Fences by August Wilson begins in 1957 with fifty-three-year-old Troy Maxson and his long-time friend, Jim Bono, drinking on Troy's porch a Friday (payday) night ritual. The friends, both trash (garbage) collectors, discuss their boss, Rand and a complaint Troy had filed about working conditions that deny black garbage workers the opportunity to drive garbage trucks. Bono asks about Alberta, a woman he has seen in Troy's company; Troy ignores his friend's inquiries.

Rose, Troy's wife for eighteen years, joins Troy and Jim on the porch. Troy explains to Jim about how he and Rose first met; Rose corrects his version of what happened. Troy and Rose disagree about shopping at the local black grocery store versus shopping at the A&P supermarket. 

 Their difference of opinion continues when they discuss their teenage son, Cory, and his plans to play college football. College football recruiters want to talk to them about their son, but Troy shows no interest. As a young man, Troy was a great baseball player, but he says segregation kept him out of the major leagues, an experience that has embittered him. Troy then recalls and re-enacts a near-death experience he had while he was sick with pneumonia, a story he tells often. Lyons, in his early thirties, is Troy's son by an earlier marriage. He stops by to say hello. Troy anticipates that he wants to borrow money. Lyons rejects Troy's offer to get him a job because it is his music that gives his life meaning. Troy directs his son to get ten dollars from Rose, because she is the one who gets her husband's pay-cheque every Friday.

In Act I, Scene 2, Troy wants Cory's help building the fence he has promised his wife he would build. Rose tells him his son is at football practice. Troy's brother, Gabriel, appears. Because of a war injury to his head, Gabriel believes he is actually the Archangel Gabriel from the Bible. He recently moved out of Troy's house. He is proud of the move, but he thinks it upsets Troy. Troy used the mone) given to Gabriel for his war injury to pay for the house they have shared until now.

In Act I, Scene 3, Cory comes home, and Troy rebukes him about falling behind on his chores. A they work on the fence together, Cory tells Troy he left his job to focus on football. Troy continues refuse to meet with the football recruiter despite Cory's pleas, and he insists his son get another job

When Cory asks Troy why he doesn't like him, Troy talks about responsibility. After Cory leaves, Rose asks Troy why he will not allow his son to play football. Troy clearly does not trust the recruiter or

understand that times have changed.

Act I, Scene 4 takes place on the next Friday night with Troy and Bono engaged in their weekend ritual. Troy tells Rose, Bono, and Lyons that Mr Rand has made him the first black driver. Troy and Bono talk about their fathers and how they left home. Later, when Cory comes home, he is furious that Troy has forbidden the coach to let him play football or be recruited by a college team. The act ends

after Cory insults Troy, who tells his son, "That's strike one." As Act II opens, Troy has posted bail for Gabriel after the disabled veteran was arrested for disturbing the peace. Bono reminds Troy that Rose is a good woman, and Troy admits to having an affair with Alberta. He says he loves Rose but cannot end the affair. Troy confesses to Rose that Alberta

is going to have his child. Troy tries to explain what the affair means to him, but Rose turns to walk away, accusing Troy of taking but never giving. Troy grabs her roughly, and Cory hits his father. Troy is ready to strike back, but Rose stops him. He calls strike two on Cory. Act II, Scene 2 occurs six months later. Alberta is about to have the baby. Troy has signed papers

to have Gabriel institutionalized. Troy is now entitled to half of Gabriel's money every month. As Rose accuses Troy of selling out his brother, a phɔne call informs them Alberta has died in childbirth. The scene ends with Troy challenging Death, who has taken Alberta, to come to him. In Act II, Scene 3, Troy brings home his infant daughter. Rose agrees to help Troy care for the baby but says she is finished with him.

Act II, Scene 4 takes place on another Friday night a few weeks later. Lyons returns money he had borrowed from Troy. Bono, who has not visited for some time, stops by. The two also see each other less often at work since Troy's promotion; their connection has been lost. Cory comes home and tries to force his way past his father, who is drunk and singing on the steps. The two get in a verbal fight that turns physical. Troy throws Cory out of the house. As he leaves, Cory says he has no intention of coming back. Alone, Troy taunts Death again. Act II, Scene 5 takes place seven years later. It is the morning of Troy's funeral. Cory, a corporal in the US Marine Corps, returns home for his father's funeral. Jim compliments Cory on his achievements and tells him, "Your daddy knew you had it in you." Lyons, who has been in prison for cashing other people's cheques, bad received permission to attend his father's funeral. Still bitter, however, Cory informs his mother that he does not plan to attend the funeral. Rose reminds him that Troy was his father. Cory and his half-sister, Raynell, strike up a conversation and begin to sing Troy's childhood song about Old Blue, prompting Cory to change his mind and attend his father's funeral. Gabe, who is still institutionalized, also had received permission to attend his brother's funeral. Gabe sees this as a momentous time: he takes out his trumpet and prepares to signal Saint Peter to open the gates of heaven for Troy. When no sound comes out, he does a ritualistic dance and chant. In the play's final moment, we're told the gates of heaven are wide open.

This family shows many of the problems that African-Americans faced during this time dealing with racism, lack of money, insufficient job opportunities, and the stress of holding it all together. It ends somewhat sadly with most of the characters in worse situations than where they began, almost all due to Troy's influence on their lives. The only one with true potential for success is Raynell since Troy is gone, and she can make her own decisions without his influence.

August Wilson was named Frederick August Kittel when he was born to a German father and an African-American mother in 1945. Wilson was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. His father drifted in and out of his family. His mother and a stepfather, David Bedford, mostly raised Wilson. When Wilson was sixteen, he was accused of plagiarism at school when he wrote a sophisticated paper that the administration did not believe he could write. When Wilson's principal would not recognize the validity of Wilson's work, she suspended him and later ignored his attempts to come back to school. Wilson soon dropped out and educated himself at the local library, reading everything he could find. In the 1960s, Wilson got himself involved in the black power movement while he worked on his poetry and short stories. Eventually, in the sixties, Wilson re-invented himself as a playwright. His work was nurtured through institutions like the Yale School of Drama, where the Dean of the Drama School at the time, theatre director Lloyd Richards, recognized Wilson's talent.

Wilson took it upon himself the responsibility to write a play about black experiences in the United States for every decade of the 20th century. Fences is his play about blacks in the 1950s. Beginning in 1957, between the Korean and Vietnam wars, Fences ends in 1965, but the themes of the play directly place its consciousness in a pre-civil-rights-movement, pre-Vietnam-war-era psyche.

In Fences as in Wilson's other plays, a tragic character helps pave the way for other blacks to have opportunities under conditions they were never free to experience, but never reaped from their own sacrifice and talents themselves. This is Troy Maxson's situation. Troy's last name, "Maxson," is a compressed reference to the Mason-Dixon line, considered as the imaginary line originally conceived of in 1820 to define the separation between the slave states and the free states. Maxson represents an

amalgamation of Troy's history in the south and present life in the north that are inextricably linked. Wilson purposefully sets the play during the season Hank Aaron led the Milwaukee Braves to the World Series, beating the New York Giants. When Fences takes place, blacks like Aaron proved they could not only compete with white ballplayers, but that they would be leaders in the professional league.

All of Wilson's plays take place in his hometown of Pittsburgh, and Fences is no exception. The Pittsburgh of the Maxson family is a town where Troy and other men of his generation fled from the savage conditions of sharecropping in the south. After Reconstruction failed, many blacks walked north as far as they could go to become urban citizens. Having no resources or infrastructure to depend on,

men like Bono and Troy found their way in the world by spending years living in shacks, stealing, and in jail. Wilson's characters testify to the fact that the United States failed blacks after Lincoln abolished slavery and that the government's failure, made effective legally through Jim Crow laws and other

lawful measures to ensure inequality, continues to affect many black lives. Wilson portrays the 1950s as a time when a new world of opportunity for blacks began to open up, leaving those like Troy, who grew up in the first half of the century, to feel like a stranger in their own land.

The Negro Leagues and their linkage to Fences

In August Wilson's Fences, Troy Maxson is a former Negro League baseball player who narrowly missed the opportunity to play in the Major Leagues. When he was a young player at the top of his game, Major League Baseball was segregated. The first African-American baseball players were not recruited to the majors until Troy was already too old to be a viable team member. This experience leaves Troy cold and bitter, and it influences his relationship with his son, Cory, who has aspirations of playing college football.

This experience was not an uncommon one for the scores of African-American baseball players who played in the Negro Leagues. Only now, approximately fifty years after the dissolution of the last

Negro League teams, are the skills and talent of these Negro League players beginning to be honoured by modern day baseball. A look at the history of Negro League baseball offers a glimpse into a world of segregation, but it also offers a look at an elite group of skilled players representing their communities on a national stage.

Until the 1950s, baseball in America mirrored the broader racial culture. In baseball, the all-white National and American Leagues reaped most of the money, prestige, and attention for professional sports fans. African-American baseball players played in the Negro Leagues. The Negro Leagues had their beginnings in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century with the organization of the first professional paid teams of baseball players. These teams would participate in circuits, called

Bamstormer leagues, where teams would travel across the United States playing in large cities and small towns or anywhere else that provided a field and fans. In 1920 the first professional league of black baseball teams was organized by Rube Foster, a baseball pitcher and manager. The league was named the Negro National League. It consisted of eight teams: The Chicago American Giants, Chicago Giants, Dayton Marcos, Detroit Stars, Indianapolis ABC's, Kansas City Monarchs, St. Louis Giants, and the Cuban Stars.

The history of Negro League baseball is best seen through the careers of famous Negro legends Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson (both are mentioned in Wilson's play). Paige is considered to be not just one of the best Negro League pitchers ever but also one of the greatest pitchers in the history of the entire game of baseball. Paige suffered a rough childhood, he was born into poverty and resorted to stealing by the time he was a boy. He was sent to Mt. Meigs Juvenile detention centre as a child. It was here that Paige first learned the game of baseball and learned that he had a special talent for pitching.

In the Negro League World Series of 1942, Paige claimed that he intentionally loaded the bases just so that he could pitch to Josh Gibson, the league's best batter, and strike him out on three straight pitches.

Gibson himself is, perhaps, a model for Troy Maxson in Fences. Gibson was known as the best hitter in Negro League baseball. According to the Baseball Hall of Fame, into which Gibson was inducted in

1972, Gibson hit almost 800 home runs in his career.

Like Troy Maxson in Fences, Josh Gibson would never play in the white Major Leagues. This fact haunted Gibson for much of his life. Later in his life, he is reported to have suffered from alcoholism

and depression, diseases that his former teammates and friends say were brought on by his frustration and disappointment with the game. Gibson died of a stroke in 1947, just months before baseball was

integrated when Jackie Robinson signed a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Satchel Paige, on the other hand, would get the chance to play in the Major Leagues. At the age of 42, Paige was signed by the Cleveland Indians to pitch from their bullpen during the pennant race of 1948 Though his pitching was not as electric as it had been in his younger days, Paige played a crucial role in helping the Indians win the American League pennant that year. In 1965, in what was considered

a gimmick promotion, Paige was brought on to pitch in a game for the Kansas City Royals. He thus became the oldest man to ever pitch or play in the Major Leagues

The Negro Leagues, as seen through the lives of its players, is remembered as a symbol of both great injustice and great achievement. Several of its players, including Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron, would go on to legendary careers in the Major Leagues. Most of the League's great players, however, were denied the chance to compete against their white counterparts. Players such as Gibson

and Paige, including other great stars like Monte Irvin, Cool Papa Bell, and Judy Johnson, are not only fondly remembered for their individual achievements but also for the way they ushered in a golden era

of black baseball. Through such distinguished players, baseball was not just white America's game, but a game for all Jackie Robinson and the integration of baseball America's pastime and its history of segregation shape Fences's protagonist, Troy Maxson. From the days after the Civil War, African-Americans and whites played professional baseball, together and separately. In 1890, however, a “gentleman's agreement" among team owners effectively barred African-Americans from playing in the major leagues. The Negro National League was established in 1920 and featured some extraordinary talents, notably Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson. Salaries, however, were generally less than those in Major League Baseball. Then came Jackie Robinson. In 1946, the general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Branch Rickey, determined to integrate baseball, searched for an African-American player who would "have the guts not to fight back" against the racial slurs from players and fans. Robinson made, and held to this agreement. After one year in the minor

leagues, the second baseman joined the Brooklyn Dodgers and broke the colour barrier, eventually winning over his teammates and the fans. Robinson paved the way for other African-American players and Hispanic players to follow in his footsteps. Robinson is mentioned in Act I, Scene I of Fences (see pp. 11 & 12). Rose says he broke the colour line and "they got a lot of colored baseball players

now" (p. 12). Troy is not convinced, and he doesn't think much of Robinson's talent. Robinson and his achievement, however, had already changed the sporting world by 1957, even if Troy doesn't see or

acknowledge it. Civil rights movement

A key issue in Fences is the generation gap between Troy and Cory. Troy is stuck in a past dominated by Jim Crow laws and segregation. As the child of a sharecropper, these bitter legacies of slavery shaped Troy's childhood and young adulthood. When Troy leaves his father's small plot of land for Pittsburgh,

he had had no education and no legitimate way to survive in the city. Once out of jail, Troy tries to make a living using the one skill he has - playing baseball. But this path is blocked, mainly because he comes out of jail a middle-aged man.

Troy's experience leaves him embittered and blinded to the changes around him. The action in the play begins in 1957, three years after Brown v. Board of Education led to the desegregation of public schools, and the same year Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, was forcibly integrated. Troy is unable to see how these changes could make a life for his son that is very different from his own. Other characters in Fences see these changes and want to live their lives according to a new set of rules. August Wilson's setting the play in this period enhances Troy's internal conflict and his conflict with Cory. 

The Pittsburgh Cycle

Fences is part of a 10-play cycle known as the Pittsburgh Cycle or the Century Cycle, in which Wilson addresses important issues African-Americans faced between the 1900s and the 1990s. Fences represents the decade of the 1950s. Wilson set all but one of the plays in Pittsburgh, not just because he grew up

there but also because he thought the city epitomized black America. Wilson didn't write the plays in chronological order. The first in the cycle, Jitney (1982), is set in the 1970s. Jitneys were unlicensed cabs that operated in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, where legal cabs would not go. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1984), the second play written in the cycle, is the only one not based in Pittsburgh's Hill District, unfolding instead in 1920s Chicago. Fences, the third play written in the cycle, focuses on Pittsburgh in the 1950s. The plays are not meant to be a serial, but they are unified by their themes: "My plays are ultimately about love, honor, duty, betrayal," said Wilson. They also feature recurring characters, settings, and motifs, such as blues and jazz. 

Roles and Characters analysis of characters in the fences

Troy Maxson

Roles and character analysis of  Tory Maxson

Troy is a hardworking, middle-aged family man, has a commanding presence and a big personality. He is a fifty-three-year-old African-American; the main character, the protagonist, of the play; works for the sanitation department as a garbage man and later a driver. He is also a talented baseball player.  He is husband to Rose, father to Lyons, Cory, and Raynell, and brother to Gabriel. Lives with his wife, Rose, and son, Corey, in the Hill District of Pittsburgh.

Troy is by turns funny, provocative, inspiring and hurtful, but one thing he will never be as long as he draws breath is silent. There is plenty of brag and bluster in his speech, as well as flecks of profanity and poetry. He tells tales and busts chops with unflagging energy, at times testing the patience of Rose, Bono, and his other friends and relations.  Troy begins the play by entertaining Bono and Rose with an epic story about his struggle with a personified Death, or Devil, character. Another example of Troy's ability to live in a fictitious world is his denial to his best friend, Bono about the reality of his extramarital affair with Alberta.  Troy also aggressively disagrees with Lyons' decision to be a musician and Cory's decision to play football in college, as well as Rose's habit of playing the numbers.

 He had a rough childhood and left home at age 14. He was an excellent baseball player and might have had the skill to play in the major leagues if he hadn't spent his prime years in prison. He is a responsible family breadwinner, bringing his wages home to his wife. To shield his son from heartbreak, Troy refuses to help him achieve his dream of playing college football, which only pushes Cory away from him.  He plays the dominant role in his over thirty-year friendship with fellow sanitation worker, Jim Bono.

