Plot Account of Fences by August Wilson

Week 1

The topic is : Plot Account of Fences by August Wilson

The play’s title is a manifestation of its primary theme: the ways that people protect themselves from forces bigger and more powerful than themselves, yet also trap those they love into relationships of conflict. Each character in the play attempts to create their own emotional fence to control others and protect themselves from those they love most. Though the play is meant to give a realistic picture of life in the industrial north of the 1950’s, the themes of Fences are also meant to be universal for all audiences.

Wilson spends much of the first scene establishing the characters, their relationships, and the world of black working-class Pittsburgh. This scene introduces the play’s protagonist, Troy Maxson. Troy is a man of many layers. He is a devoted husband and father, though as we learn he is also controlling and unfaithful. He is forward thinking – he fights for equality and his job and he pursues the American Dream – yet he also feels helpless in a world that seems to be passing him by. Most importantly, perhaps, he is a man that wants his children to have everything he did not, yet cannot seem to stand the idea that they would bypass the hardships that he had to go through.

Jim Bono is Troy’s closest friend and confidant. It is noteworthy that Troy says the words “I love you” to Bono, but not to his sons. Bono is Wilson’s representation of African American brotherhood and their close relationship explores how masculine bonding creates an intimacy not shared with family. Rose Maxson, Troy’s wife, is the epitome of this intimate divide. Rose represents the choices (and lack thereof) for African American women in 1957. She has the inner strength to love Troy and to care for his children even in the face of Troy’s unfaithfulness, but she can never define herself outside the boundaries of family.

Troy’s sons act as a mirror of his best and worst qualities. Lyons Maxson, Troy’s oldest, is a jazz musician. He is laid back and unconcerned with daily problems. His is a much different life than Troy’s, but Troy begrudgingly respects Lyons for rejecting the proscriptions of society. Cory, introduced in the second scene, is the truest representation of the conflict between father and son, a dominant theme throughout the play.

Troy’s relationship with Rose and Bono and his relationship with his sons is a study in contrast. In this early scene, Troy enters the play as a clown. He makes crude and funny sexual advances towards his wife and he jovially drinks and gossips with his friend Bono. When Lyons appears, however, the conflict between father and son becomes apparent. Troy might somehow admire Lyons’ choices in life, but it is only because he has no control over his son. The audience later finds out that Troy spent most of Lyons’ childhood in prison. Now, he can only be a spectator as Lyons lives his life. Though Troy does not approve of his son’s lifestyle, he understands that Lyons can only do what he wants to do. Troy’s issue with loaning Lyons money symbolizes this. Troy knows that his ten dollars will only go to support his son’s jazz career and so he gives him a hard time about it. In the end, Lyons gets the money circuitously through Rose because Troy cannot help but support his son. Lyons’ declaration that jazz music gives his life meaning is powerful for Troy since he feels that his life has had no other meaning beyond responsibility for other of its primary theme: the ways that people protect themselves from forces bigger and more powerful than themselves, yet also trap those they love into relationships of conflict. Each character in the play attempts to create their own emotional fence to control others and protect themselves from those they love most. Though the play is meant to give a realistic picture of life in the industrial north of the 1950’s, the themes of Fences are also meant to be universal for all audiences.

Wilson spends much of the first scene establishing the characters, their relationships, and the world of black working-class Pittsburgh. This scene introduces the play’s protagonist, Troy Maxson. Troy is a man of many layers. He is a devoted husband and father, though as we learn he is also controlling and unfaithful. He is forward thinking – he fights for equality and his job and he pursues the American Dream – yet he also feels helpless in a world that seems to be passing him by. Most importantly, perhaps, he is a man that wants his children to have everything he did not, yet cannot seem to stand the idea that they would bypass the hardships that he had to go through.

Jim Bono is Troy’s closest friend and confidant. It is noteworthy that Troy says the words “I love you” to Bono, but not to his sons. Bono is Wilson’s representation of African American brotherhood and their close relationship explores how masculine bonding creates an intimacy not shared with