Fences Research

The Impact of Physical and Psychological Boundaries in August Wilsons Fences The wee 1950s was a age of enormous importance beca workout of the Civil Rights nominal head which emphasized equal rights for blacks and albumens. According to the book Approaching books, this time limit became very familiar to August Wilson, the author of the play Fences. Wilson, an African American earth, was raised by his mother and his ex-convict father. For a short period of time, in the beginning moving back to his old neighborhood, Wilson lived in a primarily unclouded neighborhood where he experienced the feeling of organism on the outside. When he was in the ninth grade he had a teacher that believed at that place was no way he could have written an intelligent, twenty foliate research paper on Napoleon Bonaparte, so she accused him of plagiarism. This mishap pushed Wilson to drop out of high school and teach himself. From that point on, he began educating himself by reading through the section of black authors in the topical anesthetic library. Wilson had strong views and opinions about the rights of African Americans.So much so, that he wrote quite a few plays concerning this study part of history. (1024) In Wilsons play, Fences, how does he use psychological and somatogenetic shorearies to constitute the emotional separations between his characters? Baseball becomes the near prominent image in Wilsons play. troy weight Maxson, the protagonist of the play, worn-out(a) m all years learning and playing this game. Sheri Metzger, the author of An Essay on Fences, believes that Baseball defines troy Maxsons life and provides the measure of his success. (1) As we already know, in his prime, troy weight was a great baseball game player and he strongly believed that he was not t kiboshing(p) the opportunity to play in the major leagues because of the color of his skin. He constant quantityly comp ard himself to the ball players that made it to the major leag ues, such as Hank Aaron, saying I can hit forty-three home runs right now (1048) This not only represents the beleaguer that re exigents the achievements of blacks and their constant struggle in a white society, remedy as well as Troys psychological boundaries between himself and mainstream America.On a first analysis of the physical boundary that exists between father and son, Troy and Cory, we must look at their birth. Their bond was typical of any teenage boy and his father they broadly got along. The boundary comes up in the play when Cory asks Troy to sign the cover that would allow him to go to college on a football scholarship. simply when Troy refuses, claiming that the colored guy got to be twice as good as the white player before he get on the team, (1047) the boundary becomes very real.He also notes that even if they do let black players on the team, They sit on the bench and dont get used. (1047) Troy is still so angry over what he beholds as his own lost oppor tunities with baseball and the injustice of it all that he cant take any pleasure in the fact that his own son is getting a once in a lifetime opportunity to play football in college, for free He is still stuck in the past where he was refused a chance to play professional baseball. He is bitter because deep down he is afraid that his son will go on to be more successful than he eer was.The scene where Cory comes at his father with a baseball bat illustrates quite a contrary image of the traditional father-and-son backyard baseball game we see in movies or books. This shows the huge gap in their birth and Troys unavoidableness for control. According to Gerald Weales, the author of Review of Fences in the Commonweal, Troy not subscribe the papers for Cory was a destructive act that lead to this final enemy between the two. (1) Troy feels the need to confine Cory within his authority, but Cory hates being stuck behind the make dos his father has put up so he escapes, departu re his family behind.Yet, when Cory overhauls, we find that in his attempt to free himself he has become bound within the confines of a far more strict creation the Marine Corps. Metzger argues that Cory finally escaped his fathers authority, just to be placed under the authority of people far more strict and controlling. (3) Another physical boundary exists between husband and wife, Troy and go. At the beginning of the play, Troy is building a fence for Rose although he sees absolutely no use for it.Because shes so focused on keeping all the people she loves safe and inside its walls, Rose is on the whole insensible that the fence is actually pushing her loved ones away. Since spending time in prison, Troy views fences as restrictions or limitations, so he is in no hurry to build Roses fence. moreover as the play goes on we see that afterward eighteen years of man and wife, Troy feels confined by the responsibility and loyalty that come with it and needs to tumble out of those