"Fences" and the Life Works of August Wilson

Adams 1

Shaun J. Adams

Professor Carr

English 102

6 Mar 2010

“Fences” and the Life and Works of August Wilson

August Wilson (1945-2005), like Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, and other 20th century African American writers, used his writing talents and theatrical productions to reflect on the plight of black Americans prior to the Civil Rights era of the 1960s. Wilson was heavily influenced by all three of those earlier writers of the same genre. Having been born in 1945, Wilson both witnessed and experienced first-hand the fundamentally hypocritical values of a nation that was still recovering from a world war against oppression and tyranny whose black armed forces veterans returning to their own country were prohibited from sharing drinking fountains or delicatessen counters with their white counterparts.

During the century-long period of American history in between the formal end of slavery in 1865 and their achievement of genuine social equality, freedom, and civil rights, primarily in the last quarter of the 20th century, American blacks faced tremendous obstacles in every facet of American society. That injustice, inequality, lack of opportunity, and social oppression endured by American blacks throughout most of the post-Reconstruction Era and continuing throughout most of the 20th century is a

Adams 2

foundational theme of Wilson’s works, particularly in his ten-play Pittsburgh Cycle that include “Fences”.

The individual plays comprised by the series of works in the Cycle all deal with a different decade and the prevailing challenges faced by American blacks in the 20th century. “Fences” also addresses that theme in addition to acknowledging the personal shortcomings of the protagonist that cannot be blamed on societal oppression.

Wilson was one of six siblings born to a black mother and a German immigrant. His mother worked as a cleaning woman whose family was originally from North...