Exposing Boundaries in Wilsons Fences :: Wilson Fences Essays

Exposing Boundaries in Fences   Fences is a play that deals with boundaries that hold people back and the trials and tribulations of those who try or wish to cross them. The characters are African-Americans in a time in the first place the civil rights move workforcet, living in an industrial city. The chief(prenominal) character, Troy Manxson, is a endowmented baseb completely player who never had the chance to let his talent shine, with restrictions on race and his time in jail as the main obstacles that held him back. He is now hard working and loves his family. However, he tends to exaggerate and has his faults, nearly(prenominal) prevalent a wandering eye when it comes to women. His wife, Rose, is younger than him and loyal, but she may not have known about all of his faults when she married him. At the beginning of the play, Troy has a son from a previous marriage, Lyons, and a son with Rose, Cory. Also appearing are Bono, Troys insobriety buddy, and Gabriel, h is brother. All of the characters are fenced in, by various barriers. Troy is working in a job where African Americans can get the lowest and or so difficult tasks. On the home front, he has responsibilities to his family. Rose has chosen tone with Troy as an alternative to a succession of abusive men and their babies, a life of partying, or the Church. Troys son, Lyons, is supposedly a musician but is going nowhere. Cory has potential but has his dream of compete college football extinguished by both protective and jealous Troy. The characters must(prenominal) deal with hardships of daily life, racial discrimination, straining relationships with each other, and the feeling that this is all their lives are somewhat of a confined space with no feed fenced in. Troys brother Gabriel, although minor, is important to the play for many reasons. The most important is that while Gabriel perhaps has highest and most impassable fence about him, he is the totally one who ignores it he i s not bounded, at least(prenominal) not in his own mind. Gabriel is seven years younger than Troy. They were both in a large family with a frustrated and abusive father. Gabe is the only family Troy speaks with now. Injured in World War II, Gabriel had part of his calculate blown away. He now has a metal plate and is heterogeneous and somewhat delusional.