 Although Troy loves his wife, Rose, he has an affair with Alberta, who becomes pregnant. Troy's years of hard-work for only meagre progress depress him. Troy often fails to provide the love and support that would mean the most to his loved ones. Troy's last name, Maxson, is an amalgamation of Mason and Dixon, after the Mason-Dixon line, the name for the imaginary line that separated the slave states from the free states. Troy's name symbolically demonstrates Troy's character as one who lives on a line between two opposing ideas. Troy is a tragic hero; he is dedicated to a fault to providing for his family and to making sure his sons have better lives than he has had. He was once a great baseball player in the Negro Leagues, but he was too old to join the Major Leagues when they were integrated. His past mistakes and failures greatly influence his outlook on life and his relationship with his sons.  Troy swings the baseball bat in the air, taunting Death. He died of heart attack. It seems pretty clear to us that Troy Maxson is the protagonist of Fences. He's the centre of every scene. Even in the last scene of the play, after ite's dead, all anybody can do is talk about him.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CHARACTER OF TORY MAXSON

 Troy is a responsible man whose thwarted dreams make him prone to believing in self-created illusions. Fences is largely Troy's story. What all of the play's characters have in common is a complicated relationship with Troy. Troy's character creates the large and small conflicts with everyone else in Fences. Troy totally drives the action of the play; his deeds and misdeeds keep the drama going. It's Troy who puts his brother away in a mental hospital. It is Troy who has an affair. And it is Troy who crushes his son's dreams of college football and kicks him out of the house.

 A lot of these actions aren't particularly nice. Though Troy definitely has good qualities, a lot of what he does is bad, bad, bad. He's a great example of how the protagonist doesn't always have to be a "good guy." With Troy Maxson, August Wilson created a deeply flawed and deeply intriguing main character. As a former baseball star in the Negro Leagues. Troy's athletic ability diminished before the Major Leagues accepted blacks. Troy is a tragichero who has excessive pride for his breadwinning role.

Troy instigates conflict as a result of his ability to believe in self-created illusions and his inability to accept others' choices in life when they differ from his own philosophy. Rose often contradicts his stories about himself and versions of what happened in the past. Troy goes to Alberta to escape the responsibility he feels at home. But mostly, Troy makes no secret of his illiteracy, he uses language as a tool of analysis, a way of explaining what's on his mind and figuring out the shape of the world he must inhabit. Troy is bitter about the experience and about what he has lost. In reaction to the deprivation he experienced at his own father's hands, Troy is a hard worker and does all he can to care for his family. Troy however fails his family members in many ways due to poor choices based on past experiences. Troy's history is equal parts southern and northern, half-full of hope and half-filled with dis-appointment. He was once at the top of an exciting career opportunity as a ball-player that nose-dived into a life in a dead-end job.

 The son of an unsuccessful sharecropper, Troy provides a bridge to the Maxson family history in the south and to the effects slavery had and continues to have on generations of black lives. The south and the north define Troy's history and this duality drives a dividing line between him and his sons, Lyons and Cory, who grew up believing that they could achieve their dreams without unjust restraint. Through song and story-telling, Troy's character serves as the family.griot, a traditional role in African cultures as a paternal oral historian whose stories provide an understanding of the context of their loved ones' lives. Another duality is Troy's hypocrisy. Troy demands that his loved ones live practical, responsible lives while he has the freedom to have an affair, rebel against racist practices of his employers by protesting the limitation of black workers as lifters not drivers on the trash trucks. Troy refuses to see life in any way presented to him but the way he perceives events in his own head. That's a perfect way to describe almost everything Troy Maxson does. Though he used to be able to knock a baseball out of the park like it was nothing, he constantly “misses the mark” in his personal life. Like most tragic heroes, Troy does whatever he thinks is right. Even though the people around him warn him that the things he's doing may have tragic consequences, he stubbornly pursues his own course of action.

 Troy Maxson is a classically drawn tragic hero. He begins the play loved, admired and getting away with his secret affair. But eventually, Troy's death leaves many negative attributes as an inheritance for his family to sort out and accept.  For one thing, like every tragic hero, Troy has a clear-cut case of hamartia. This word is commonly translated from the Greek as "tragic flaw”; however, nore direct translation is "missing of the mark."

CORY MAXSON

Roles and character analysis  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. He is an ambitious young man who has the talent and determination to realize his dreams. In one scene, we see Cory try over and over to engage his father in an conversation about baseball, but Troy constantly shoots him down. Cory has a relationship of conflict and violence with Troy. He believes that Troy is trying to hold him back in life by refusing to sign papers that would allow him to go to college on a football scholarship. Troy insists that Cory get a real job and be responsible. Cory accuses his father of doing this out of jealousy, saying, "You just scared I'm gonna better than you, that's all” (1.4). On some level, this may be true. Troy never admits this, though. He tells Rose, “I got sense enough not to let my boy get hurt playing no sports” (1.3). Cory comes of age during the course of the play when he challenges and confronts Troy, hisnfather, and leaves home. We see Cory return home on the day of Troy's funeral wearing a Marine corporal's uniform. Stage directions tell us, “His posture is that of a military man, and his speech has a clipped sterness" At first, Cory tells his mother he's not going to Troy's funeral. He sees this as his last chance to "say no" to his father (1.5). Rose goes off on her son, saying that being disrespectful to his father isn't going to make him any more of a man. She advises her son, "That shadow wasn't nothing but you growing to yourself. You got to either grow into it or cut it down to fit you” (1.5). She continues, saying that she's trying to raise Raynell, Troy's illegitimate daughter, the same way Troy raised Cory: "I'm gonna give her the best of what's in me" (2.5). Cory finally changes his mind after sharing memories of his father with Rose and Raynell. Troy and Cory have had very different lives. In comparison to Troy's harsh childhood, Cory's has been pretty easy. He hasn't had to struggle as much as Troy did. When Troy was younger, racial discrimination was even worse than during the 1950s, when the play is set. We are still in the time before the Civil Rights Movement, but some advancements have been made. For example, professional sports teams have been integrated. This fact gives Cory a real chance at a sports career, while his father had none. All these factors add up to make Troy a much more bitter character than his son. Though it's easy to demonize Troy, it's important to realize that many of his actions are the result of his harsh upbringing Though Cory is a nice guy, he doesn't cause anything to happen; that's Troy's job in this play.

SIGNIFICANCE  OF THE CHARACTER OF CORY MAXSON

 As the play begins it appears Cory is really trying to be like his father. Rose even points this out to Troy, saying, “He's just trying to be like you with the sports" (1.3).  Later on in the play, we actually see Cory pick up Troy's bat and attempt to hit the rag ball in the front yard the way his father does. It's pretty ironic that Cory tries to be like his father by playing sports, because this is precisely the issue that tears them apart. Cory does not understand his father, but he does try to please him. When Troy refuses to meet with the college football recruiter, Cory is furious with his father. Ultimately, Cory needs to leave the house in order to make his own way in the world and escape his father's shadow. In Troy's mind, he doesn't halt Cory's sports career out of jealousy, but out of a fatherly urge to protect his son. We have a feeling that Troy puts an end to Cory's football dreams out of both his own bitterness and an urge to protect his son. It's just these sorts of incongruous collisions inside characters that make them complex. Though Cory is a nice guy, he doesn't cause anything to happen; that's Troy's job in this play.) The father/son battle at the climax is revealing. When you see the protagonist of a play fighting someone near the end, there's a high probability that that person is the antagonist. In this case, our protagonist, Troy, dukes it out and defeats none other than his son, Cory. This climactic battle makes it pretty clear that Fences has a case of one of the most likeable antagonists ever. It definitely seems like Cory has been through a lot since Troy kicked him out seven years We learn in this scene that Cory plans to get married soon. It seems like he's definitely to becoming his own man, but he's still haunted by his father. In the end, we're given hope that Cory will be able to find some middle ground. It seems likely that he'll be able to take the good things his father taught him and, perhaps, leave the bad things behind. It could be that the violent cycle of father-son rivalry that began between Troy and his father and continued with Troy and Cory may just be over. This moment of hope comes when Cory and Raynell sing a song that Troy used to always sing about a dog named Blue. When the two sing "Blue laid down and died like a man/Now he's treeing possums in the Promised Land" it seems pretty clear that they're really singing about Troy  When Cory sings, “You know Blue was a good old dog," it seems he may be finding peace with the shadow of his father (2.5). 

ROSE MAXSON

ROLE AND CHARACTER ANALYSIS OF ROSE MAXSON

Rose is Troy's second wife, whom he married after being released from prison. She is the mother of his second child, Cory. She is a forty-three year-old African-American housewife that is ever- dutiful Troy maintains an affectionate patriarchal relationship with Rose, demanding respect from her as the head of the household and primary breadwinner, though he is greatly influenced by her realistic take on the changing world.  Rose is a loving and supportive wife. She does everything she can to make him happy. Rose's request that Troy and Cory build a fence in their small, dirty 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. She is no doormat. She doesn't let Troy walk all over her, she always calls him on his crap. When he makes inappropriate sexual remarks in front of company, she tells him that's not cool. When he exaggerates stories,  she sets him straight. When she learns about his affair, she tells him off, saying, "You always talking about what you give...and what you don't have to give. But you take too. You take...and don't even know nobody's giving!" (2.1.122).

She has high hopes for her son, Cory, and sides with him in his wish to play football. After Troy cheats on her, Rose is heartbroken because she has given her all and made sacrifices as his wife. When Troy brings home Raynell, his child with Alberta, Rose agrees to care for her; but she will no longer be a wife to Troy. She devotes herself to the church. 

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CHARACTER OF ROSE MAXSON

 Rose's name, like August Wilson's mother's name, Daisy, is the name of a flower. Rose is some ways what you might expect of a 1950s-era housewife. She's always at home, cleaning or cooking. And, most important for a housewife of the time, she stands by her man. Even though Troy can be a jerk, Rose sticks by him for most of the play.  Flowers, seeds and planting comprise a motif that Wilson uses in Fences to represent nurturing, loving, kindness, and care because of the parallel qualities these attributes share with all living things that need nurturing to grow or change, like love and patience and forgiveness. Rose Maxson exemplifies these traits of compassion in all of her relationships, especially as a parent For Rose, the symbol of the fence has a protective meaning. She craves safety and security. These are the things she believed she would get from a relationship with Troy. She goes out of her way to please Troy and gives him wise advice on dealing with other people. Rose is beloved by the other characters, who see her as kind and sensible. Unlike Troy, Rose is a fair judge of character. She puts her faith in her husband and son and hopes for a better future while not begrudging the stagnant present situation. Rose's acceptance of Troy's illegitimate daughter, Raynell, as her own child, exemplifies her compassion. As a natural mother, she can't help but want to nurture and care for the baby. For the rest of the play, we see that Troy and Rose are totally estranged. Yet, she still leaves food in the kitchen for him, and he still pays the bills. But it's clear that, emotionally, Rose has severed her ties to her husband. Troy has lost the loving wife he once had. 

GABRIEL MAXSON

ROLE AND CHARACTER ANALYSIS OF GABRIEL MAXSON

 Gabriel, or Gabe, is Troy's brother. He's the only sibling Troy is still in touch with, though they grew up in a large family. Gabe suffered a traumatic head injury in World War II that left a metal plate in his head. Gabriel wanders around the Maxson family's neighbourhood 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.

Troy used Gabriel's disability cheque from the army to buy the house in which the play takes place. At the time of the play, Gabe has moved into his own apartment, a fact that weighs on Troy. Just before the play begins, Gabriel has moved out to live with a lady named Ms Pearl. Gabriel is afraid that Troy is mad at him for moving out because now Troy no longer gets the disability cheque. Troy denies this. However, later in the play, Troy has Gabe committed to a mental hospital and again starts receiving half of Gabriel's cheque. Because of his head injury, Gabriel thinks he is his own Biblical namesake - the Archangel Gabriel himself. Gabe spends a lot of time chasing hell hounds and reminiscing about all the lovely biscuits he's shared with St. Peter. After Troy dies, he tries to open the gates of heaven with his trumpet 

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CHARACTER OF GABRIEL MAXSON

Because of an injury suffered during battle in World War II, Gabriel is out of touch with reality acts in a childlike manner and believes he is the Archangel Gabriel, waiting for St. Peter to open the gates of heaven for all of the saved. Though Troy believes his brother should be free, Troy eventually signs papers to put Gabriel in an institution. Troy says it wasn't about the money, but we think this seems pretty suspicious.  Gabriel is the wise fool, a character who often sounds silly or nonsensical, but who often knows more about the characters around him than they know about themselves. When he talks to his brother Troy in riddles about hellhounds and St. Peter in Act I, Scene Two, Gabe seems to observe Troy's fates with clarity. He tries, in his playful language, to warn Troy of his tragic fate. When Troy dies, Gabriel prays for his brother to be received in heaven. 

Jim Bono

ROLE OF THE CHARACTER OF JIM BONO

Jim Bono is Troy's friend, co-worker, and drinking partner. They have been together for over thirty years. Jim Bono is usually called "Bono" or "Mr Bono” by the characters in Fences. The two men met in prison, where Troy learned to play baseball. Troy is a role model to Bono. Bono is the only character in Fences who remembers, first-hand, Troy's glory days of hitting homeruns in the Negro Leagues.

Now they work together as garbage collectors. Every Friday night after work they sip gin, drink beers and tell stories together in the Maxson family's backyard.  Less controversial than Troy, Bono admires Troy's leadership and responsibility at work. Throughout the play, Bono tries to steer Troy away from the seductive Alberta, but Troy ignores him. By the end, their friendship is lost due to Troy's destructive decisions.  He is married to a woman named Lucille, who is a friend to Rose. Bono is a devoted husband and friend. Bono's concern for Troy's marriage takes precedent over his loyalty to their friendship. What's interesting though, is that by the end of the play Bono and Troy don't really hang out anymore. 

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CHARACTER OF JIM BONO

Bono remembers Troy's past and serves as a moral compass for Troy in his relationship with his wife, Rose.  While Bono looks up to Troy, he is ultimately disappointed in him for cheating on Rose, whom he admires.

The Friday - night drinking sessions we see make it pretty clear that Bono is second in command of the pair. Mostly, he sits around and nods as Troy talks and talks. Bono admits that he's always admired Troy, and that he's learned a lot by following him. He says, "I done learned a whole heap of things about life watching you. I done learned how to tell where the shit lies. How to tell it from the alfalfa" (2.1.38). Bono also tells his friend, "You done learned me a lot of things. You showed me how to not make the same mistakes...to take life as it comes along and keep putting one foot in front of the other" (2.1.38). With lines like that, it seems like Bono is definitely the sidekick in this situation. It's never said outright, but it appears both friends have strained relationship because of Troy's affair with Alberta.

From the very first scene, Bono is trying to steer Troy away from this sexy lady. Troy, however, doesn't listen and has the affair anyway. The last time we see the two friends together, it's clear they don't chill anymore. Troy's promotion to driver has separated them at work, and Troy's betrayal of Rose has separated them on a personal level. It seems the affair damaged Bono's admiration of Troy. In the end, Troy hasn't just lost his family, he also lost his best friend. 

Lyons Maxson 

CHARACTER ANALYSIS OF LYONS MAXSON

Lyons is Troy's eldest son, fathered before Troy's time in jail with a woman Troy met on the streets 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 in Pittsburgh. 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. Often asks his father for $10, which he reluctantly gives to him, though he does not expect it back. Ultimately, Lyons does pay Troy..Lyons is interested only in music and does not want to get a regular job like his father..Lyons, like Rose, plays the numbers, or local lottery. 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 His girlfriend Bonnie leaves him after he lands in jail for counterfeiting cheques.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CHARACTER OF LYONS MAXSON 

 Troy had Lyons when he was still homeless and squatting in a shack by the river. Lyons's mother moved on to another man while Troy was in prison, so Troy has never been much of a father to Lyons. Pretty much all Troy contributes to Lyons's life is the occasional ten dollars that Lyons comes to borrow on Troy's payday.  Interestingly enough, Lyons doesn't seem particularly bitter about any of this. He just seems to accept things as they come. Even though Troy won't even take the time to come see Lyons play music (the real pride of Lyons's life), he still seems to respect his father. Their activity in the numbers game represents Rose and Lyons' belief in gambling for a better future. Lyons' humanity and belief in himself garners respect from others. Troy's complicated relationship with Lyons encompasses his admiration for his sons to do something he loves with his life, but contempt for his refusal to be a breadwinner and responsible head of household. The almost easy-going relationship between Lyons and his father is starkly different from the tense rivalry between Cory and Troy. 

Raynell Maxson

CHARACTER ANALYSIS OF RAYNELL MAXSON

 Raynell is Troy's daughter, fathered out of wedlock with Alberta, Troy's mistress.  Alberta dies in childbirth and leaves Troy to raise Raynell. Rose agrees to raise his husband's daughter for her sake, not for his.  Later, Raynell plants seeds in the once barren dirt yard. Raynell is the only Maxson child that will live with few scars from Troy.  Raynell meets Cor, and they share a song Troy taught them.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CHARACTER OF RAYNELL MAXSON 

The audience only sees Raynell as an infant and then as a small girl just before Troy's funeral. Rose agrees to take care of the baby because Raynell is innocent. Ultimately, Rose is happy to have a chance to raise Raynell. Her innocent need for care and suppor convinces Rose to take Troy back into the house. She is the only Maxson child who hasn't been hurt by Troy. Raynell's garden is symbolic for new hope for the future. The shared song represents the positive values parents and older generations pass.on to their young. 

