August's Wilsons Fences - Research Paper Example

?Fences Fences, a Pulitzer winning play by Augustus Wilson, examines the racial tension and the cultural imbalance among the African-Americans during1950s. The play narrates the stress of segregation that a base ball player, Troy from a Negro race suffers. The prevailing tension during the 1960’s and 70’s which measured the African American struggle for the same rights, are well depicted through the characters in the play. The 1980s observed a cold struggle to morph the two cultures in order to erase the difference between races and people. The African Americans were dissimilar to any other races or the Whites. They were special in their culture and history. The period witnessed a transition of the Black into a respectable middle class people. All of them were in search of personal freedom and identity. The play “Fences” depicts the protagonist from the African American race, who tries to establish his unique ability, but fails in his attempt. Troy, the protagonist goes back to the 1900s when he was working under the cruel authority of a sharecropper who was himself a product of the Reconstruction era. The mindset of this character plays a lot here when he deals with his son. The garbage collector, who dreamt of becoming the driver of the wagon, knew that to become a member in the National League is a dream beyond his reach. The past experiences and the desire to become something in future were the two driving forces of Troy Maxon and his son Cory. The personal experiences were poles apart for both, and Cory sees his fortune in a different way unlike his father. Troy has the pain of negligence in base ball where he proved himself to be a talented player. He never wants his son to suffer like him. But Cory replies exemplifying the African American players “The Braves got Hank Aaron and Wes Covington. Hank Aaron hit two home runs today. That makes forty-three”. Troy responds,”Hank Aaron ain’t anybody”. Cory also realizes that the times have changed since baseball rejected a player as talented as Troy because of the color of skin. The play Fences is very apt with the use of baseball as the metaphor. The play has such an influential label of American Dream which stands for success, hope and individuality. “According to John Thorn, baseball has become ‘the great repository of national ideals, the symbol of all that is good in American life: a fair play (sportsmanship); the rule of law (objective arbitration of disputes); equal opportunity (each side has its innings)…” The walled garden of the play ground itself stands for the demarcation and the confinements that prevailed in the society. The protagonist Troy – a former Negro League slugger – is depicted as a victim of this bitterness. If you are a black man in America, “you born with two strikes on you before you come to the plate (69). Through him the author was exposing the feelings of the black players who were denied a chance to compete at the major league level. According to Koprince, there was simply an understanding among every major league club owner and every minor league club owner for more than 60 years that no blacks could play in so-called organized baseball. The readers can assume that he would have gone through the same experiences as Robert Peterson ,” They were travelling in packed automobiles and broken down buses, playing a game almost every day and competing all over the country”. George Giles who was a Negro Leagues player revealed his irritation to racism which forced him to give up the profession at the age of 30. According to David Craft“ The racism we faced while I was in the Negro League was one of the things that eventually pushed me out of baseball…I was treated like a second class citizen in my own country by people who knew they hated me before I could eve say ’Hello’”. When Cory shows the similar promise in football, Troy, fearing his son will face the same obstacles, prevents him from playing. The decision is unacceptable to his family. That affects their familial relations too. Troy slowly begins to move away from Rose. Troy’s friend Jim Bino argues with him and tells that since Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball, the black players are more supported, but Troy responds, “I done seen a hundred niggers play baseball better than Jackie Robinson. Hell, I know some teams Jackie Robinson couldn’t even make! What you talking about Jackie Robinson. Jackie Robinson was nobody. I’m talking about if you play ball then they ought to have let you play. Don’t care what color you were. Come telling me I come along too early. If you could play….then they ought to have let you play.” The voice of the members of Negro the league is sounded in the words of Troy. According to Sandra Shannon” Troy’s grumbling serves to foreground the voices of the nameless masses.” Troy is a pure African American who confines himself within the fences of racism. But Cory represents another generation who wishes to break the confinements of society. He aspires for his own success. He represents a group who seek to fold themselves into the white culture of the day. Troy fears that his son will lose the difference of his race in his drive for success. Troy himself is undergoing such a change. His advancement in his job as the truck driver is a symptom of this revolution. But unfortunately, he himself is not comfortable with this advancement. His wish to retire soon from his present position reveals the tension in him to adjust with the changing culture. Troy has been caught in the changing culture and represents a generation lost in their understanding of the world around him. Troy dies as a warrior to himself and to the society, and the ground was depicted as a sacred place. Thus, Wilson turns his protagonist into a social reformer whose spirit now dominates the era of Civil Rights. Baseball becomes a powerful ground to create the racial tensions, thereby making so many heroes and heroines from the African Americans who are now ruling the kingdom of sports. The final line of the play is the prophetic words of Gabriel, “That’s the way that go”, which to a great extend become true in the present context. Fences ‘experiences’ have universal relevance, though the characters are more personal. Rose becomes a strong archetype of African America woman. She has put her life and soul into Troy, and yet he has sought out companionship of another. But Rose is elevated to women of high power. The character Cory who is more complex in nature who had to break the ‘fences’ erected between himself and his dream, himself and his father and himself and the society. When his father dies he refuses to attend the funeral, his mother offers him the opportunity to change. He accepts the possibility and becomes emotionally mature, thus making sure that his life will be a different one from that of his father. The play is appropriate with the traditionally white cultural form – baseball – to depict the tension in the twentieth century. August Wilson greatly succeeded in bringing out the stained racism in the national play which brought revolution in the era. There is no lying in Fences. It is 300 miles and more than 60 years of telling the raw, bitter. Works Cited Wilson, August. Fences: A Play (First edition ed.). New York: Plume, 1986. Print. Koprince, Susan. “Baseball as History and Myth in August Wilson’s: Fences”. Web. 22 June 2006 Read More