Abridged Fences_INTRO

Make a journal page of notes for the pre-viewing information over August Wilson, Fences, and Greek Tragedy. Our purpose is to observe and evaluate Troy Maxson as a traditional Greek Tragic Hero and also a modern American anti-hero.

Journal 1: Building Background

Using the resources on this site and in the room, build a page of foundational knowledge with which to approach your reading of the play. What were the Negro Leagues? What does it mean to "be a success" and how do different generations view success? Who is August Wilson and what is his impact on modern American drama? How do actors see these characters, their motives, and their reflection in our society?

Audre Lorde, speaking of the impetus for her poetry, says, "I cannot recall the words of my first poem/ but I remember a promise/ I made my pen/ never to leave it/ lying/ in somebody else's blood". August Wilson appears to have made a similar aesthetic vow of fidelity: using what he calls "the blood's memory as my only guide and companion".

Langston Hughes' "Harlem" asks one of the essential questions of the play:

What happens to a dream deferred?

How are the dreams of several characters in Fences deferred? What is the result for each?

What connections can you see between Wilson's writing and Hughes'?

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 enslavement states from the free states. Troy’s name symbolically demonstrates Troy’s character as one who lives on a dividing line of sorts between two opposing forces. Troy’s history is equal parts southern and northern, half-full of hope and half-filled with disappointment. He was once at the top of an exciting career opportunity as a baseball player that nose-dived into a life in a dead-end job. He loves his wife and yet cannot break off an affair that gives him a feeling of freedom from his responsibilities. He says he doesn’t want his son to be like him and yet by thwarting Cory’s dream of playing football, he ensures that he will indeed share the common experience of being stopped from doing what he loves… just like Troy was stopped from advancing his baseball career.

Troy’s hovering on the dividing line between these opposing forces is reinforced by his name and its allusive significance.

The Pittsburgh Cycle

August Wilson’s seminal cycle of 10 plays covers African-American history in the 20th century, with all but one set in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, where Wilson grew up. This “Century Cycle” of plays has recurring characters, though the plays were not written in chronological order. “My plays are ultimately about love, honor, duty, betrayal,” Wilson said in an interview in 1996. All nine of the plays on Broadway received Tony Award nominations for best play and two won Pulitzer Prizes. Learn more about each in the order they were written by clicking on the image (left).

FRQ3 Prompts

1990: Choose a novel or play that depicts a conflict between a parent (or a parental figure) and a son or daughter. Write an essay in which you analyze the sources of the conflict and explain how the conflict contributes to the meaning of the work.

2003: According to critic Northrop Frye, “Tragic heroes are so much the highest points in their human landscape that they seem the inevitable conductors of the power about them, great trees more likely to be struck by lightning than a clump of grass. Conductors may of course be instruments as well as victims of the divisive lightning.” Select a novel or play in which a tragic figure functions as an instrument of the suffering of others. Then write an essay in which you explain how the suffering brought upon others by that figure contributes to the tragic vision of the work as a whole.

2004: Critic Roland Barthes has said, “Literature is the question minus the answer.” Choose a novel, or play, and, considering Barthes’ observation, write an essay in which you analyze a central question the work raises and the extent to which it offers answers. Explain how the author’s treatment of this question affects your understanding of the work as a whole.

2011. In a novel by William Styron, a father tells his son that life “is a search for justice.” Choose a character from a novel or play who responds in some significant way to justice or injustice. Then write a well-developed essay in which you analyze the character’s understanding of justice, the degree to which the character’s search for justice is successful , and the significance of this search for the work as a whole.

Original Prompt: Toni Morrison writes "Love is never any better than the lover." In a well-written essay, explore how a character is affected by their complex relationship with someone who loves them or who they love, & how that relationship offers insight into the meaning of the work.

Denzel Washington as Troy

James Earl Jones as Troy

Troy, Bono, and Manhood: the Walking Blues

What does the conversation between Troy and Bono about their own fathers reveal to us about the examples that they have had? How might this affect them as adult men? How do we see Troy's "restlessness" now as an extension of the "walking blues"?

The Finale: Tone Map

Scenes 3-5 cover a lot of emotional ground, move us 7 years into the future, and illuminate each character's ultimate fate. We also meet Raynell, the newest member of the family. Create a TONE MAP using color and text to illustrate the shifting emotional landscape of the play. Be sure to include each of our main characters: Troy, Cory, Rose, Lyons, Gabe, Bono, Raynell.

Minimum of 10 lines

Fences Culminating Project

Fences Culminating Project: Spending more time with a text, thinking creatively about it, and making connections outside of it are sure ways to gain deeper understanding and solidify the details in your memory. For the next three days, work closely with the play to design a final project that reflects some deeper understanding of its themes, historical relevance, and language. On Lit Museum Day you will visit projects and complete reflections about what they add to our study of the play.

Highly recommend listening to the BLUES while you work.