MINOR CHARACTERS

Alberta -

 Troy's buxom lover from Tallahassee and Raynell's mother. Alberta DIES while giving birth to Raynell. 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. She is a responsible woman who subsidizes Lyon's life as a musician.

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. He promotes Troy to driver.

Ms Pearl -

 Gabe's landlady at his new apartment; she lives near the Maxsons and rents Gabe a room.

Lucille - 

 Lucille is Bono's wife.

Brownie --  

A co-worker of Troy and Bono and an object of ridicule.

Summary of Fences by August Wilson

 MAJOR EVENTS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE 

THE SUMMARY OF PAGE 4

 THE SETTING REVEALS TROY AND FORESHADOWS KEY ACTIONS IN THE PLAY (P. 4)

The play begins with detailed stage directions. The play opens in the Maxson family's yard. Their ancient brick house is set off of an alley in a city neighbourhood.There's a wooden porch that needs to be painted really badly. Some old beat-up chairs sit on the porch.There's a half-built fence around the dirt yard. Tools and lumber sit in a pile. A ball made of rags hangs from the tree. A baseball bat leans against the tree. It's 1957. Troy Maxson and Bono enter the yard in the middle of a conversation. Both men are black. Troy is described as a big guy. Bono has been Maxson's best friend for thirty-three years. ( It's Friday night - payday. It's the one night of the week where the two friends drink and hang out. Troy and Bono are dressed for their jobs as garbage collectors. 

SIGNIFICANCE OF PAGE 4

The set description provides several clues to the heart of Troy Maxson's character. Fences takes place in the front yard of Troy's "ancient two-storey brick house." The house is a source of both pride and shame for Troy. He is proud to provide a home for his family. He is also ashamed because he realizes that the only way he could afford the house is through his brother (a mentally unstable World War II veteran) and the disability cheques he receives because of it, (b) Why does the wooden porch need paint? Well, in practical terms, the porch is a recent addition to the house. Therefore, it could simply be seen as a task not quite finished. However, the porch is not the only thing in dire need of attention. Troy's wife of eighteen years, Rose, has also been neglected. Troy has spent time and energy on both his wife and the porch. However, Troy ultimately is neither committed to his marriage nor to the unpainted, unfinished porch, leaving each to the mercy of the elements. The set pieces of incomplete fence, tools and lumber provide the literal and metaphoric activity of the play: building a fence around Troy's property.

 Baseball is an important prop placement at the beginning of the play. Both Troy and his teenage son Cory (a football star in the making - if it wasn't for his embittered father) practice swinging at the ball. Later on in the play, when the father and son argue, the bat will be turned on Troy, though Troy will ultimately win in that confrontation. Troy Maxson was a great baseball player, at least according to his friend, Bono. Although he played brilliantly for the "Negro Leagues," he was not allowed to on the "white" teams, unlike Jackie Robinson. The success of Robinson and other black players is a sore subject for Troy. Because he was born at the wrong time," he never earned the recognition or the money which he felt he deserved. Baseball serves as Troy's main way of explaining his actions. When he talks about facing death, he uses baseball terminology, comparing a face-off with the grim reaper to a duel between a pitcher and a batter. When he bullies his son Cory, he warns him: "You swung and you missed.

That's strike one. Don't you strike out!" Troy confesses to Rose about his infidelity, he uses a baseball metaphor to explain why he had an affair. Troy met Bono while in prison. Bono remembers Troy's past and serves as a moral compass for Troy in his relationship with his (Troy's) wife, Rose. While work is a recurring motif in the play, the action takes place exclusively at home, during rare times of leisure. Bono is Troy's best friend and drinking buddy. Several scenes of the play revolve around Troy and Bono's conversations in Troy's backyard while drinking on Friday nights. The final details mentioned in the setting description reflect Troy's later years as a hard-working garbage man. August Wilson writes, “Two oil drums serve as garbage receptacles and sit near the house." For nearly two decades, Troy worked from the back of the garbage truck alongside his friend Bono. Together, they hauled junk throughout the neighbourhoods and alleyways of Pittsburg. But Troy wanted more. So, he finally sought a promotion - not an easy task due to the white, racist employers and union members. Ultimately, Troy earns the promotion, allowing him to drive the garbage truck. However, this creates a solitary occupation, distancing himself from Bono and other friends (and perhaps symbolically separating himself from his African-American community)

SUMMARY OF PAGE 4 TO 8

 TROY AND BONO DISCUSS TROY'S COMPLAINT TO MR RAND ON RACIAL DISCRIMINATION AT WORK AND TROY'S SUSPECTED LOVE AFFAIR WITH ALBERTA (PP. 4-8)

 The play opens on a Friday evening. Troy and Bono's payday. Their responsibilities as garbage collectors are done for the day. Troy, a powerfully built fifty-three-year-old black man, and Jim Bono, his long-time friend, drink and banter on Troy's porch. Bono looks up to Troy, his co- worker in the sanitation department. Troy recounts a story about a co-worker named Brownie who lied to their boss, Mr Rand about having a watermelon in his hands, and trying to hide the watermelon under his coat. Both Troy

and Bono think that Brownie's embarrassment about the watermelon was stupid.

The two friends discuss Troy's recent meeting with their boss, Mr Rand. Troy has asked Mr Rand, their boss, why the black (African-American) employees aren't allowed to drive the garbage trucks, but only to lift the garbage. Bono is eager to hear the latest news of Troy's conversations with Mr Rand and the commissioner of the union about his complaint. Troy says that Mr Rand told him to take the complaint to the union the following Friday. Bono worries that Troy will be fired for stirring up trouble, but Troy is unconcerned. The conversation shifts to a woman named Alberta who spends time at a bar where Troy and Bono hang out. He seems concerned that Troy might be having an affair. Bono also points out that he's seen Troy walking around Alberta's house. Bono reprimands him for not being completely faithful to his wife, Rose, but Troy denies messing around with Alberta. Troy insists that he hasn't "eyed" women since he met his wife, Rose. Bono agrees. But Bono pushes the issue further by revealing to Troy that he has seen Troy walking around Alberta's

house when Troy is supposedly at Taylor's. Troy gets mad at Bono for following him around. Bono asks where Alberta is from, Tallahassee, says Troy.  His friend comments that Alberta is "big and healthy." She's got "big old legs and hips as wide as the Mississippi River" (1.1). Troy says that legs don't matter. It's "them hips (that) cushion the ride!... Like you riding on Goodyears!" (1.1) 

SIGNIFICANCE OF PAGE 4 TO 8

Troy and Bono's weekly ritual of drinking affords them the opportunity of catching up on each other's lives and sharing stories. The exposition in this first dialogue informs the audience that Troy and Bono are close friends and confidants who work together. It establishes their closeness and strong bond. Bono agrees with Troy's negative opinion of their co-worker, Brownie, and shows that he sticks up for Troy at work; it is also a sign that he is a loyal as well as attentive friend. It is also through their conversation that we are drawn into the world of the play by gathering information.

 The social activism in Troy is demonstrated here; he stands for equity and social justice. He despises the racist practices at his job and attempts to change them. Being the first time such a protest will be registered, Bono is genuinely worried for his friend, but Troy is less bothered of the consequence of his action, he's just looking for equality and feels like he deserves it. Once again, Bono doesn't want his friend to jeopardise his marriage through infidelity and cautions him seriously about Alberta. Bono's disapproval foreshadows a conflict in the play. For hiding the fact about his illicit relationship with Alberta, Troy shows that he knows his actions are wrong and cannot own up to his friend. Furthermore, for having relevant information about

Alberta reveals that he knows her well beyond his claim. Troy then betrays his affection for Alberta by defending her "big old legs and hips as wide as the Mississippi River". For him, her big hips make the ride on “Mississippi River" better and more pleasurable.

SUMMARY OF PAGE 8 - 11

ROSE AND TROY REMINISCE ABOUT HOW THEY MET AND SHE WON HIM FOR A HUSBAND (pp. 8-11) 

Rose, who is ten years younger than her husband, enters and meets Troy and Bono talking. Troy's wife asks what they are talking about. Troy tells her it's “men talk” (1.1). She and Troy tell Bono about the ways Rose has changed Troy for the better as a married man. Rose asks Bono if he wants supper. He tells her he'll eat supper at home. He's looking forward to his wife's pot of pig feet. Troy says he wants to go eat pig feet with Bono. He teases Rose, asking if what she's cooking can top it. She's got chicken and collard greens cooking. Troy tells his wife to go back inside so the man-talk can continue. He makes sexually suggestive remarks to Rose, teasing her, saying she needs to go inside and “powder it up” so she'll be ready for him later on that night (1.1). Rose tells him not to talk like that. Troy affectionately puts his arm around his wife. He says that when he first met Rose, he told her he didn't want to marry her; he just wanted to be her man. He prods Rose to tell Bono what she responded. Rose says she told Troy, "if he wasn't the marrying kind, then move out the way so the marrying kind could find me" (1.1). Troy says he thought this over for two or three days. Rose corrects him, saying he came back the same night. Jokingly, Troy tells Bono that he promised to put a rooster in the backyard. This way he'd know if any other men were sneaking out the backdoor when he came home from work.

Rose tells him not to talk like that. Troy says the only problem was when they first got married, they didn't have a backyard. Bono talks about the first house he and his wife lived in. There were only two rooms with an outhouse in the back. It was freezing cold when the winter wind blew. He wonders why they stayed there six years. Bono says he thought only white people could get better things. After discussing where to shop, Rose prefers the supermarket (A&P) where prices are more reasonable, while Troy prefers the comer store (Bella's) where they know him and treat him well. The only good thing about the A&P is that the grocery store gave his son, Cory, a job. Rose's devotion to her husband is contextualised, in part, because her life without him would be

SIGNIFICANCE OF PAGE 4 TO 11

no good. She also recognizes that Troy has a good spirit despite his faults. 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 him and his children. Troy's marriage makes him a better man than his previous street lifestyle. He also recognizes the need to take responsibilities and build a home together.

Marriage should be a deliberate choice, Rose has no space for unserious proposals. That's why she defines herself within the boundaries of family. Troy is being protective of his woman and would not want any intruder. Bono sharing his own experience brings variety to the challenging backgrounds of African- Americans of that era. The friendship Troy and Bono share also represents African-American brotherhood and the intimacy such relationship of masculine bonding creates. Life and quality of living is also a choice, the good life isn't reserved for white people alone. Troy prefers to patronize fellow community members' businesses to doing so for the white-owned supermarkets. This option is still probably his reaction to the discriminatory attitude of the Whites towards Blacks. Troy is, however, happy that Cory got a job at the A&P, where he can start to look out for himself", especially as money has been tight around the house since Troy's brother,

Gabe, moved out.

SUMMARY OF PAGE 11 TO 13

 CORY'S DREAM AS A FOOTBALLER; PARENTS' CONCERN FOR CORY'S FUTURE (PP. 11-13)

Rose mentions that Cory has been recruited by a college football team. Troy wants Cory to give up on football because the white man will never let him get anywhere with it. He believes that Cory should keep the job he has at the A&P and "get recruited in how to fix cars or something where he can make a living."

 Bono comments that if Cory is as good at football as Troy was at baseball then the boy will do alright. Troy says that despite his skills at baseball he's still poor. His wife tells him that times have changed since he played baseball - now black people are allowed to play in the major leagues

 Bono says that Troy just "[came] along too early" (1.1). "There ought not never have been no time called too early!" says Troy. He talks about how his batting average was way higher than Selkirk's, a guy who played right field for the Yankees back then.

Rose comments that people just had to wait for Jackie Robinson to come along. Her husband says, "Jackie Robinson wasn't nobody" and that he "know[s] teams Jackie Robinson couldn't even make!" (1.1) Troy complains that it should never have mattered what colour you were. If you were good at baseball, they should've let you play. He believes that minorities will never receive the same deference given to white players. 

SIGNIFICANCE OF PAGE 11 TO 13

Troy thinks his son ought to be learning a trade instead of focusing on sports. He has no faith in organized sports, he was a great ball player as a younger man, but never had a chance to play in the major leagues. He is still haunted by the denial he suffered in the hands of whites who never gave him opportunity to play in major leagues despite his distinguished talent in playing baseball.

 Rose and Bono try to convince Troy that things have changed. The significance here is not to use the past to judge the present; what obtained at one time might change within the future. Troy played baseball in his youth, but it was before the days of Jackie Robinson and baseball's

integration. Troy couldn't advance to the big leagues because of his race. Baseball, Troy says, never got him anywhere. “Ain't got a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of because of the sport. It is part of the dynamics of life that what has less value yesterday may assume higher value today. Troy with all his baseball talent never got to play in the major leagues because the "colour" of the player was a factor then. But that discriminatory consideration no longer exists today. Troy is still very unhappy about the colour discrimination he suffered at the expense of his talent. He fears the same fate may befall his son in football and doesn't want a repeat experience. He is concerned that his children should do better in life than himself. Cory's dream is attainable, yet Troy wil not recognize that. He is blind to the changes that are taking place in society. On the other hand, Troy is far from being passive about the discrimination

that touches him personally. He despises the racist practices at his job and attempts to change them. But when it comes to his son, he has a blind spot; he can't see the point of striving for  higher attainment. This conflict deepens as the play progresses.

Summary Of Page 13

 DEATH PERSONIFIED - MR DEATH (pp. 13)

 Troy takes a long sip of drink; Rose reprimands him saying, “You gonna drink yourself to death." Her comment throws Troy into a long epic story about his struggle in July of 1941 with death. He tells Bono and Rose that they cannot teach him anything about death. “Death ain't nothing but a fastball on the outside corner... That's all death is to me." Troy turns the time when he was sick with pneumonia in Mercy Hospital into a fanciful story about his fight with a character named Death. He says that he struggled with death for three days and eventually won the wrestling contest. Troy refuses to go easy; Death will have to fight to get him in the end  Rose says all this was a hallucination of Troy's when he had a really bad case of pneumonia. Troy tells them that he grabbed Death's sickle and threw it over a hill. He wrestled Death for three days and nights until Death finally gave up. Death told Troy that he would be back. Troy realizes that Death will get him someday, but he's not going out without a fight. Bono remarks that Troy has "got more stories than the Devil's got sinners” (1.1). Troy says he's seen the devil too. 

 SIGNIFICANCE OF PAGE 13

 Troy signifies that he is no longer afraid of death because he's already faced it. He talks as if he can take on anyone or anything, including death. His near-death experience with pneumonia has made him fearless. He personifies it as Mr Death, an opponent he can wrestle with. This is another point of conflict in the play - Troy and Mr Death confronting each other. Troy talks as if death is a person who can be conquered.  

 SUMMARY OF PAGE 13-23

Lyons - His borrowing anties and make dream (pp. 13-23)

Lyons asks again for the ten dollars insisting that his girlfriend, Bonnie, is working at one of the hospitals and that he will have the money to pay Troy back. Troy gives him a hard time about it, saying Iyons ought to get a job and offers to get him in with the sanitation department. Lyons says the work wouldn't agree with him and that he is going to keep making music because it gives.his life meaning He dis Troy. "You and me is two different  people, Pop." When Lyons talks about his music. Troy turns the topic to the time he bought furniture, on credit, from the devil.

Troy implies that Lyons' mother did a bad job raising him. Lyons tells his father that he should've been around when he was growing up then maybe he would've been raised better. Rose encourages Troy to give Lyons the ten dollars. Her husband tells her to give it to Lyons. She says she will, as won as Troy gives her his earnings for the week. He hands his money to her and she gives Lyons the ten dollars. Lyons tells them both thank you and leaves abruptly. Bono tells Troy that Lyons will be alright. The boy is still young" Troy tells Bono, "The boy is thirty-four years old" and doesn't have a real job Bono decides to go home to Lucille and the pig feet she made for dinner. Troy puts his arm around Rone and says how much he loves her. He tells Bono that soon he and Rose will be getting it on, and drunkenly brags that they'll probably still be getting in on come Monday morning. 

SIGNIFICANCE OF PAGE 13 TO 23

Lyons is a struggling jazz musician,"more caught up in the rituals and idea of being a musician than in the actual practice of the music." Troy knows that Lyons is coming to ask him for money and teases him in a mean-spirited way.

