This week we read Fences by August Wilson and the playwrights polemic speech "The Ground on Which I Stand." As you think about how the notion of Africa is translated into the work of Wilson, consider how the aftermath of slavery becomes a link to the African past of African Americans. How, if at all, do you see references to Africa in Wilson's work? Are they obvious or masked? How does the past, and its recollection, in Fences suggest links to the history of slavery and African culture? Why does African American Theater matter to Wilson? Why does it matter to you?
In class discussion of August Wilson I found the idea to write a play about each decade was a very interesting one. In reading Fences, I feel it properly addresses issues of the time, the 1950’s. The talks of baseball and Bono being one of the best Troy had ever seen, yet “What it ever get me?”(p14) depicting the limits on African Americans and stronger divisions between races in a time before the civil rights movement really got rolling. The difficulties of Lyons in finding a job are traced to inequalities still lingering after Lincoln supposedly freed the slaves, but laws failed to fully remedy the situation and the Jim Crowe south continued. Such gloomy facts of seeming oppression were lightened up as I read by the comedic interactions of the characters such as Troys foreshadowing of giving it to his wife, and his one-on-one run-ins with the devil. These lighthearted tales of persistence against the devil perhaps depicted the battle and attitude that must be used in fighting the inequalities faced by African Americans of the time. I also liked the image of the fence carried throughout the play. The fence represents the barriers facing African Americans. You have the physical work on the fence throughout the play representing the continued and united work that must be done in breaking down the figurative restrictive fence. The play also includes Hank Aaron crossing racial fences as the second African American into baseball as his home runs flow over the fences of the ballparks.
ReplyDeleteDemy Potter
ReplyDeleteI believe the aftermath of slavery or the attitude that people had during slavery is very prominent in the play Fences by August Wilson. The idea of being trapped or stuck in one place for one’s whole life is a main theme in Troy Maxson’s life. He says things like, “The A&P ain’t never done nothing for me…The white man ain’t gonna let him get nowhere with that football” (14-15). Comments like this show that Troy not only has no trust in “the white man” but also none in himself or anyone else. The racism Troy has towards white people definitely stems from the legacy of slavery and his low self-confidence in himself can also be blamed on slavery. In the play, the audience sees no interactions between the characters and anyone white. We simply here about what white people do to Gabriel and Troy in some scenes. Because there are no white characters in the play, we can assume that August Wilson’s focus was to show how the legacy of slavery and racism can affect an African American’s individuality.
I found many references in Wilson’s Fences to slavery issues. Specifically Troy refers to issues of inequality, inferiority, unfair treatment and opportunities throughout the play. He makes references to how he was the best at baseball but it didn’t matter because it offered no future for African-Americans. Troy is a garbage man and complains to his superiors that there are no black men driving any of the trucks. When he is called into the office everyone assumes he is going to be fired for complaining, when in fact he gets promoted and becomes the first black garbage truck driver in the area. Though times are slowly changing, Troy is stuck in the mindset that African-Americans don’t have the opportunity to achieve any of their dreams. On the contrary, his son Cory is being recruited to go to college to play football. Instead of allowing his son to follow that dream, Troy doesn’t allow the recruiter to come and doesn’t let Cory play football. Troy thinks he is helping Cory because in his opinion football won’t pan out to anything when in fact it may have. I think Troy represents the old school mentality of that time, feeling that the world is still the same as when he grew up and that blacks had no chance in a white world; he is a slave to the white man. Troy even refers to the white man as the Devil at one point (pg 20-21). Cory represents a younger generation that has dreams and feels that he can achieve them no matter what color he is.
ReplyDeleteEnslavement holds a strong overtone in Fences. Wilson writes of Troy, and African American man who has gone from one cage to another, from enslavement from Africa to American, to jail, to the garbage truck, his affair, and treatment of his sons, and to his own yard and the fence around it. The connection to slavery, these cages slowly separate Troy from his family and friends, from his own hopes and dreams that he once had to achieve something in America. In the end he traps himself. I feel that this comes to matter to Wilson and to African American Theatre because of the cages that African Americans continued to be in with the judicial system, with the job market and limitations for African Americans the time the play was set, and that linger even today.
ReplyDeleteThe limits that society puts on African Americans. Wilson uses the play to show how not only society limits African Americans, but how they limit themselves and each other because of society. African American Theatre overall is important because it contains cultural codes that resound with the African American community, and is needed to communicate the current issues and events to educate not only on the history of Blacks from Africa to American, but also what needs to be done to work towards a better future.
