Fences

1
Fences

• August Wilson
• 1945-2005

2
Early Life

• Grew up in in a Pittsburgh ghetto called The
  Hill
• Father was white and abandoned mother and 6 kids
• Mother worked as a janitor after father left

3
Education

• Dropped out of school in ninth grade
• Falsely accused of plagiarism (racism)
• Self-educated (read extensively at the local
  library
• Read works of African Americans such a s Langston
  Hughes and Ralph Ellison
• He submitted his poems to a black publication at
  the University of Pittsburgh

4
Early Adulthood

• 1968 he founded the Black Horizon Theater Company
  in St. Paul, Minnesota
• Community theater aimed at increasing the
  political awareness and activism of area
  residents (civil rights movement)
• He used the playhouse as the forum for his first
  dramas

5
Writing Career

• (1981) Black Bart and the Sacred Hills
• (1982) Jitney
• (1984) Ma Raineys Black Bottom
• First big hit
• Opened at Yale and later moved to Broadway
• About a black blues singers exploitation of her
  fellow musicians
• Play establishes Wilson as an up and coming
  playwright on the national stage. (noted for its
  authentic, lively dialogue.

6
Fences

• 1985
• Pulitzer Prize winning play
• Former athlete who forbids his son to accept an
  athletic scholarship
• Set in the 1950s in a big city just prior to the
  civil rights movement

7
Background on Fences

• Turn of the century blacks migrated North and had
  difficulty assimilating into the white culture
• Often forced to take menial jobs and live in
  run-down, segregated sections of the city
• Never lost their dream for equality that M.L.
  King would try to win for them in the 1960s

8
Setting of the Play

• Ancient two story brick home in a big city
  ghetto-most likely Pittsburgh
• Year is 1957just prior to the Civil Rights
  Movement

9
ThemesEvils of Prejudice

• A man should be judged by what he does rather
  than by what he looks like
• Troy symbolizes the tragedy of a generation held
  back by white suppression

10
Human Frailty

• Humans are by nature imperfect
• We are prone to repeating the mistakes of our
  past
• Human conditionTroys boyhood abuse leads to his
  parental failure

11
Missed Possibilities(Dream Deferred)

• We must be prepared and free to act on
  opportunities that present themselves Both Troy
  and Cory miss out on opportunities
• Old baseball rag is a reminder of triumph and
  failure

12
The Destructive Nature of Envy

• Troys bitterness concerning his missed
  opportunities leads to an unhealthy envy which
  causes his son an opportunity to advance

13
Inability to Adapt to Change

• Troy is unable to see the changes in Americas
  social fabric.
• He is blinded by his own past
• Cory sees possibilities Troy cant even imagine

14
A Desire to Escape from our Responsibilities

• Troys desire to escape is domestic
  responsibilities ironically results in yet
  another responsibility