 Troy continues his saya about Death, changing the times and situations in which he met Death and the Devil. This includes the time he met a door-to-door salesman that Troy claims is the Devil, For Troy, any obstacle or difficult moment can be equated to death or the devil Rose appears to be the custodian of all the facts surrounding Troy's tales and always comes handy to straighten bis stories. The Christian in her abhors careless use of 'Death' and 'Devil'. She cautions Troy to be more concerned about what God is going to say on judgment day. Lyons thinks Troy's belief that he has seen the Devil is as ridiculous as Troy thinks it is for Lyons to pursue music. Lyons claims he can't get a decent job and won't consider manual labour. Lyons is simply not ready to let go of his dream to be a musician. Lyons' declaration that jazz music gives his life meaning invites Troy to reflect since he feels that his life has had no other meaning beyond responsibility for others. Lyons accuses Troy of knowing little about the way he was raised because Troy was in jail

for most of Lyons' childhood. This position suggests emphatically that his father has no moral ground to criticize his upbringing when he was not available to live up to his responsibilities.

 Troy's comment indicates that his older son, Lyons, is not responsible and it worries him. In the end, after each day's activity, men return to their women for warmth. In other words, women are soothing complements for men. It further signifies the love that exists between Troy and Rose on the one hand, and between Bono and Lucille on the other. 

SUMMARY OF PAGE 23 TO 27

 PROTECTION, DREAMS AND HOPES; CORY'S WORK ETHIC (PP. 23-27)

 It is Saturday morning, the scene opens with Rose hanging her laundry in the yard and sings softly, “Jesus, be a fence all around me every day/Jesus, I want you to protect me as a I travel/on my way."

 Troy and Rose talk about the lottery game that Rose and Lyons play. Troy tells Rose that everyone at work thinks he is going to get fired, but he does not think it will happen.

 Troy is grumbling about people who play the lottery and people who squander their winnings. Rose tells him that Miss Pearl won a little money in the lottery the other day. She complains that the people who really need it never win. Troy tells her she shouldn't mess around with the numbers - it's a waste of time. Rose points out that a guy named Pope bought a restaurant out of the money he won. Troy feels as though Pope has sold out the black community by giving poor service to his black clientele while catering to white people. The numbers, Troy says, "Ain't done nothing but make a worser fool out of him than he was before."

Troy grumbles about Cory being lazy. Rose tells him that Cory went to football practice, but Troy swears he only wanted to avoid working on building the fence in their yard. Troy insists that Cory "ain't done a lick of work in his life.” Rose tells Troy to go back into the house and get a new cup

of coffee to correct his mood. Troy grumbles that he is the one to always take the blame for other people's shortcomings. 

SIGNIFICANCE OF PAGE 23 TO 27

Rose's hymn to Jesus asking for a “fence around me every day” is a symbol of protection and of family unity, but for Troy, as we will learn, the fence can also represent a cage. The song, an African-American spiritual hymn, represents the metaphor of the play. The song also combines the uniqueness of the African-American religious experience with Rose's domestic desire to establish a safe and happy home with her husband and son. There is a historic tradition in African-American religion of travel and movement. Eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Southern black slaves often identified with the exodus of the Hebrew Bible. Fences, however, is a play about the tension between this historic value of exodus and the mid-twentieth century American ideal of settling into a home with a family. In this opening scene, Rose's song is an outer expression of an inner conflict. When Rose says Troy is worried about losing his job, she probably echoes the readers' concem. Troy's conflict with his supervisor creates dramatic tension, but it's also a clue that leads nowhere The conflict threatening to destroy Troy comes not from outside but from within himself and his family.

 The numbers or lottery offer a chance and hope to Rose. Troy, on the other hand, sees gambling as foolish. For him life is about working hard and taking responsibility. Taking risks is a waste of time and leads to nothing. Later scenes will reveal the situational irony here: Troy takes the biggest chance of all by secretly having an affair. The dialogue between Rose and Troy regarding gambling and Cory's work ethic is an example of the value that Troy puts on self-reliance and responsibility. Troy also openly condemns Pope who benefitted from playing the lottery because he is unable to appreciate the fact that the man is attempting to better his life through his luck, even though both he and Rose know he is technically correct in his diagnosis of the social ill of "the numbers." There is an association for Troy in gambling and in Cory's scholarship to play football. Troy sees both games as a person's loss of control over his own destiny. It is a mistake that Troy decides never to make again and one he does not want for his son too. Troy's criticism of Rose's enjoyment of playing lottery which Lyons also enjoys, displays his sense of responsibility in his reaction to Rose's hobby, but equally provides evidence of his selfish treatment of Rose. Rose had humoured Troy when Troy went on for several minutes about his battle with the Devil in Act I, Scene 1, but Troy cannot give Rose an inch when she talks about

numbers, an activity that she enjoys as much as Troy enjoys telling his stories. This argument between them about the numbers is an example of how Troy is insensitive to Rose's needs. Shenwill later accuse Troy of taking and not giving," which is reflected here. Troy is so concerned with his own survival in his stagnant, disappointing life that he fails to perceive the ways in which his loved ones have learned to cope. Playing numbers is an escape, a simple luxury and pleasure of Rose and Lyons that serves the same purpose to them as Troy's escape in his affair with Alberta.

It is therefore ironic that Troy complains about the cost of Rose playing numbers and the loss and risk involved when his gamble with Alberta eventually proves much more expensive. Lyons and Rose playing numbers represent their individual gamble in life to put their faith in unstable hopes. Rose invests her life in Troy who has lost a significant amount of potential than when they first met. Lyons gambles with a career in music, a difficult and extremely unconventional path trod at

that period. Rose's positive attitude towards playing the numbers connotes that she does not have regrets about her losing gamble with Troy, but keeps her hope alive in a better, more fulfilling

and richer future. On the other hand, Troy prefers to see himself as practical and miserly. He is in denial about his extramarital affair and does not see the potential cost to his stability and family he is risking, to the point that he thinks a small wager placed by Rose or Lyons is foolish.

SIGNIFICANCE OF PAGE 27 TO 31

 ABSURDITY IN AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN LIFE IN AMERICA (PP. 27-31)

 Gabriel, Troy's brother, comes down the alleyway. He hears Troy's voice and stops. Troy sees Gabriel in the alleyway. He's got a metal plate in his head from injury he got in World War II. Gabe believes that he is the archangel Gabriel. He carries a trumpet on a string around his neck

and also carries a basket full of fruits and vegetables. He starts to sing that he's got plums for sale. Rose asks him what's in the basket. It turns out Gabriel doesn't actually have any plums; he  just likes to sing about them. He says that tomorrow he'll have enough plums "for St. Peter and everybody" (1.2). He thinks Troy is mad at him because he moved out of the house to live in Ms Pearl's basement. Troy says he's not mad at all. Gabriel brags that he's got two rooms and his own door. He proudly shows off his key.

Rose asks if he wants some breakfast. He tells her he just wants some biscuits. He says that when he was in heaven, he and St. Peter ate biscuits every day. Sometimes St. Peter would go off and sleep, telling Gabriel to wake him up if Judgment Day came. Rose leaves, saying she'll makenGabriel some biscuits. Gabriel tells his brother that he saw his name in St. Peter's book. Troy tells him to go inside and eat. Gabriel says he already ate with Aunt Jemima. He tells Troy that he sold some tomatoes and now he has two quarters. Soon he'll buy a new horn so that St. Peter can find him on Judgment Day. Gabriel stops suddenly, thinking he hears some hell hounds. He runs off after them, singing about Judgment Day.

Rose re-enters. She says that Gabriel ought to be in a hospital, where they can take care of him properly. Troy says Gabriel shouldn't be locked up. He complains that his brother got half his

head shot off in the war and only got three thousand dollars afterward. Troy used that money to buy his house and seems to feel guilty about it. Rose says he shouldn't feel bad; he took care of Gabe in the house as long Gabe wanted to be taken care of. Troy starts to head out of the yard. His wife asks him why he's been going off every Saturday, especially since he's supposed to be working on the fence. Troy says he's going to a place called Taylors' and that he'll finish the fence later. 

SIGNIFICANCE OF PAGE 27 TO 31

 Gabriel contributes to the world of Fences by representing absurdity, and specifically absurdity in an African-American life in America. A common theme in African-American literature has been the concept that to be African-American in the United States is to live in a state of absurdity because the government that supposedly represents you (a citizen) has a history of denying you the rights it promises to insure. Gabriel exemplifies this duality. He fought in a war and lost a

part of his brain while his brother was denied access to play with players of his level in the Major Leagues because of the colour of his skin. The Gabe character is a descendant of the wise fools in Shakespeare whose language sounds

nonsensical at times, and at other times provide insight and wisdom. Gabe speaks in child-like phrases and song lyrics. He lives in a world that is half imaginary and half based on the reality before his eyes 10 He physicalizes a warning and a consciousness for Troy, which Tre does not heed. Gabriel, besides playing the role of clown to provide some measure of comic relief, also functions as a provider of background and summary information to the audience in order to show them how they should react to a particular moment of the play. He brings a back story (as a soldier) of contributing the ultimate act of responsibility and sacrifice - giving his life to his country. His presence is also a constant reminder to Troy that larger forces are at work in his life and that he is not always in control. Living in a house purchased with Gabriel's disability pay makes Troy feel ashamed. In spite of his.hard work, the only way he is able to provide a roof over his family's head is through his brother's disability cheques. While purchasing the house with the money is the right thing to do for all of them, Troy's pride takes a hit.

 Gabe's recent move out of the Maxson house to an apartment in Ms Pearl's house also affronts Troy's manhood because Gabe who cannot hold down a job or live in reality has managed to provide a home of his own for himself, a feat that Troy has failed to accomplish. Troy faces the reality that once again he is unable to provide fully for his family without the help of his disabled brother. Because of Gabe's presence, we slowly learn that Troy is not the all-powerful patriarch that he claims to be.  In spite of Gabriel's brain injury, he seems to see many things clearly. He is aware of Troy's shame and resentment. He also claims that he has seen Troy's name in St. Peter's book of judgment -a detail meant to comfort Troy but also an unsettling foreshadowing of his death. Gabe's story about seeing Troy's name and Rose's name in different places in St. Peter's book signifies that Troy is a sinner and Rose is going to heaven. Gabe's song, "Better Get Ready For the Judgment," and his hallucination that hellhounds are in Troy's yard warn Troy to change his behaviour but unfortunately, he does not hear the message. 

SIGNIFICANCE OF PAGE 31 TO 43 

 CORY'S FOOTBALL CAREER AND CHANGING WORLD THAT TROY DOESN'T SEEM TO UNDERSTAND

(PAGE 31-43)

Cory comes home from football practice on Saturday afternoon. Rose tells him that Troy was upset about Cory leaving the house without doing his chores or helping him with the fence. Cory tells Rose that every Saturday Troy says he needs his help with the fence but he never ends up working on it. Instead, he says he goes to the bar, Taylor's. Cory goes inside to eat lunch and do his chores. Troy comes home, supposedly from Taylor's, but can't remember the score of the game. He sneaks up on Rose, scaring her. He is very affectionate with Rose and makes some comical sexual advances, but Rose tells him, "Go on...I ain't studying you." Troy calls for Cory and then picks up a board, starting to saw and build the fence. When Cory comes out, Troy demands to know why he did not finish his chores before leaving the house that morning. Cory doesn't answer but only picks up a board and begins to saw.  Cory and Troy work on the fence. Cory asks Troy if they can buy a television. Troy would rather buy a new roof because it would insure their future security. Cory thinks it would be fun to watch.the World Series on TV. Troy wants to know how much a TV costs and Cory replies they are

two hundred dollars and "That ain't much, Pop." Sarcastically, Troy tells him, "Naw, it's just two hundred dollars." He points to the roof of the house and explains how it has been ten years since the roof was tarred. When the snow comes, it will seep inside. The moisture will rot the wood and soon it will be leaking all over them. He asks Cory how much he thinks a roof costs but Cory doesn't know. Troy tells him, "Two hundred and sixty-four dollars...cash money. While you thinking about a TV, I got to be thinking about the roof..." Cory insists that Troy isn't as poor as he makes out to be, but Troy tells Cory that all he has to his name is seventy-three dollars and twenty-two cents in the bank. Cory tells him he could buy the TV on credit, but Troy says, “I ain't gonna owe nobody nothing if I can help it. Miss a payment and they come and snatch it right out your house." He cuts Cory a deal; if he can get a hundred dollars he will put the other hundred down on a TV. Cory insists he will show his father that he can get the money.  Troy and Cory have a friendly argument about the status of black players in the Major Leagues.

They talk about the Pirates, Pittsburgh's baseball team. Troy says that he doesn't think about the Pirates because they have an all-white team except for that Puerto Rican boy...Clemente." Cory tries to convince Troy that black players such as Hank Aaron and Wes Covington are playing more in the big leagues, but Troy dismisses this idea. He tells Cory that he could hit forty-three home runs just like Hank Aaron right now. Cory insists he couldn't and Troy says, "We had better

pitching in the Negro leagues. I hit seven home runs off of Satchel Paige. You can't get no better than that." Troy finds weakly argued excuses to deny that baseball is treating black players fairly and changing for the better. He tells Cory that he is done talking about the subject. Troy disappoints Cory by not agreeing to sign the permission papers for Cory to play college

football. A coach is coming from North Carolina to recruit Cory, but even with the knowledge of how far the coach is travelling to see his son, Troy will not change his mind. Troy wants Cory to work  at the A&P supermarket instead of going to football practice. Cory breaks the news to Troy that he has already given away his job at the A&P during the football season. Mr Stawicki, Cory's boss, is keeping Cory's job for when the season ends. The two have a contentious back-and-forth over Cory not calling Troy "sir," and Troy asserts his authority over the boy: "Nigger, as long as you in my house, you put that sir on the end of it when you talk to me!" Troy reminds him that he takes his responsibility to his family seriously, that he works hard and puts "up with them crackers every day" in order to do so. Cory begs Troy to change his mind, but Troy refuses. He orders Cory to go back down to the A&P and get his job back. Cory asks Troy why he never liked him. Troy responds by explaining his belief that his role as a father is to provide shelter and food and the gift of life to a son and nothing more. Troy demands that Cory speak to him respectfully with the word "sir," and gives Cory the third degree, making Cory treat him with a military-like respect.

Rose asks Troy why he will not let Cory play football when Cory is trying to follow in his father's footsteps. Troy tells her, “I don't want him to be like me! I want him to move as far away from my life as he can get." This means moving away from sports. Rose points out that what Cory

wants more than anything is Troy's approval. Troy explains that when Cory was born, he decided he would not allow Cory to pursue sports in order to spare Cory from a fate like his own. Rose tries to get Troy to admit that he was too old to play for the Major Leagues and that times have changed since the years Troy was prohibited from the Major Leagues because of the colour of his skin. Troy will not agree with Rose. He tells Rose that he is trying to give everything he has to his

family and he can't change or give anything else but his hard work and responsibility. Troy feels that his financial support is more than enough.

SIGNIFICANCE 31 TO 43

Tory continues to want to instil family discipline and a sense of responsibility in his children. especially Cory. That's why he is upset that Cory abandoned his morning chores for football training, Troy and Cory's argument over the need to purchase a television versus a new roof is in good spirits. But Troy's pragmatic view on the television issue emphasizes his inability to empathize with anyone else's lofty dreams but his own. That Troy offers to provide half of the money for the television is a fair and balanced proposal, and also shows that he is compassionate. It is noteworthy that Troy does not go head over heels and offer to buy Cory the television, but by offering to pay half if Cory can come up with half of the money, Troy emphasizes the kind of responsibility-instilling parenting he believes in, which is meant to ultimately encourage Cory's work ethic, while supporting his son in realizing a dream. Troy also thinks that this proposal will encourage Cory to earn the money and make father and son partners.