The Ground on which I stand by August Wilson was so powerful and moving to me. August Wilson had a strong foundation he stood on that gave him knowledge and experience about life. This speech showed that he has tremendous respect for those who came before him. “The ground I stand on has been pioneered by Greek dramatists Euripides, Aeschylus and Sophocles and William Shakespeare. By Shaw and Ibsen, Eugene O Neill, Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams” (August Wilson The Ground on Which I Stand). This made me think about the play Fences and the ground on which the lead character Troy Maxson stood on. He was so full of anger and resentment that it caused a rift between him and the rest of his family. Troy ridiculed his son who had dreams of becoming a football player, because his own dream’s of becoming a baseball player were tarnished “The white man ain’t never gonna let you get nowhere with that football noway” (Fences pg.35) Even the way he inter acts with his son as a whole, you can just here the resentment in his voice “Like you? Who the hell say I got to like you? What law is there say I got to like you? Wanna stand up in my face and ask a damn fool-ass question like that, talking about liking somebody” (Fences pg 37). This play showed how a man could be enslaved by his own anger and how he felt so tied down in bondage, that if affected everyone around him.
ReplyDelete“If you do not know, I will tell you that black theatre in America is alive… it is vibrant… it is vital… it just isn’t funded.”: Why African American Theater (Still) Matters
ReplyDeleteIn Fences, August Wilson’s third play in his epic “Pittsburg Cycle,” (lecture 3/9), Lyons expresses the vital importance of art to human existence telling his father: “I know I got to eat. But I got to live too. I need something that gonna help me to get out of the bed in the morning. Make me feel like I belong in the world” (Jacobus 1536). Wilson believed in the power of theatre to be a place where humanity could come together only by honoring both black and white art and not through the traditional white-washing of American theatre that happens in veiled and misguided attempts at “diversity” such as “color-blind casting” in which African Americans are “allowed” to play such honored and ultimately ultra-white, ultra-Euro-centric roles such as Hamlet and not just Othello again and again. Through his plays such as Fences and his famous speech, “The Ground on Which I Stand,” Wilson articulates that African American theatre matters because it serves as a kind of cultural repository where the legacy of slavery hides and is perpetuated through the vast disparity in funding that black theatres receive versus white theatres and through the echoes of the southern plantation that linger in the theatre that we can see through the pandering to the white master as “crossover artists […] slant their material for white consumption” (Wilson, “Ground”). However, Wilson never gives up on the power of theatre stating: “All of human life is universal, and it is theatre that illuminates and confers upon the universal the ability to speak for all men” (Wilson, “Ground”). Tragically August Wilson is no longer alive or it would be possible to ask him why African American theatre STILL matters today some fourteen years after he delivered his famous speech. But we are left to imagine that Wilson might answer: African American theatre matters because African Americans matter as people and as artists who are a “self-determining, self-respecting people” who remain “robust in spirit,” “bright with laughter,” and “bold in imagination” and that American theatre cannot survive without the voices and vision of African Americans (Wilson, “Ground), a people who echo Troy when he states early in Fences: “I ain’t going easy” (Jacobus 1534).
August Wilson states in his speech “The Ground on Which I Stand”, “the term black or African American not only denotes race, it denotes condition, and carries with it the vestige of slavery and the social segregation and abuse of opportunity so vivid in our memory.” (Stand, 2) In Wilson’s play Fences the aftermath of slavery is embedded into the play in a number of ways. One of the more predominate examples of the aftermath of slavery is through sports. In a way when African Americans played sports at this time it was as if they were enslaved by it. If they had the opportunity to be on a ‘white’ team, they really only practiced and didn’t play in the games. The other option was to play a little while in the ‘colored’ leagues, but that didn’t give a player as much of an opportunity. Another way that the aftermath of slavery is embedded into Fences is the type of living conditions that some of the African Americans in the show had/were living in. Bono says, “to this day I wonder why in the hell I ever stayed down there for six long years. But see, I didn’t know I could do no better. I thought only white folks had inside toilets and things.” (Fences, 14) Troy also refers to this when he talks about living in pretty much a slum down by the river. Some of the people living there didn’t know that they could do any better, they felt that this was the best they could do like Bono. Finally, there is a reference to the Klu Klux Klan, which is defiantly a part of the aftermath of slavery. This is when Troy is talking about the fighting death. Troy says about death, “death stood up, throwed on his robe… had him a white robe with a hood on it.” This sounds like a description of what a member from the Klu Klux Klan would wear.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this play I think August Wilson did a great job and I had a great time reading it. The fact that August Wilson used baseball through out this play a lot with the character troy was also interesting because troy often used baseball terminology when he was talking. I feel that Troy was bitter towards white people because of what he went through and that is a big reason why he is so hard on his son Corey and does not want him to play football because he feels that Corey will be restricted or controlled by the white man’s system. Troy’s anger and bitterness for white people comes from racism and the way he was treated while growing up. I believe that racism is just the aftermath of slavery so white people could still control blacks. Troy is very angry during this play and puts his family and loved ones in jeopardy. He is very hard and stern with his son and also has another woman on the side. I believe he does this out of frustration and anger, also his wife Rose is a very strong black woman not many black women stick around while their husband cheats but she does it for the family. This is out of the norm for most black women and is unique in this play. I had a very good understanding and feel for this play but what most stands out for me in this play is how August Wilson implemented sports in this play and the way he did it was interesting.
