prompt#1
The Fences play presents the lifestyle of an African American family that seeks to succeed in different levels of society. Troy is the main protagonist in the play who expresses his abilities to protect and provide for his family. As a father, Troy effectively provides and controls the behaviors of his children. As a husband of Rose, Troy ensures that the family is fed and making good decisions. He provides advice to his son Lyons on the decisions he should make as he tries to be a musician. Although Troy works hard to provide for the family, he fails to show love and care as a father and husband. He aggressively criticizes the habits of his wife Rose to play with numbers, the decisions of his sons Lyon and Cory to become a musician and a footballer effectively. Troy argues, ‘The colored guy got to be twice as good before he get on the team. That’s why I don’t want you to get all tied up in them sports.’ Troy does not allow the family members chances to pursue what interests them.
The African family traditions expect the family to get guided by an authoritarian leader. Troy’s character achieves in applying for these roles through stories that provide an understanding of the love between family and the loved ones. Troy argues, ‘It’s my responsibility! You understand that? A man got to take care of his family.’ Troy defies the traditions by having a secret affair and failing to define how the family accesses the inheritance. Troy’s secret affair with Alberta breaks the traditional values of honesty to wife and family. His inability to spell out the inheritance leaves the family with conflicts.
The character of Troy is defined by his past disappointments in life. Troy’s decisions on the careers of his sons (Lyon and Cory) are guided by his hardships to develop and succeed in a racist society. Troy decides what is right or wrong to his sons through his historical experience on the acceptance of blacks. Troy inherited the sense of responsibility from his father. These traits guided him to become a better breadwinner to the family contrary to his Friend Bono who is afraid of father children through his experience with irresponsible father.
Prompt#2.
The Fences in the play get applied as literal and figurative devices that create bonds and breaks within the relationships in the play. The play depends on the building of a fence around Maxson’s compound. The character’s life activities occur around the fence. Fences allude to the factors that prevent the individuals in the play to change. Rose uses the fence as a factor that gets to hold her loved ones. The fence to Rose presents the love and nurturing concerns for her family.
The fence symbolizes the factors that prevent people from achieving change. Fences in troy represent the ability to prevent or push people and ideas away. The inability of Troy to finish building the fences, get likened to his ability to commit himself to Rose, thus pushing her away. The fences symbolize the dynamics of the family as members separate and unite. The family gets disunited when Troy prevents the children to pursue their promising career. As the death of Troy, The family reunites. The fences symbolize the effects Troy had on his family.
The fences get effectively applied to create the plot of the play. The division of the fences effectively represents the separation of people and ideas. These include the experiences expressed by Troy through the separation of the blacks to the society through his baseball career and job career. Troy asserts, ‘ I thought I was in freedom. Shhh. Colored folks living down there on the riverbanks in whatever kind of shelter they could find for themselves’. The fences enclose the world from the future. Troy may never enter the future due to the borders that he has created that the society has not changed. The family of Maxson gets affected by the fences that existed in the society through race divisions.
References
Wilson, A. (2016). Fences (Vol. 6). Penguin. https://archive.org/stream/WilsonFences/Wilson%20Fences_djvu.txt