 The back and forth argument over the television by Troy and Cory is an interaction that seems typical for a father and son. A child wants, and a parent is more concerned about bills. This conversation takes place while they are building the fence. One reason Rose wants the fence is to keep everyone together. Therefore, the initial exchange is a promising one, as father and son seem to be collaborators. Their conversation about the television set is both an example of father-son bonding and a sign of just how much the world is moving on without Troy. The television set is a symbol of the success of modernity and the ability of African-Americans during this time to advance (however limited those advancements might be) in social and economic ways. Troy and Cory's conversation also solidifies their positions as two men separated by a generation but sharing a common passion. Cory showed his persistence in proving to Troy that buying a television would be a good investment and goes on further to attempt to convince Troy that baseball, and thus, the world, has changed since Troy's time as a ball player. The television, as Cory describes it, is fundamentally changing how people interact with the world. His argument that they got lots of things on TV" is his way of telling Troy that the world outside of Pittsburgh is much bigger than Troy remembers it. It is a recognition that the world has changed and continues to be changed. Cory understands his own future is dependent on Troy's understanding of this change and being able to convince him of this is paramount if Cory is to ever play football in college Troy, however, is resistant to the idea of the television. It is not just that he fears the world's advancement, but it is also that he does not quite understand it and refuses to deal with it. Troy prefers to keep his thoughts on the domestic scene. He reminds Cory that the price of the TV is almost what it would take to re-tar the roof. Troy uses the example of the TV to shame Cory for not taking his own domestic responsibility seriously. A conversation that begins as a simple

father-son lesson in economics turns into an argument in which Troy fights to strip his son of his future manhood and Cory further develops his deep hatred for his father. Troy and Cory's father-son relationship succumbs to its first major blow while working together on Rose's fence. The blow to their relationship is not yet a physical affront, but an irreconcilable difference. Cory has taken care of insuring his job at the A&P for after football season and gets good grades in school, but Troy does not acknowledge these responsible acts. Instead, Troy only sees the ways Cory does not live up to Troy's vision of how Cory should live his life. Troy's hypocrisy becomes evident to Cory over the course of his conversation with him as they build the fence  Troy insists however, that Cory keep his job and give up football. Troy's bitter experience blinds him to the opportunities football can provide for Cory. Furthermore, Cory is being responsible as his father has taught him: he makes good grades and has made arrangements to work when the football season is over. But because Cory does not go about things the way his father wants him to, Troy interprets Cory's actions as disrespectful and short-sighted. In reality Troy is the shortsighted one; he does not see beyond his own world. Just as Troy is trying to climb the ladder at work (by becoming a driver), Cory is trying to move up the economic ladder. Troy sees only how sports let him down and believes organized sports will continue to let down people of colour. The argument between Cory and Troy in this sequence also reveals Troy's deep disappointment with his own sports career. This is probably one of the reasons Troy is so obstinate about signing a paper for Cor's scholarship recruitment. Troy played in the Negro Leagues, the segregated baseball league, and he boasts to his son that he and his teammates back then were better than almost all of the white or black major leaguers of the present. Troy feels as though he never really got his chance to show his true talents to the world. He can find no specific cause and so develops his own deep mistrust of the power held over African-Americans by white America. This distrust is what fuels the passion in one of the key scenes of the play. After arguing that Cory should get his "book-learning" so that he "can work...up in that A&P or learn how to fix cars or build houses" instead of playing football (which Troy obviously sees his son is passionate about), Cory asks his father why he never liked him. Troy is surprised by the question and, instead of answering in a loving way, becomes cruel and militaristic with his son. He demands to know what law says he has to like him. Troy's life l lesson to his son is valid - a person must accept the responsibilities given to him, but his delivery of this advice is hurtful to both Cory and Rose and further alienates them from him.  Over all, Troy touches on the theme of responsibility, a topic that emerges in nearly every conversation with his children. The obsession with responsibility overshadows any other concern Troy may have for his children. Though Cory recognizes Troy's dedication to the family, he clearly feels unloved. Troy believes he is giving everything he has. He is stung to learn that the needs of family do not end with a roof over their heads, clothes on their backs, and food in their bellies. 

SUMMARY OF PAGE 44 TO 62 

 TROY IS PROMOTED TO BE THE FIRST BLACK GARBAGE TRUCK DRIVER; UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF

AFRICAN-AMERICAN CULTURE (PAGE. 44-62) 

It is two weeks later and on another Friday. The phone rings and Cory picks it up and has a conversation about his football spikes (football shoes) with a friend, Jesse, on the other end of the line. Cory tells his friend that his old spikes aren't any good. Cory is in a rush to get to the football game, and Rose implores him to clean his room so that his father won't know he is out watching football. Cory leaves.  Troy and Bono come from work and make their way to the porch. Troy announces his promotion: he is to be the first African-American sanitation driver. Troy had gone to the union with his complaint over not being allowed to drive the garbage truck. Bono was sure that Troy would get fred over the incident, but instead Mr Rand had been forced to let Troy drive the truck. Troy calls and teases her that "You supposed to come when I call you, woman." Rose bristles at this and low tells het he once had an old dog named Blue that used to get uppity like that." Rose reminisces that they used to sing about that old dog and that Cory used to sing with him. Troy ons enters and Trey remarks that there was a story in the paper about how the police had raided

Sets one of the clubs that Iyons plays music at. Lyons tells him that he has no part in the mbling poing on there, and Trey only remarks, "They got some rogues...." Rose tells Lyons that his daddy got a promotion to drive the truck. Bono remarks that this would be a good thing the sister knew how to drive Been tighting with them people about driving and ain't even ot a license Troy is certain that he'll be able work all that out Troy is sure that yous is about to ask for more money, but instead Lyons pulls out ten dollars and Hies to pay they back. They tells lyons that he should put the money in the bank and refuses to take it Rose takes the money instead. Gabriel enters telling everyone they should get ready for the rectement day and gives Rose a rose. Lyons asks Gabe if he's been chasing hellhounds and fighting the devil and Gabe readily agrees that he has. Lyons tells them he has to get to his gig. and he asks if Troy would like to come down and hear him play. Troy tells him, "I don't like that

Chinese music. All that noise Rose and Troy begin talking about Cory's recruitment and Lyons wants to know what school he is going to They tells Bone that he went down to the A&P and talked to Cory's boss and that he knows Cory has been lying to him about getting his old job back. Lyons tells Troy that Cory is rowing up and trying to fill his daddy's shoes Bono tells the story of his own father, a drifter

searching for the "New Land." He never stayed in one place long enough to actually be a father. Troy reminisces about his own father. His father was a sharecropper raising eleven kids on his own. He was more worried about getting them bales of cotton in to Mr Lubin" than caring for his kids. Troy's mother left the children when Troy was young and never returned. His father didn't know how to do anything but farm, and though he was "good for nobody he always felt a responsibility for his kids and made sure they had a roof over their heads and food in their mouths

Troy tells of how when he turned fourteen he started "sniffing around Joe Canewell's daughter." One afternoon, Troy left his plowing early and went to the river and started "fooling around" with the girl by the river. His father found him and started beating him with leather straps, chasing him away. His father then tried to sleep with the girl himself. Troy saw this and started to fight his father. When his daddy faced him, he could see why the devil had never come to get him...cause he was the devil himself" Troy's father beat him into unconsciousness and his old dog Blue woke him, licking his face. Troy left his house and "right there the world suddenly got big. And it was a long time before I could cut it down to where I could handle it." Troy says that he lost touch with all his family, except for Gabe, and that he hopes his father is dead. Lyons tells his father that he didn't realize he had left home at fourteen years of age. Troy says that, at fourteen, he walked two hundred miles down to Mobile, where he caught a ride with a group of black men heading to Pittsburgh. They all thought they were heading towards freedom but Troy found out that conditions were even worse in Pittsburgh than they had been on the farm. Eventually, he made it to a city and met Lyons's mother. To survive and support Lyons and his mother, Troy had to steal. He was shot in the chest while trying to rob a man. Troy killed the man with a knife and was sent to prison for fifteen years. This is where he met Bono. Troy learned to play baseball in prison and he met Rose several years after that. Lyons asks Troy to come down to the club and hear his music, but Troy refuses and finds several excuses not to go. After Lyons leaves, Troy puts his arm around Bono and tells him that he has known him longer than anyone else and that "a man can't ask for no more than that." Troy tells him that he loves him and Bono gives his love back, and departs. Cory enters the yard, upset. He throws his football helmet on the ground and tells Rose that Troy went to his coach and told him Cory couldn't play football or get recruited. The coach wouldn't let Cory play. Cory is upset because “That was the one chance I had.” Troy and Cory resume their argument over working at the A&P. Cory accuses Troy of being afraid he would do better than he did. Troy pulls Cory in close and tells him he has made a mistake; "you swung at the ball and didn't hit it. That's strike one...Don't you strike out!" 

SIGNIFICANCE OF PAGE 44 TO 62

The author's choice to set the action on another Friday re-establishes the pattern of Troy and Bono's habitual behaviour and offers a useful backdrop to compare how far the plot has progressed since the play started. The return of the setting to Troy and Bono's payday creates the feeling that their life has a continuous pattern, a homecoming, and a cycle. Bono and Troy's excitement exceeds the enthusiasm they shared in the first scene. Troy's promotion rouses a renewed energy

from both men. The repetition of the setting emphasizes the uniqueness of the exciting news of Troy's promotion and his success in challenging the racist practices of his employers because it helps to illustrate the infrequency with which great, life-changing events occur in their lives. It is to be noted too that this scene begins and ends with confrontation. The first confrontation is a fruitful one for Troy and his family while the final one further destroys the domestic threads holding the family together. Troy and Bono enter the yard recounting how Troy stood up to his

boss, Mr Rand, and has now become the first African-American garbage truck driver in the Hill District of Pittsburgh. This is a good thing for the family since Troy will be able to work longer and bring in more pay. In a way, Troy can finally feel that his persistence in standing up to the unseen forces of the white world is now paying off for him like it never did during his baseball career.

 Although Troy is proud of the promotion, it does not impact his view of how things work. In spite of evidence that racial inequalities are sometimes corrected, Troy holds stubbornly to views shaped long ago, when he was an unloved child of a bitter father and then a desperately struggling young man. Troy gets the promotion even though he does not have a driver's license. This information makes us wonder if Troy's promotion will go through when his supervisors find out he can't drive? This detail provides another bit of dramatic tension. It appears that Wilson'sbaim is not to expose discrimination in society but rather to document the internal conflict of one

man and show its ripple effect on his family. Troy proudly tells the assembled group of his father's dedication to his family, even though he was a mean and bitter man. But his relationship with his father ended when his father had caught him having sex with a young girl and chased Troy away, only so that he could have her for himselfnTroy fights his father, is beaten badly, and leaves home to begin his journey up north. Troy proudly feels as though he took what was best from his father -- his sense of loyalty and dedicationnto his family. The irony is that Troy also has taken his father's bitterness and cruelty. Unlike Bono, Troy has not learned from his father's mistakes. As if to illustrate this point, Troy subtly rejects Lyons in two ways. First, Troy refuses Lyons's repayment of the earlier loan, by accepting the money, Troy would likely make Lyons feel responsible; but Troy refuses to make this gesture. Additionally, Troy again refuses Lyons's invitation to see him play at a club - another rejection of Lyons's life choices. Troy seems incapable of considering things from his son's perspective. The reveries Troy and Bono spin about their childhood experiences of their fathers also contribute to this suspension of the forward momentum of the tragic action. They increase the nuances of character by providing a revealing back story that informs our understanding of Troy and Bono's life compared to the lives of men a generation younger like Cory and Lyons.

Lyons appearance in the scene and his love of jazz reminds Troy of how different things were for Troy. Troy refers to Lyons' passion - jazz music - as “Chinese music" because jazz music is a modern phenomenon beyond his comprehension. His use of the word, "Chinese" to describe jazz music is a derogatory remark that backfires on Troy because it says more about his own failure to appreciate an ingenious invention by people of his own culture (and his lack of appreciation for

Chinese culture) than it insults Lyons.

Similarly, Lyons and Bono expose other weaknesses of Troy when they tease him for being illiterate and unable to drive. Wilson makes an argument here that Troy's lack of education and lack of worldliness or cultural literacy contribute to his black and white decisions about others' lifestyles and therefore, act as additional components to the roots of Troy's conflict with other characters in the play.

Troy and Bono's memories provide Lyons with an unwritten history of his culture. Slavery displaced many African-American families. Slave owners often forced African-Americans to live far apart from parents, spouses, siblings, and young children by selling some family members to distant plantations. Troy and Bono's fathers were likely born into slavery or slave-like conditions. Their fathers' parents were almost definitely born into slavery and may not have had a nuclear family to model as an adult. The family units in Bono and Troy's lives were fractured by wandering parents who sought solace in escape from parental responsibilities, a lack of commitment, a zealous work ethic and/or violence. Cory accurately depicts Troy's unwillingness to meet the recruiter as limiting his opportunities.

Cory sees his father's actions as those of a frightened old man with a threatened ego. Troy says he only wants to teach Cory responsibility. If Cory felt Troy cared about him beyond his basic needs, he might judge his father more favourably. Instead, Troy's intransigence only pushes Cory away. Troy's ominous declaration of “strike one" (of three) ensures a worsening conflict between father and son. The confrontation between father and son however marks the beginning of Cory's own passage into manhood. 

SUMMARY OF PAGE 62 TO 75

 BONO GIVES REASONS WHY ROSE WANTS THE FENCE; TROY ADMITS HIS AFFAIR WITH ALBERTA

(PAGE 62-75)

 The next morning, Cory hits the baseball tied to the tree in the yard. When he sees Rose, he tells her that he isn't quitting the football team no matter what Troy says. As Cory goes into the house, Troy and Bono come to the yard. Gabriel was arrested for disturbing the peace, and Troy paid fifty dollars fine to get him released. Troy and Bono believe that the police arrest Gabriel often because it is easy for them to take him and it makes them a quick fifty dollars.

 Bono and Troy work on the fence together. Bono complains that the wood is too hard and difficult to saw through. Bono asks Troy about his relationship with Alberta again. Bono says that they have done got tight," or closer to one another. Troy denies Bono's accusation. Cory joins them and cuts through the wood easily.

 Cory and Troy do not understand why Rose wants a fence built. Bono does know why, and explains to Troy and Cory that Rose loves her family and wants to keep them safe and close to her love. Bono tells Troy and Cory that people build fences for two reasons: "Some people build fences to keep people out...and other people build fences to keep people in." Bono does not mention Troy's mistake of having an extramarital affair in front of Cory but shares his opinion on what Troy should do through his explanation of the fence. Bono implies that Troy should respect Rose's love and be loyal to her love instead of pushing her and Cory away from him. 

When Cory goes into the house to look for a saw, Bono confronts Troy more explicitly about his affair. Troy finally admits to Bono that he is indeed having an affair with Alberta. Bono wants Troy to stop the affair before it's too late and Rose finds out. He implores Troy to hold on to Rose, saying that he doesn't want to see him mess up. Bono bets Troy that if he finishes building the fence for Rose, Bono will buy his wife, Lucille the refrigerator he has promised her for a long time. Bono decides to go home and not help Troy with the fence anymore. Rose asks Troy about what happened with Gabe at the station. Troy tells Rose about the fifty dollars and a hearing in three weeks to determine whether or not Gabe should be recommitted to an asylum. Troy explains to Rose that Gabe was arrested "for howling and carrying on" after he chased some kids away who were teasing him. Troy and Rose argue over whether or not Gabe needs more supervision. Troy tells Rose that he has something to admit to her. He circuitously tries to explain his affair with Alberta and finally tells her he has fathered a child with the woman. Rose is stunned by the news. Gabe enters, holding a rose he tries to give to Rose. Rose asks Troy why he is coming to

her with this after eighteen years of marriage. Gabe keeps interrupting their conversation, trying to show off his new quarter and explaining how Troy came and rescued him from the bad men downtown. Rose sends him inside for a piece of watermelon.

Rose tells Troy she might have expected this kind of behaviour five or ten years ago but not now. She angrily tells him she has "tried to be everything a wife should be...Been married eighteen years and I got to live to see the day you tell me you been seeing another woman and done fathered a child by her...My whole family is half." Troy tries to be realistic about the situation, telling her there is nothing he can do and that “we can talk this out" but Rose is indignant. Troy tells Rose that Alberta gives him a different sense of himself, that he "can step out of this house and get away from the pressures and problems... be a different man." Troy says he has been in a pattern, trying to be responsible for his family, and that along the way he forgot about himself. He tries to use baseball analogies to explain his circumstance and that he has fooled the world by bunting when he met her. "I stood on first base for eighteen years and I thought...well, goddamn it...go on for it!" Rose can only tell him he should have stayed in her bed.

Rose tries to explain her own hopes and dreams, how she buried all her feeling in him and held on to him even through her darkest times. She tells Troy he gives to them, but he also takes from them as well. This makes Troy very upset and he grabs Rose's arm. Rose yells at Troy because he is hurting her arm. Cory hears the noise from inside the house. He comes outside and surprises Troy by grabbing him from behind. Cory punches Troy in the chest, knocking Troy to the ground, Both Troy and Cory are surprised at Cory's actions. Troy lunges at Cory but Rose holds him back.

Troy collects himself and yells at Cory instead of hitting him. Troy tells Cory that he now has two strikes on him and that he better not strike out and leaves the yard.