ReplyDeleteIn Fences, by August Wilson, this play deal with how an African American family is dealing with living in what some may call "White America". Troy starts little arguments with many of all the other characters because he can not grip the fact that others can have choices and dreams that differ from his own ideas, and that they can still work out to their advantage. “What it ever get me?”(Wilson pg. 14), to me it seems that Troy is having a battle within him self, it is like he sees the world as, "the jar is half empty but at the same time is half full," and what I mean by that is that in the beginning he was full of hope because he thought he had a promising career in baseball but everything flopped and now he blames the white society because he is now stuck at a dead-end job. Because Troy failed at his dreams, it is like he is now put him self in is own prison and now he is taking that out on every on including his son, “Like you? Who the hell say I got to like you? What law is there say I got to like you? Want to stand up in my face and ask a damn fool-ass question like that, talking about liking somebody.” (Wilson pg. 37)
ReplyDeleteWhen you build a fence more than likely you use it to keep something in or keep something out. In the story by August Wilson I want analyze a perspective relating the fence to ones consciousness. In relation to the play in act one scene one Troy and Bono are doing their usual Friday night thing. However indirectly Bono suggests that Troy has wandering eyes on another woman but of course Troy quickly denies that remark. Could the fence represent ones consciousness a choice to store information and a choice to keep information out? According to Troy his consciousness allows him to cheat on his wife because his fence (consciousness) is not necessarily closed or erected properly in that fashion. Or is it his choice to keep the unscrupulous behaviors in and keep other principled behaviors out. In my opinion I believe is it kept out to entertain his agenda. However when Cory has an opportunity to go play football somewhere but Troy believes that the “white man” will not let him get anywhere. Troy mentioned his dreams of playing professional baseball were tarnished but how do we understand why he wants to hinder Cory’s? According to the consciousness of the fence Troy maybe subverting the truth of his hatred for the white man to keep kill Cory’s dream because Troy never got his. Troy’s fence is has kept this bitterness inside and it could possibly lead to the all about me attitude. Hence, this maybe the reason why he cheats on his wife one could believe so. In essence the rules that encompass Troy’s fence (consciousness) may have been replaced. To be more specific Troy opened the gate of his fence (consciousness) and decided to keep bitterness and hate in that inherently replaced an opportunity to believe in success. Maybe because of the oppression it created a benchmark in his mind that blacks could only go so far.
ReplyDeleteAugust Wilson’s Fences is a play that which uses symbolism to present the history of African-Americans in regards to slavery and post-slavery into the modern world. The character Troy helps readers to understand how the idea of fences is symbolic for many different reasons. These fences are the foreground for the fences that have caused African-Americans to be denied as equal members of society for hundreds of years. The fences that enclose African-Americans as a group come in different forms but one example would be the idea of baseball and what it represents to African-Americans. As we read in Fences we see that baseball is a love of Troy yet when speaking about baseball integration in the pros he feels that it was much later than what it should have been. Troy in regards to his professional baseball career was captured through the fences of segregation disallowing him from ever playing in the Majors, “Come telling me I come along too early. If you could play…then they ought to have let you play” (Fences 10). We have seen this theme of baseball in plays like a Soldier’s Play, as the segregation that has stemmed from slavery forces great players like CJ and Troy to show their talents on much lesser stage because of the separation. These fences cause Troy to drink and speak about different problems blacks are forced to deal with because of the color of their skin.
ReplyDeleteAugust Wilson's fences deals with many of the issues of growing up in a difficult neighborhood for an african american family in the 20th Century. Racism is encountered and discrimination. The Fence a powerful metaphor for the barrier from the dream. It is also a symbol of not yet making it and that Oppression is still alive and well in our society, no matter how many people try and end the oppressive aspects of the American culture. People are being told they can't everyday for reasons out of their control. I am sorry Mr. Henderson, you can't be president because of your learning disability, but you are allowed to be patted on the head by the president. I am sorry, you aren't black enough to play this role. I am sorry a white person cannot get into this field because it requires rhythm. I am sorry you are gay, there is no way you are fit to wipe our floors. Even the integration in Fences is nowhere close to perfect and is so far behind where it should have taken place.
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