constraints. He wants so badly to be free from the ties of marriage that he has an affair with another woman, Alberta.Although, in his mind he bust free of those marital boundaries, realistically, he just put up thus far another fence. Rose later finds out about this affair and consequently Troy tells her that Alberta died while giving birth to their daughter, Raynell. Troy, being the thoughtless man he is, begs Rose to take care of his illegitimate daughter. And Rose, being the large-minded woman she is, agrees to raise the child because she knows that Raynell is an innocent child who was simply innate(p) into a bad situation. Rose tells Troy, Raynell will have a mother, but he will be a womanless man for the rest of his life. (1071) Later, after Albertas death, Troy finally completes the fence. But rather than finishing it for Rose, as originally intended, he does it for his own reasons of keeping out danger and death. Meanwhile, Rose is still trapped with the responsibi lities and pressures that life brings. But towards the end of the play we see that she escapes Troys fence, only to exchange it for one established by the church. According to Metzger, Religion provides its own fences and restraints, and for Rose, who decided to stay with Troy, the church offers a haven within its institutionalized walls. (1040) Rose willingly puts herself behind a fence that is a little more bearable, saying, Jesus builds a fence around me every day. (1040) There are also some psychological fences in this play that Troy has absolutely no control over. The mental hospital where Troy confines Gabriel offers one example of that kind of fence. Gabe, who suffered persistent brain damage as a result of injuries he original while serving in World War II, now thinks of himself as an angel. Although Troy views this fence as something thats irritating and in his way, Gabe, unaware of all of this, continues on in his childlike innocence.Troy has a guilty moral sense becaus e he institutionalized Gabe and then used his disability money to sacrifice for the house that he now lives in. This incident further breaks down the relationship between Troy and Cory because when he finds out what his father has done, Cory treats him with open discourtesy and tells him that he no longer counts. Once again, we see that Gabe simply isnt aware of these things, therefore hes unaffected by these events that dramatically change the others lives. Gabes persistence shows hope for the afterlife. According to Joseph H.Wressling, the author of Wilsons Fences, Gabe, just like Rose, illustrates unconditional love. (3) Now that Cory and Troys relationship has no chance of any reconciliation, Cory leaves and Troy loses any hope of ever seeing his son again before he dies. Cory doesnt return again until the day of his fathers funeral when he finally meets his sister, Raynell. Cory, still remembering the broken relationship with his father, did not want to attend the funeral. But Rose convinced him to go and pay his respects to his father because he never meant any harm. Troy had always said that he had given his children everything he could.Cory didnt always agree with his father, but he overcame that and broke down a barrier and finally forgave his father. Before the funeral Troys simpleminded brother Gabe, with his trumpet, came to blow open the gates of Heaven for Troys arrival. His attempts at blowing his trumpet failed because there was no mouthpiece on it. But Gabe, in his childlike innocence improvises. He begins to dance about and prattle to the Heavens for his brother. Finished with his dance and satisfied that the gates of Heaven are open and ready for Troy, Gabe says, Thats the way that go (1083).Wilson uses many of his characters and their relationships to show their physical and psychological separations between each other and the world. By the end of Fences, all of Wilsons characters are bound by a fence of some sort. Although Raynell s tands behind the fence that her father finally finished, she is expected to go far beyond that boundary and strive for a better future than her father and everyone else. She shows that there is hope for the future. Works Cited 1. Metzger, Sheri. An essay on Fences. maneuver for Students. Detroit Gale. From Literature Resource Center. Web. 9 Nov. 2010. 2. Schakel, Peter J. and Jack Ridl. August Wilsons Fences A Form in Depth. Approaching Literature Writing Reading Thinking. capital of Massachusetts Bedford/St. Martins, 2008. 1024-083. Print. 3. Weales, Gerald. Review of Fences in the Commonweal, Volume CXIV, no. 10, May 22, 1987, pp. 320-21. Drama for Students. Ed. David M. Galens. Vol. 3. Detroit Gale, 1998. From Literature Resource Center. Web. 9 Nov. 2010. 4. Wessling, Joseph H. Wilsons Fences. Explicator 57. 2 (Winter 1999) 123-127. Rpt. In Contemporary literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 222. Detroit Gale, 2006. From Literature Resource Center. Web. 9 Nov. 2010.