Significance

 Cory's awkwardness with the baseball bat is a metaphor for his own feelings of inadequacy in living up to his father's expectations. Though Cory excels in football, his father's swing does not come naturally to him. The playwright visually captures the classic tension between father and son. The son desires to overtake the father and yet in Troy Maxson's life, there is no room for anyone but him. Cory feels limited by his father and unable to escape his shadow, which dominates the house. Troy feels confined in the house because of his obsession with responsibility.

Bono further elaborates on the play's chief metaphor. In handling the wood for the Maxson's fence, Bono is surprised that Troy didn't get soft pine wood. Troy responds that the hard wood he bought may just last forever. This exchange highlights Troy's own unreasonable feelings of invincibility. He compares his own life to that of the fence he is building, meant to be a symbol for Troy's emotional hardness. Troy's fence becomes not just a barrier to his relationships with his family but also a monument to his failings as a father and husband.

Bono sees Rose's fence as a defining symbol of her qualities as a wife and mother, correctly fearing her family's relationships are falling apart. Bono, an outsider but frequent guest, can see Rose trying to protect the family and what they have. A fence, symbolically, will keep the Maxson family together. This is all Rose wants; a purpose she has dedicated her life to. Bono observes that the fence is symbolic of both the negative and positive aspects of the Maxson family. His

reference to the people who build fences to push people away from them is indirectly aimed at Troy who, with his affair, will eventually hurt his wife and who is already in the midst of hurting his son Cory by preventing him from a hopeful future. We never learn the practical reason why Rose wants the fence built. Perhaps she wants Troy and Cory to bond while making a fence together. Perhaps she thinks it is a way to keep her eye on Troy. Wilson never allows us into that part of Rose's thinking, so the fence, like Bono's description, leaves the observer to interpret the meaning of the fence for themselves. Troy is embarrassed that Bono has to explain to him Rose's purpose. His embarrassment and Bono's sincere concern encourages Troy to tell the truth about the affair with Alberta. Troy takes up with Alberta as a way of freeing himself from responsibility. In a reversal of roles, Bono now offers advice and instruction to his friend, even repeating Troy's words back to him: "You responsible for what you do.” Their relationship, like all of Troy's important relationships, is on the verge of great change. Troy's actions have been revealed as hypocritical and selfish. He has lost his way and soon will lose his family.

Troy's admittance of unfaithfulness to Rose is ironical. It is with some irony that Troy has such a difficult time telling Rose that he is going to be a father since she could question whether he has been much of a father to Cory or Lyons. The tone of the play now becomes angrier and more sorrowful. Rose cries out to her husband that she tried to be everything for him that a wife should be.

We now see Troy for the truly selfish person that he is. The first act of the play was spent with Troy waxing eloquently, if harshly, on the necessities of responsibility and duty to family. It is clear now that those words were hollow. When Rose tries to reach out to him, Troy only retreats further into himself, claiming that he was with Alberta because she gave him feelings that his family could not give him. Troy is now a man of inconsistency. It is important to note the choice of language that Troy reverts to after admitting his affair. Troy attempts to explain his actions in the mode of a baseball announcer. This only underscores his self-centeredness, however. Troy creates a game out of his life and places himself as the star player. He uses baseball analogies to try and explain the kind of life that was handed to him versus the kind of life that he desires for himself. The analogies, however, fall flat and Rose is unconvinced. Rose tries to explain to him how his selfishness takes from her and Cory as well, but Troy is not willing to hear this.

 Troy's clinging to baseball analogies in some ways shows he has never moved past this disappointment in his life. As Rose has often pointed out, he was too old to play baseball by the time he got out of prison— an idea he has always rejected. A part of him isn't mature enough to accept true responsibility for his choices.

In physically grabbing Rose, Troy reaches out to her symbolically as well, but his gesture comes too late and only makes things worse. Cory's actions show that he will stand by his mother. He has been trying to throw off his father's yoke, and Troy's affair gives him another reason to want to. With Troy's declaration that Cory now has strike two, the tension rises still further. Cory attacks Troy to protect Rose, defying the obedience Troy has aggressively demanded of Cory which lays the groundwork for a culminating incident caused by Troy's mistakes. 

SUMMARY OF PAGE 76 TO 80

ALBERTA DIES AT CHILDBIRTH AND TROY CONFRONTS MR DEATH (PP. 76-80)

 It is six months later. Troy walks out of the house and Rose stops him. She has not had a conversation with Troy for six months, though he is still living in their house. Rose speaks to Troy for the first time by asking him if he is planning on coming home after work the next day, Friday. Troy has been going to Alberta's house every Friday after work, even though he still says that he goes to Taylor's. Troy tells Rose that he plans on going to Taylor's. Rose asks that Troy come straight home. Troy explains that he wants to have some time to himself to relax and enjoy life. Fed up with Troy, Rose warns Troy that she does not have much more patience for his behaviour. Troy discloses hurtful news to Rose that he is actually going over to the hospital to see Alberta who went into labour early. Rose matches Troy's bad news. Gabriel has been taken away from Miss Pearl's that afternoon to the asylum because Troy signed papers granting permission for half of Gabe's money from the government to go to Troy and half to the hospital. Troy is confused and hurt. He had thought that the papers he signed were the release forms to allow Gabe out of jail. He had made a mistake in sending Gabe away because he could not read the papers that he signed. Troy denies having signed the papers, but Rose saw Troy's signature on the document. Rose is furious at Troy for not signing the papers so Cory could go to college to play football and then signing the papers for Gabe to be locked up in a mental hospital. Rose warns Troy that he will have to answer to his misdeed. “You did Gabe just like you did Cory," she tells him. "You wouldn't sign the paper for Cory...but you signed for Gabe." She tells him that he signed his brother's life away for half his money. The phone rings and Rose leaves to answer it. She returns a moment later and tells Troy that Alberta has had her baby. Troy is excited and wants to know the gender. Rose tells him that it is a girl and Troy tries to leave to go see her. Then, Rose tells him that Alberta died having the baby.

Rose is worried about who will bury her, but Troy is defiant. Troy asks Rose for some space. He walks around the yard and enters into "a quiet rage that threatens to consume him." He has a conversation with "Mr Death" and tells him that he will build a fence around his yard to keep what belongs to him. Troy dares Death to confront him "man to man," still confident that he would win. Death can bring his army, but Troy tells him that he "ain't gonna fall down on my vigilance this time." 

SIGNIFICANCE OF PAGE 76 TO 80

 At this point the family has been completely shattered. Troy and Rose have become like roommates who barely speak. Yet for Troy things seem not that different from how they ever were: He

continues to take care of his responsibilities as he sees them by coming home from work every night and giving his paycheck to Rose. Yet Troy's insistence on spending time at the bar so he can "have a little time to himself" fools no one. It is obvious he will be going to see Alberta. Rose will simply have to find her own pleasure in life. By insisting that Troy comes home after work, Rose tries to salvage what little spousal bond she has with Troy. Rose isn't the only one Troy has left behind. Gabriel is noticeably absent, and Troy has neglected that relationship as well. Possibly Troy tells the truth when he says he didn't know what he was signing, since he can't read. Yet this claim is at odds with Troy's usual self-portrayal as someone who is powerful and in control. Earlier he accepted a job as a driver despite not having a license nothing was going to stop Troy. Now he rejects responsibility for an arrangement that benefits him. The truth is that Troy has more obligations with Alberta and a baby on the way. Just as when Lyons and his mother first came into the picture, Troy cannot handle his obligations. It appears that Troy has gone against his own principles, selling his brother out to gain control of his disability pay. Troy's illusionary world bursts when the phone call from the hospital discloses that Alberta died in childbirth, and Troy is now responsible for a healthy baby girl. Ironically, Troy's escape from responsibility produced a huge responsibility, his baby, Raynell. The peak of Troy's mistakes occurs after Rose sticks up for herself and tells him the truth of her sacrifice and commitment to Troy even though she has been disappointed with their life. Troy takes out his anger on Rose because of his anger about Alberta's death and his frustration with himself for failing Gabe, Rose is put in the difficult situation of bearing the news of Alberta's death. Her worry about who will bury the woman foreshadows the ways in which Rose takes on Alberta's responsibilities in life, namely raising her daughter. In this turn of events, it is Rose that is shown to be the truly responsible member of the Maxson family. While up to this point we had only seen Rose as the passive domestic partner, it is clear now that Rose is truly the foundation of the family. This becomes truer as she takes Raynell as her own.

News of Alberta's death leads to another confrontation between Troy and Mr Death. The fence Rose wanted built to keep the family in has never been built; with the family shattered, it no longer has any purpose in Rose's eyes. But Troy now wants the fence to keep Death out. Troy puts up walls and draws clear relationship boundaries when it comes to his family. Now he is trying to do the same thing with Death.

 Troy's conversation with "Mr Death" is a dramatization of his fear of dying. In several instances, most notably his bout with pneumonia, Troy casts himself as narrowly escaping death. For Troy, death is something that is always near to him. Only through his wits is he able to escape it. Alberta's death is a kind of wake-up call for Troy. It is a realization that he has fallen down on his duties as a man and as a human being. Troy's fence now becomes a fence of safety. Instead of keeping his family away from him, his fence is now meant to hold everyone inside. 

SUMMARY OF PAGE 81 TO 82

TROY BRINGS HOME HIS MOTHERLESS DAUGHTER, RAYNELL (PP. 81-82)

It's three days later. Rose is sitting on the porch, listening to a ballgame. Troy brings home his motherless baby, Raynell, wrapped in blankets. There's a long, awkward silence. He sits on the porch singing Troy tells his wife that he's holding his daughter. He says the girl is innocent and doesn't have a mother. Rose brushes Troy off and goes back inside. Troy sits down on the porch with Raynell. He bemoans the fact that neither of them has a home now. Troy sings Raynell a lullaby; a blues song about a man begging a train engineer to let him ride the train in hiding, for free.

 Rose comes back out on the porch. Troy tells Rose that the baby has no mother, but Rose is indignant. Talking to the baby, but speaking loud enough for Rose to hear, Troy says that he feels no guilt for what he has done because, “it felt right in my heart." He pleads with Rose to take in the baby because she is family and is all he has. Rose concedes and tells Troy, "this child got a mother. But you a womanless man." 

SIGNIFICANCE OF PAGE 81 TO 82

Troy finally has no choice but to bear his burden in hand. Troy shows a tenderness absent till now He is vulnerable and has nowhere to go. It's ironic that Alberta appealed to Troy because she enabled him to escape responsibility. Now with Alberta gone, Troy has the greatest responsibility of all - raising a motherless child. He realizes that he can't handle this responsibility and reache out to Rose, for whom the child is a symbol of Troy's betrayal. The baby is the only person left in Troy's world who will listen to Troy with an open mind. The porch used to be an arena for Troy's viewpoints and Troy's vision of the world. Now all Troy may have left in the world is his baby who does not know any better but to listen to him and depend on his love. Initially, Rose walks away from Troy. His audience has disappeared, and he is left alone on the porch with just the baby. When Troy talks to the baby, he intends for Rose to hear his words. Even though he needs Rose's help, he has no regrets about what has occurred because, as he says, "it felt right in my heart." For a man referring to his heart, he shows little understanding or appreciation for other people's feelings. The lyrics of Troy's train song mimic his predicament with Rose and Raynell. He is homeless unless Rose takes pity on him and takes him in which, after his betrayal of her trust, would also be an act of granting a free ride to a manbwho has more than spent his chances for forgiveness. Moreover, Wilson's choice in writing Troy a song based on an experience with a train follows a literary tradition in African-American literature and an oral tradition in African-American spirituals of associating trains with moments of significant life changing experiences. Specifically, trains have come to represent a crossroads in a person's life in the African-American tradition. Frequently, these references to trains also have a religious connotation. In African-American spirituals, trains often meant a ride to heaven and a ticket away from the troubles of life on earth. 

Rose takes pity on Raynell, since "a motherless child has got a hard time." This is true not only of Raynell, but also of Troy himself. Troy said earlier he was born with two strikes against him apparently referring to his absent mother and cruel father. Rose may recognize that with a more loving parent, Troy might have been a more loving person. Rose will give Raynell the type of life she would want for her own child. Rose taking Raynell as her own daughter is powerful in expressing both what Troy has gained and lost during the play. Troy has obvious affection for his child. The fact that he has owned his fatherhood and taken in the child shows that he is not completely heartless. However, he is also powerless and can do nothing but ask for Rose's help. Troy's selfishness remains just below the surface during all of this and he cannot help but protest by explaining why he does not apologize. The motif of fathers and sons returns when Rose says, "you can't visit the sins of the father upon the child." This saying has religious overtones and is a precursor of Rose's turning away from Troy and towards the church. The cycle of misery bestowed by fathers on their children will stop with Raynell. The cycle that began with Troy's father and focused exclusivelybon responsibility will not go on Rose also makes a religious reference with her justification for accepting Raynell as her own child. She attributes her reasoning to her understanding that Raynell is innocent even though she was born out of a sinful partnership. Rose rejects Troy as her partner because she takes seriously the Biblical commandment that decrees, "Thou shalt Not Sin," but finds forgiveness for the child born to her sinful husband because of her belief that “when the sins of our fathers visit us/we don't have to play host/we can banish them with forgiveness/as God in his largeness and laws. To Rose, it is a godly act to bring Raynell into her home and a blessing to behold in the midst of her pain.  Troy's infidelity is a symbol of the destruction of the American Dream. Wilson's play is, in effect a critique of that dream. Though the American Dream has been defined in many different ways.

 Wilson uses his play to show the audience the ways in which the American Dream has been defined for the African-American community by forces outside of that community. Troy's life would seem to be following that dream - he is slowly rising into the middle class, he has a family, and even owns his house which will soon have a picket fence. This dream is an impossibility, however. It is Troy's flaws that destroy this dream. 

Summary of page 83 to 92

 TROY AND CORY BATTLE FOR SUPREMACY AND CONTROL (PP. 83-92)

 Two months later, Lyons comes calling to pay Troy back twenty dollars that he owes hím. Rose is preparing to go to church and tells Lyons that Troy will return shortly. Cory enters just as Lyons is leaving and Lyons tells him he is sorry to have missed his graduation ceremony because he had a jazz gig. Cory says he is trying to find a job now. Cory goes to the tree and picks up the baseball bat and swings at an imaginary pitch. Troy enters and the two eye each other before Troy goes into the house. It is Troy's payday. Rose is more independent. Troy heats up his own food for dinner and Rose feels she can come and go without reporting to Troy when she is coming back or what she is doing. Troy drinks without Bono and sings a blues song to himself about an old dog named Blue. Bono stops by the house.

They are no longer close friends. Bono and Troy do not work on the same trash route anymore now that Troy has been promoted to drive a truck in Greentree, a white neighbourhood. Troy and Bono catch up with each other. They talk about their hopes for an early retirement and their wives. Rose is more religious now and more dedicated to her church. Troy invites Bono to stay and drink like old times, but Bono plays dominoes every Friday with other men at a man named Skinner's house. Troy and Bono acknowledge how each man made good on his bet; Troy finish d the fence for Rose and Bono bought Lucille the refrigerator. Troy and Bono half-heartedly agree to meet up someday at Bono's house. Bono goes to his domino game. Troy continues to drink and sing by himself.  Cory comes back and steps over Troy on the porch without saying excuse me. Troy picks a fight with Cory. Cory isn't afraid of Troy. Troy asserts his manhood and role as father by forcing the respect issue with Cory who disrespectfully refuses to say “excuse me” to his father. Troy insists that Cory leave the house and provide for himself since he does not respect him as the man of the house and the breadwinner who provides for Cory. Troy flaunts how long and how much he has provided for Cory, but Cory refuses to give Troy much credit for the material things Troy gave him because Troy gave so little loving care to Cory and made him fear his own father.

 Cory brings up Troy's recent failings with Rose and lets Troy know he disapproves. Troy again insists that Cory leave to be out on his own and go as far to say, "You just another nigger on the street to me!" Cory angrily retorts that Troy never did anything for him except “try and make me scared of you." He tells him that Rose is scared of him too and this angers Troy even more. Cory dares him to fight. Cory points out that the house and property from which Troy is throwing Cory out, should actually be owned by Gabriel whose government cheques paid for most of the mortgage payments. 

Troy physically attacks Cory. Cory swings at Troy with a baseball bat but does not hit Troy because he would probably kill him. Troy taunts Cory and then gets the bat away from Cory in a struggle. Troy stands over Cory with the bat and kicks Cory out of the house with finality. Cory leaves, saying he'll be back for his things. Troy tells Cory that he will not let Cory inside, but that he will leave Cory's belongings on the other side of the fence. Cory leaves.  Troy swings the baseball bat, taunting Death to try to face him. 

