Fences

David Andrews

Theatre: Romance to Contempora

Ms. Maryanne Arena

Author and Playwright

August Wilson

August Wilson was an award-winning playwright who chronicled the African-American experience through a series of ten plays. He was born Frederick August Kittel, Jr. on April 27, 1945 in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, PA. His father was a German immigrant named Frederick August Kittel and his mother was an African-American woman named Daisy Wilson. Mr. Wilson is best known for 10 plays. Known as The Pittsburgh Cycle, each play is set in a different decade of the 20th Century, chronicling the African-American experience. Nine of the ten plays are set in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, near Wilson’s childhood home. The only exception is Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which is located in Chicago. 

“Fences”

In the play Fences by August Wilson, Troy is shown as a man who has hurt the people who are closest to him without even realizing it. He has acted insensitive and uncaring to his wife, Rose, his brother, Gabriel and his son, Cory. At the beginning of the story, Troy feels he has done right by them. He feels this throughout the story. He doesn’t realize how much he has hurt them. Troy is the son of an abusive father. His father was hardly around to raise him. When he was around, he made him do chores and if he didn’t do them he would beat him. One time, after Troy tied up the mule, just as his father told him to, he went off to the creek with a girl to enjoy himself. The mule got loose, and his father found out. His father came looking for him. When he found them at the creek, he had the leather mule straps, he started to beat Troy. Troy was naturally scared so he ran away. He looked back at his father and realized that his father didn’t care about beating him, he just wanted the girl. Troy came back; he ripped the straps out of his father’s hand. He then started to beat his father with them. His father, not afraid of Troy, beat up Troy. Troy was left there, his...