SIGNIFICANCE OF PAGE 83 TO 92

 This Friday night is different from others. Several things are different now. Troy is alone with his bottle. Bono comes by but only to say a quick hello. Bono used to look up to Troy. But, since Troy's betrayal of Rose, Bono does not see his old friend in the same way. The bond between them has been severed. Bono, who used to adore Troy and play the follower to Troy's lead in the friendship, now has a social life independent of Troy. Bono has a new group of friends who celebrate payday without Troy. Troy and Bono no longer work on the same trash route. Troy's promotion has landed him a job driving a truck in Greentree, a white neighbourhood. Souring the sweetness of the promotion, Troy's new job is lonely because he has no one to talk to during the day. 

 Rose no longer has time for Troy. Whereas before Rose came when he called and joined him in a dinner she made for him and anyone else who was around, Rose now does her own thing. She leaves food for him in the oven and goes off on her own. She doesn't even think Troy deserves to know what time she will be home. In fact, loneliness defines every aspect of Troy's life. He is alone at work, on payday afternoons and weekends, as well as with his family and in his love life. Troy's actions have come back to haunt him. His onversation with Bono attempts to catch-up and heal an irreparable friendship. After a few months, Bono and Troy seem like strangers to each other, grasping onto aspects of each other that they used to know well. The sequence between them creates sympathy for Troy and for Bono. There is an unspoken understanding between them. They both know that if Troy had heeded Bono's advice to stop his affair, life would be better for Troy now.

When Cory tells Lyons he is looking for a job, we realize that things might have been better for Cory if Troy had signed the recruitment papers. Cory leaves the yard the minute Troy enters it. He has nothing to say to Troy, whom he blames for everything. Father and son can hardly see eye to eye again. When Cory enters again, the fight between father and son is inevitable. Although Troy is the instigator of the altercation, Cory is ready to let go of his frustration. Troy reiterates the old theme of how he has given Cory "everything": that is, a place to sleep and food to eat - as if that is all a child needs. Cory is disgusted with his father and has a list of grievances, including the way Troy treated Rose and how he held him back. Just like his father before him, Troy has a physical confrontation with his son, which leads to the son leaving. The battle in front of the yard between Cory and Troy represents a complete destruction of the African-American dream. Cory is blunt in forcing Troy to confront his own inadequacies and yet it is Troy who is still the more powerful man. In this encounter, Troy who was singing his father's song before Cory came up, copies the very actions he so despised in his father. He becomes his father. He kicks Cory out of the house just as his own father kicked him out of his boyhood home. In a cycle, Troy has become the thing that he hated most For Cory, leaving his father's house is his entrance to manhood, just as it was for Troy when he left his father's house.  Troy swinging the baseball bat and taunting Death to confront him signifies a renewed belief in his strength because he defeated Cory. Troy is now ready for death but he has to fight a hard fight when death comes. 

Critical Analysis of The Themes of Fences August Wilson

The Theme Of The Creation Of Order

The overarching theme of the play, alluded to in the title, is the idea of the creation of order - a fence is not a barrier in this reading, but a way to compartmentalize the world into understandable, manageable chunks. Troy Maxson is mainly responsible for this desire for order, though for a different reason his wife Rose also wants it. Troy is caught in a world in which he feels he does not belong. He carries with him the scars, oppression, and disorder of his Southern childhood, the abuse of his father, and an unwelcome Pittsburgh. On the other hand, he is also a part of the growing African-American middle class. He is promoted for a job he feels he does not deserve and he is unable to accept the idea that his children might have the freedom to create their own lives. For Troy, a fence is a way to demarcate off part of the world as his own territory - his desire for a fence is a desire to find his place in the time and culture of twentieth century America.

The Theme Of The American Dream

Troy Maxson embodies and represents an African-American generation, growing up in the post-World War II era, that finds itself finally able to realize the American ideal of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Troy has become more successful than his father, who remained a poor sharecropper and never owned his own land or property but, instead, paid all his wages and his life to an unjust land owner. Troy has bought his own house (though he feels guilty about the methods of payment). And in his sexual relationships he embodied the freedom of a man to follow his own desires in pursuit of happiness. Troy Maxson embraces his desire to be an individual. This pursuit of the American Dream, however, is not without conflict. Troy cannot envision a generation doing more than his own accomplished. For him, it is doubtful that his son could achieve an even greater dream, and he cannot imagine a life unburdened by responsibility to family. In this way, Troy remains chained to his expectations of what a man can accomplish in the world. 

Blackness and Race Relations Theme Analysis

Set in Pittsburgh in the 1950s, Fences explores the experience of one black family living in the era of segregation and a burgeoning black rights movement, exposing, at the heart of its characters’ psychology, a dynamic between the inner world of a black community and the expanse of white power around it. The fence which Troy gradually builds in front of his house serves as a symbol of segregation, as well as the general psychological need to build a fortress where a black ‘inside’ or interior can set itself off from the white-dominated world around it. From one angle, the fence represents the geographical effects of segregation in general: the fencing-off of blacks, the creation of ethnic insularity in certain neighborhoods, and it is a monument to this basic social division effected by white economic and political power. Yet Troy also builds the fence himself; it’s largely his own creation, though Rose initially tasks him with building it. Rose wants the fence in order to set her and her family off from the outside world, to protect a private interior of their experience—lived, black experience—from an outside world threatening to invade it, and from the divisive effects which white power inflicts upon society. While the latter divides with the aim of controlling and limiting black prosperity and influence, the division effected by Troy’s fence is one of protection and an affirmation of the world within it.

Throughout the play, we also see how its characters are forced to define their world in terms of how it’s limited by a racist system of white social and economic power. We see that Troy’s workplace, for instance, is organized according to a racial hierarchy privileging whites, since exclusively white men are hired to drive the company’s garbage trucks, while black men are only hired as garbage collectors. Further, much of the characters’ speech relies on pointing out their status as people of color in order to describe their position in relation to white power.

Wilson’s play therefore, in part, concerns itself with depicting how racism governs and structures the everyday lives of its characters, in order to expose—through the concrete experiences of one family—racism’s many effects on the black American community of the 1950s at large. The meaning behind and need for the fence, and the play’s exposure of a black world in many ways defined by its oppression, are a scathing condemnation of the division and pain inflicted by white power. Fences gives a palpable reality to the abstract mechanisms of racism and white power—it reveals the pain of, as well as the aspirations and opportunities withheld from, its black characters. Through framing pain as being at the heart of almost all its characters’ lives, Wilson reveals the psychological complexity and intensely tiresome and tasking nature of navigating a racist world divided principally between white and black. At the same time, he reveals how that division divides blacks themselves through the pain it inflicts upon them (such as Troy’s conflict with Cory over his desire to play football, since Troy’s parenting is informed by his past experience of discrimination in the world of sports).

The Theme Coming Of Age Within The Cycle Of Damaged Black Manhood

Troy and Bono share their childhood stories in the South and tales of their relationships with difficult fathers to Lyons in Act I, Scene Four. Their often-painful memories provide a context for understanding the similarities and differences of the generations separating Troy and Bono from Lyons and Cory. Troy's father, like many blacks after the abolishment of slavery was a failed sharecropper. Troy claims that his father was so evil that no woman stayed with him for very long, so Troy grew up mostly motherless. When Troy was fourteen, his father noticed that the mule Troy was supposedly taking care of had wandered off. Troy's father found him with a girl he had a crush on and severely beat him with leather reins. Troy thought his father was just angry at him for his disobedience, but proving Troy's father was even more despicable, his father then raped the girl. Troy was afraid of his father until that moment. At that moment, however, Troy believes he became a man. He could no longer live under the roof with man that would commit these unacceptable acts, so he left home to be on his own, though he was homeless and broke, with no ties or family elsewhere. Manhood, to Troy, meant separating from his father because of conflict and abuse. The one attribute Troy respected and proudly inherited was a sense of responsibility. Troy's father provided for eleven children, and Troy too became the sole breadwinner for his family Bono, however, remembers a different type of father. Bono's father was equally depressed about life as Troy's father, but unlike Troy's father, Bono's dad never provided a fathering or providing role to Bono and his family. Bono describes his father as having, "The Walking Blues," a condition that prevented his father from staying in one place for long and moving frequently from one woman to the next. Bono could barely recognize his father and knew little about him. Bono says his father, like many other African-Americans of his father's generation, was "searching out The New Land.” As blacks were freed from slavery and wanted to escape the often slavery-like conditions of sharecropping, many walked north in what history calls 'The Great Migration,' to pursue a better life in the North, particularly in urban centres. Because of Bono's father's urreliable personality, Bono chose not to father children, to insure he would not abandon a child like his father. But, contrary to Bono's fears, his father's personality was not a family trait, but a choice he made to cope with his particular circumstances. Bono has been loyal to his wife, Lucille for almost eighteen years. Lyons and Cory had very different upbringings, though their development into men does not fall too far from the tree of their father's experience. Lyons spent his entire childhood growing up with only one parent, his mother, while Troy was in jail. Lyons feels he has the right to make his own life decisions and pursue his own dreams in music because he had more familial support and fewer hardships than Troy. Troy was not around to mould him into a responsible person, so Lyons tends to need to borrow money, though he does pay Troy back respectfully. Cory ends up leaving home in a similar conflict with Troy, like Troy had with Cory's paternal grandfather. To Troy and Cory, becoming a man comes to mean leaving the man that raised you because of a violent conflict. This painful process of coming of age is confusing. For both Troy and Cory, the creation of their own identity when their role model is a creature of duality - part responsible and loyal, the other side, hurtful, selfish and abusive - proves a  difficult model with which to mould their own identity as grown men with a more promising future than the father who threatens their livelihood.

The Theme of Interpreting and inheriting history

 African-American difference

Fences makes a distinction between races and culture more than the monocultural ideal of sameness The Civil Rights era of the 1960s and 1970s can be broadly interpreted as African-Americans' struggle for the same rights as whites. By the 1980s, Wilson saw this struggle for equality transforming into a culture that was attempting to erase the differences between races and peoples. African-Americans according to Wilson, were different than whites or any other races. They have their own distinc culture, history, and society. No people should have to become part of the majority culture just to enjoy the majority's rights and privileges. Maintaining this difference is painful, and often destructive as Fences demonstrates. In his son Cory, Troy sees a generation that not only aspires for their own success in the world but also seeks to fold themselves into the white culture of the day. Sports is metaphor for this; while Troy is bitter at losing his chance to play in an integrated Major Leagues, hd still idealizes the Negro Leagues as symbol of African-American pride. When Cory seeks a college scholarship to play football, Troy fears that his son will lose the difference of his race in his drive for success. This conflict of difference ultimately, and perhaps necessarily, destroys their relationship.

 The Theme Of Duty

In Fences, we have many instances of discussions on duty essentially involving the duty of a father to his family. Troy Maxson, the play's protagonist, seems to think that a father's only real duty is to provide food and shelter. He does not think it is important for a father to show love to his son, and he does not  feel his duties to his wife include fidelity. Troy has an affair, but does not believe it is necessarily wrong He has provided for his wife and loves her, but his love now includes someone else. Though Troy fulfill his own idea of his duties to his family, his infidelity brings a major crack in his family life. 

The Theme of Responsibility

Tory Maxon is a man who takes seriously his responsibility of his family Troy spend much of the first act talking about responsibility when it comes to responsibility troy lecture his children about grudgingly praises his otherwise abusive father for it, and insists he lives his life by it. Readers cannot help but admire how responsible Troy seems, at first. After all he takes care of his family, providing a home and giving all his pay to his wife. His inability to focus on anything but responsibility, however, strangles his relationship with his son. Rather than helping Cory achieve his own dreams, Troy insists his son follow the path he has chosen for him. His seriousness also becomes his greatest liability Troy is a man caught between his own desire for freedom, embodied in his affair with Alberta and his fathering of an illegitimate child, and his fierce sense of loyalty to his wife, children, and brother. Troy's sense of responsibility comes from his own father's bitter care for him and his siblings. His father's loyalty to his family can be seen as poisonous; his father's betrayal poisons his own relationship with Cory. Furthermore, Troy has not always lived up to his own high standards. He has a criminal past, and he uses his brother's disability to pay for his own benefit (and that of his family). He can feel alive and free only when engaged in an illicit affair. The pressure he places on himself and everyone around him to behave responsibly drives him to questionable acts. Ultimately, Troy becomes his own father. He abandons Rose for another woman and stubbornly refuses to repent of his sins. He also abandons his own brother and son, severing his relationships in his own quest for freedom. Troy demonstrates the idea that responsibility becomes as much a liability as a virtue.

The Theme of Manhood in modern America

Fences has been described as a story of manhood modern America. Troy Maxson is meant to represent the African-American experience of manhood, the contradictions and flaws inherent in this masculine process. There is first the question of the creation of the man; in Troy's experience, this is a fundamentally violent operation. It is meant to symbolize the birth of the self; Wilson portrays the African-American creation of self as a process of violence not different in the 1950s than it had been for eighteenth and nineteenth centuries slaves. The second stage of manhood is the continual way in which the African-American man is measured against the ideal of the American Dream, an ideal that becomes increasingly materialistic during the middle decades of the twentieth century and increasingly illusory as well. This is another way to read Cory and Troy's conversation regarding the TV in Act I Scene 3. Troy sees Cory accepting the idea that the accumulation of stuff creates desirable social status for the individual. Troy is deeply skeptical of this even though he implicitly understands it (he encourages Bono to buy his wife a refrigerator). The solution to these problems of manhood, according to Troy, is to accept the world's inherent violence and to barricade oneself against any materialistic thing that might inculcate passivity.

The Theme of Personal apocalypse

Gabriel, Troy's brother, is a symbol of the personal apocalypse of Troy Maxson. Apocalypse connotes a revelation, or an understanding of the world that brings about some kind of ending. In Fences, Troy's struggles with his family and with his sense of purpose reveal to him the nature of death and the impermanence of his own life. Gabriel, thinking that he is the literal angel Gabriel, foretells this revelation in Troy's life. He insists that Troy's life is written in St. Peter's book, though his mortality is not a concept of which Troy can conceive. The tragedies of Troy's life serve as a series of death events; the abandonment by his father, his own abandonment of his son, the death of his lover, and ultimately the end of his own life all remind Troy that he is not in control of his own life, even as he attempts tocontrol everyone around him.

The Theme of Changing African-American Culture

August Wilson's "Pittsburgh cycle” portrays African-American life in Pittsburgh during each decade of the twentieth century. Fences resonated with audiences partly because it so accurately capturedthe unique situation of African-Americans during the 1950s and 1960s. This was a time of great change for African-American culture. The Civil Rights Movement was in its nascent stages. African- Americans were slowly moving into a respectable middle class and out of the destitute poverty of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The post-World War II generation was first embracing the ideal of personal freedom. There are several instances of this changing culture in Fences. One is Troy's own advancement in his job. Troy is a garbage collector, a seemingly undesirable job, yet his promotion to truck driver bestows on him a level of authority and purpose that he feels he has otherwise not achieved in his life. His discomfort with his own advancement is seen in his desire to retire shortly after getting his raise. This changing culture also creates bitterness in Troy. This is seen in his love/ hate relationship with the game of baseball. On the one hand, Troy loves the game for the identity that it once gave him; on the other hand, he despises the game for its segregation and for robbing him of his chance at greatness. Troy is caught in the changing culture and represents a generation lost in their understanding of the world around them. 

The Theme of Freedom versus protection

The fence in Fences serves as a symbol of conflicting desires. In one sense, Troy and Rose seek to build a fence to keep the world out of their lives. Rose's desire for a fence symbolizes the way in which she seeks to protect her family. She knows that Troy's checkered past is always there and that he is, perhaps, only moments away from making decisions that may forever affect her and her child. Rose's fence seeks to keep the family in and the dangerous world out. It is a symbol of protection. Though Troy seeks to protect his family and his way of life, the fence also becomes a symbol of discontent in his own life. In his confrontation with Rose, Troy exclaims that he has spent his whole life providing for the family. He has been the protector and defender of a quiet, normal life. The fence, therefore, does not protect Troy but instead keeps him from achieving his ultimate desire for individuality and self-actualization; freedom to do as his heart pleases.

The Theme of Mortality (Death)

One of the most important themes in Fences is death, which Troy fights for much of the play. Though there are only two actual deaths in Fences, mortality is a constant theme. It has a tremendous impact on the story. In the play, death is a character. Rather than the elusive unknown, death becomes an object that Troy attempts to battle. Throughout the play, death takes on a persona of its own. Wilson gives life and body to death through Troy's lines: "Troy: The middle of July, 1941! It got real cold just like it be winter. It seem like Death himself reached out and touched me on the shoulder. I got cold as ice and Death standing there grinning at me. Rose: Troy was right down there in Mercy Hospital. You remember he had pneumonia? Laying there with a fever talking plumb out of his head." (Act I, Sc. 1, p. 14) For Troy, death is nothing but “A fastball on the outside corner” (p. 13). Troy goes on telling how he had wrestled with death for three days and nights, at which Troy had beaten Death, and Death walked away. Later on, death makes an appearance in Troy's life taking away someone he loved:

Rose: Alberta died having the baby.

Troy: Died... you say she's dead? Alberta died?

Rose: They say they done all they could. They couldn't do nothing for her. (p.79).

Troy's mistress, Alberta, had died as she gave birth to her and Troy's daughter, Raynell. At this point, Troy begins building his fence saying how death will stay outside of the fence until he is ready for Troy, and Troy alone. After his argument with Cory, Troy feels invigorated, and urges death onward saying that he's ready. "The time is 1965. The lights come up in the yard. It is the morning of Troy's funeral." (p. 93) Troy is dead, death had taken him away one sunny afternoon. "He was out here swinging that bat. I was just ready to go back in the house. He swung that bat and just fell over with a grin on his face. They carried him down to the hospital, but I knew there wasn't no need" (pp. 97-8). Troy had urged death on and it had taken him on again and this time it won out. Troy was no more. It is however instructive to note that the unfinished fence that Troy is building around his home is completed only when Troy feels threatened by death. In the story narrated above, Troy relates how he once wrestled with death and won. When the simmering conflict between Troy and Cory finally erupts and the boy leaves his father's house for good, it is death that Troy calls upon to do battle. In the end, Death does take Troy, but we're left with the impression that Troy does not go down without a fight. Interestingly too in the last scene, it is death that unites the family and helps bring resolution to their lives. When the family meets again at Troy's funeral, they are finally given a chance to bury the pain and disappointments of their lives. Fences seems to view human mortality as both a dark inevitability and our ultimate chance for peace. When the gates of heaven open for Troy at the end of the play, we are left with the impression that he has found rest in the afterlife. 

The Theme of Impact of time flow on history

Normal occurrences of one time might change in the future. This is a huge aspect of this play. Troy's son, Cory, wants to play football. However, Troy will not let his son play:

Troy: The white man ain't gonna let him get far with that football.

Rose: Times have changed since you was playing baseball, Troy. That was before the war. Time has changed a lot since then.

Troy: How in the hell they done changed?

Rose: They got lots of colored boys playing ball now. Baseball and football.

Bono: You right about that, Rose. Times have changed, Troy. You just come along too early. (p. 12) When Troy was playing baseball he seemed horribly distraught that he could not play in the major leagues. He claims that it is entirely the fault of whites and their not letting coloured people play.

Rose: Troy why don't you admit that you was too old to play in the major leagues.

Troy: What do you mean too old? Don't come telling me I was too old. I just wasn't the right color.

Rose: How was you gonna play ball when you were over 40. Sometimes I can't go no sense out of you. (p. 42).  

The premise of him not being able to play was more likely because of this, he just cannot admit it, Troy just does not want the same thing to happen to Cory. Instead, he wants Cory to get a job and do good in life. However, the constant fighting between the two has convinced Cory that this is not the case. “Just because you didn't have a chance! You just scared I'm gonna be better than you, that's all.” (p. 61).

 The Theme of The wish of good fortune on others

Troy wishes a better life for his children. He does not want his kids to live the same life he has. He wants them to have successful futures. Rose: Why don't you let the boy go ahead and play football, Troy? Ain't no harm in that He's just trying to be like you with the sports.

Troy: I don't want him to be like me! I want him to move as far away from my life as he can get. You the only decent thing that ever happened to me. i wish him that. But I don't wish him a thing else from my life. I decided 17 years ago that boy wasn't getting involved in no sports. Not after what they did to me in the sports." (p. 42). He didn't want Cory playing sports and then failing or not even getting to play. Instead, Troy wanted Cory to get a job, go to college, and live a successful life:

Rose: Your daddy wanted you to be everything he wasn't...and at the same time he tried to make you everything he was. I don't know if he was right or wrong...but I do know that he meant to do more good than he meant to do harm. (p. 100) Troy hoped that his children would be strong and determined like he was, yet never have to live the same life, or have most of the same horrible experiences that he had. Troy only wished good fortune on them, hoping that they could lead a life better than his own. 

    The Theme of Betrayal

Fences explores many different types of betrayal. Troy Maxson manages to betray just about everyone in his life: his son, his wife, his brother, and his best friend. In some way, almost every character in the play is betrayed by Troy. Of course, the play does go deeper than that. Troy betrayed his wife, Rose, and his brother, Gabe. Troy betrays Rose and their marriage. Troy continually goes down to his mistress, Alberta. When Rose finds out, she is angry and sad. She felt betrayed, she had given him her life, her entire being, and he used her. He was in love with another woman. Bono confronts him about this and Troy responds with, “You saying I don't measure up. I don't measure up 'cause I'm seeing this other gal" (p. 66). He was seeing another woman, and not only that, but, they also had a baby together. Rose had been waiting for eighteen years to hear that he was going to be a daddy again, yet she wanted to be the mother. Rose was betrayed by Troy, yet Rose was not the only one betrayed. Gabe was also betrayed by Troy. For a majority of the play Troy stands up for Gabe and his insanity. He says how Gabe shouldn't be locked up. How Gabe got that way through fighting for the country. Later on he even pays Gabe's bail, for his alleged disturbing of the peace. However, Troy is a huge hypocrite. When things get bad what does Troy do, he betrays Gabe.

Well you ought to know. They went over to Miss Pearl's and got Gabe today. She said you told them to go ahead and lock him up. Say the government send part of his check to the hospital and the other part to you. You did Gabe just like you did Cory. You wouldn't sign the paper for Cory (to play football)... but you signed for Gabe. You signed that paper.  said send him to the hospital...you said let him be free...now you done went down there andsigned him to the hospital for half his money. You went back on yourself, Troy. You gonna have to answer for that. (p. 77) Troy went back on himself and practically took half of Gabe's money. Troy is full of betrayals. He betrayed his own flesh and blood, along with his wife. Though many of the characters are hurt by Troy's actions, the final scene shows that they also have respect for him. Perhaps they see that, in some ways,Troy never betrayed them in his heart. Troy never apologizes for anything he does in the play. It could be that this is why the other characters respect him by the end. Though they were all disappointed by the things he did, Troy always did what he thought was right. It could be said that Troy never once betrayed himself . It should be recalled however that even Troy's father betrayed his son by raping his girlfriend after admonishing him for spending time with the same girl.

The Theme of Life, love, family, parenting and black identity

Fences projects universal messages about life, love, family, parenting and black identity. It shows the hardship of life in a common African-American family set in the suburbs of Pittsburgh and the margins of society. It carries a universal message about a disappointed father, who wants to protect his teenage son from life disappointments. Haunted by his inner demons, Troy Maxon fails to show real love, instead we see his harsh personality towards his son and his wife. Too many disappointments in the past have led him to shut off his emotions towards his family but still remaining human and adopting his extramarital child, Raynell. The play depicts a society put on the social margins, fighting everyday issues and marital problems but giving us a ray of hope about complex family relations and a young generation respecting their parents.

The Theme of  Fair play

The idea of fair play is a recurring theme in Fences. Troy was born into an unfair world, but by the time the play ends, things are improving. The play is set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1957, squarely in the midst of the civil rights movement. Many date the beginning of the civil rights period to 1954, when the Supreme Court struck down "separate but equal" in Brown v. Board of Education. Dr Martin Luther King Jr led the year-long Montgomery Bus Boycott, which began when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. The boycott ultimately led to the desegregation of buses in Montgomery and much of the South. In 1957, when Fences is set, the "Little Rock Nine," a group of nine African- American students, began attending a previously all-white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. The play ends in 1965, which coincides with the passage of the Voting Rights Act. Through these years and beyond the civil rights movement strove to establish fair play for all Americans, not just for whites. Troy experiences fair play for the first time playing baseball in prison. While serving his 15-year sentence, Troy developed a major league-level baseball talent. By the time he got out, however, he was entering middle age. Around this time Jackie Robinson broke the colour barrier in the major lea zues. In Troy's mind Jackie Robinson is a lesser talent; the fact that he succeeded while he failed leaves him angry and embittered. Troy believes sports should value only ability. Baseball did not follow the rule of fair play, and this betrayal shakes Troy to his core and affects his views on life. His wife, however, repeatedly points out that Troy was simply too old for the major leagues by the time he was a free man. Troy continues to fight for fair play, however. At work, he fights a system that lets only white men drive the trucks, and he wins. But his deep-seated distrust of organized sports endures, and he refuses to let his son pursue a football scholarship. In a sense he denies his son the benefit of fair play by not letting him use his football talent to better himself.

The Theme of  Dissatisfaction 

Dissatisfaction causes lots of trouble in Fences. The play's protagonist, Troy Maxson, is dissatisfied with his life. He's unhappy that his pro baseball dreams were stopped by racial discrimination. He feels trapped and unfulfilled in his job as a garbage collector. His son constantly disappoints him by not seeing the value of work. And even though he loves his wife, Troy finds a new love in another woman's arms. Fences explores how dissatisfaction can lead to behaviour that destroys a person's life and the lives of those around them.

The Theme of  Suppression

A pattern of suppression, passed down from one generation to the next, manifests itself in Maxson's family. Troy's father suppressed his attempt to have fun with a girlfriend, so Troy escapes, lands in prison, and plays baseball. Although he feels let down by sports, believing his skin colour kept him out of the major leagues, he, in turn, suppresses his son's dream of using sports to get an education and a leg up in society. Troy believes he is doing Cory a favour and giving him a brighter future. After all, his son will not suffer the same heartbreak he did. But Troy cannot see the world is changing; African-Americans have better opportunities. Cory's best chance at success is to go to college. A football scholarship would provide a college education. This education would allow him to scale heights beyond what Troy has achieved. Troy suppresses Cory's dream through his own limitations.

The choice between pragmatism and illusions as survival mechanisms

Troy and Rose choose divergent coping methods to survive their stagnant lives. Their choices directly correspond to the opposite perspectives from which they perceive their mutual world. In Act II, Scene Troy and Rose say that they both feel as if they have been stuck in the same place since their relationship began eighteen years ago. However, Rose and Troy handle their frustration and disappointment with their intertwined lives differently. This difference in their viewpoints is evident earlier on in the play. In Act I, Scene I, Troy proves through his story about his battle with Death that he is a dreamer and a believer in self-created illusions. To Troy, his struggle with Death was an actual wrestling match with a physical being. Rose, on the other hand, swiftly attempts to bring Troy back to reality, explaining that Troy's story is based on an episode of pneumonia he had in July, 1941. Troy ignores Rose's pragmatic, realistic perception of his fight with death. Troy brags about his wrestling match with Death. Rose unsuccessfully refutes his story by mentioning that every time he tells the story he changes the detail  Troy is unmoved by Rose's evidence against his illusion. Rose, as pacifier of the Maxson family, relents, making a final comment, "Troy, don't nobody wanna be hearing all that stuff." Later, when Troyan weaves a story about encountering the devil, Rose buttons his long account with two simple words, the "Troy lying."

The one impractical activity Rose takes part in is playing lottery (numbers). She has dreams and one hopes for the future, like Lyons who also plays the lottery and wants to be successful in a difficult profession, jazz music. In Act I, Scene 2, "Troy says to Rose, “You ain't doing nothing but throwing your money away." And when Cory proposes that they buy a television in Act I, Scene 3, Troy makes an excuse that they need to spend the money on a new roof. When it comes to other characters' impractical decisions, Troy suddenly becomes a realist, selfishly reserving the right to dream for himself only. This response comes across hypocritically from a man who later, in the same scene, will refuse to admit Hank Aaron gets enough playing time or when Cory proves a point about Sandy Koufax, Troy's futile response is, “I ain't thinking of no Sandy Koufax," as if not thinking about him will make Koufax non- existent. Later, in Act II, Scene I, Troy admits his affair with Alberta to Rose, excusing his behaviour by expressing to Rose that spending time with Alberta allowed him to provide an illusion of accomplishment and escape from responsibility. Troy says, “Then when I saw that gal... I got to thinking that if I tried...I just might be able to steal second." Troy perceives his relationship with Alberta as a laudable move in a baseball game, as a personal accomplishment, Rose sees Troy's lies and deception about the affair as simple and straightforward self-absorbed betrayal. She says, "We're not talking about baseball! We're talking about you going off to lay in bed with another woman... [w]e ain't talking about no baseball." In the final scene, Rose copes with the death of Troy with her typically pragmatic view. "...I do know he meant to do more good than harm." Troy dies, swinging a baseball bat, still attached to unfulfilled dreams of his past while Rose serves as peacemaker and practitioner of love with her family as they grapple with Troy's confrontational legacy.

The Theme of Race

Most of Fences is set in the 1950s. There had been some progress made on race relations by this time, such as the integration of pro sports teams. However, on the whole, America had a really long way to go. Slavery has been gone from America for over seventy years, but its shadow still presses down on the country. All the characters in the play are African-American, and they must deal with racism every day. The South is still officially segregated and much of the North is unofficially. Keep in mind that the play takes place before the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Fences shows what it was like in the decade before the movement caused such radical change in America. Some of the characters seem to sense that progress is in the air, while others are still trapped in America's troubled past.

The Theme of  Men and masculinity

Fences is often thought of as a father-son play. The main conflict centres around the tension between Troy Maxson and his son Cory. The play shows how Troy in many ways repeats the mistakes of his i own father while raising Cory. By the end, we're left with the hope that Cory will be able to break the cycle. Fences also questions what it is to be a man. Throughout the play we are forced to ask what it takes to be a good man. Is it duty to your family? Is it following your heart?

The Theme of Dreams, hopes, plans

Troy Maxson, the protagonist of Fences, has had his dreams taken from him. He wanted more than anything to be a professional baseball player, but his career was stopped because of racial discrimination. The central conflict of Fences centres around Troy's refusal to let his son Cory play football, which destroys Cory's chances of going to college. In this way, Ferices explores how the damaged dreams of one generation can damage the dreams of the next. By the end of the play, Cory must find a way to form new dreams out of the ashes of the ones he has lost.

The Theme of  Family

Revolving around the trials and tribulations of the Maxson family, Fences is a great example of a family drama. We watch Troy struggle to fulfil his role as father to his son and husband to his wife. You could say that Troy does not do such a great job in either role; before his death, his family has all but disintegrated due to his failures. However, by the end of the play, we see that the family has also grown by his example. Fences depicts the complex dynamics that both tear families apart and hold them together

The Theme of  Fences

Fences themselves are a major theme, as the title indicates. Rose imagines the fence around the house as a way to keep the family safe. But Troy imagines it as a way to fence in the ambitions of Cory, his son, It seems like the fence becomes a symbol here of the difference between Rose and Troy's personalities, Because of his combative nature, Troy assumes the fence is meant to keep something out. It takes Bono to make Troy see that a fence can have the opposite effect. It's possible that Rose asked Troy and Cory to build the fence as an attempt to help the two to bond. She feels the distance growing between them and is trying to keep her family together. Rose may instinctually feel that her family is disintegrating, and the fence is her way of trying to symbolically hold it together. Lastly, the fence could be seen as symbolizing all the barriers that our protagonist, Troy, has had to face in his life. First, it was his cruel and abusive father. Then it was poverty and homelessness. Next it was the racism that kept him from the professional baseball career that he rightly deserved. The tragedy of the play is that Troy lets his history of being confronted with barriers separate him from his friends and family. In the end, though, the biggest fence of all opens for Troy. This occurs in the play's final moments, when Gabriel dances a dance that opens the gates of heaven itself. We are left with the feeling that somewhere out there Troy may just have found forgiveness and peace.

The Theme OF  Deception

Outside of the self-deception that Rose claims Troy commits against himself, there are a number of significant deceptions in the play. Cory lies to Troy about quitting the football team (and keeping his job). When Troy demands that Cory choose the job over the football team, Cory outwardly agrees but secretly stays on the football team and quits his job. Troy discovers this deception. When Cory quits his job to concentrate on football, his father retaliates by going to the coach and forbidding Cory to play. Another significant deception is in Troy's relationship with his mistress. He lies to Bono early in the play about the nature of this relationship and hides it from his wife as well. His affair with Alberta represents his attempt to escape the responsibility he feels for wife, son, and home. Troy also implicitly lies about his qualifications for the position of driver at his job. Deceit, it would seem, is a common mode in the play, yet most of the characters strive to be honest and direct with one another. This is true of Cory, Rose and Bono.

LITERARY DEVICES