August Wilson’s ‘Fences’: A Dream Deferred
The American experience has always been a very specific one. It normally depends on one’s location, background, and the reality that makes one’s American experience different from their neighbor. But ever since the country was discovered, Americans have written their perspectives down in order to share their experience with everyone else. Within August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play ‘Fences’, he explores the struggles of the black American family after the second world war. In his play, his characters explain and experience the countless challenges they face simply for being African American in 1957 urban America. In addition to showcasing the black American life, Wilson also depicts the generational gap and division within the black community at a historical time in American history. The gap between the younger generation and their elders during the beginning of the civil rights era.
August Wilson was “born Frederick August Kittel in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania [in 1945]…[and] grew up in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, a lively poor neighborhood” (Britannica). The Hill District, to this day, is a predominantly Black district and was referred to as ‘little Harlem’ during Wilson’s childhood (Fox). Due to his skin color, Wilson was “the target of racial threats…[causing him] to quit school at age 15 [and turning] to self-education” (Britannica) where he slowly became a poet and eventually a playwright. “Overcoming the bigotry and ignorance he faced as a child, Wilson went on to become the most important dramatist of his generation” by writing about the constant African American experience (Peterson). He is most known and celebrated for his “cycle of ten plays, one for each decade of the 20th century, that dramatized the long and continuing struggle of African-Americans against racial hatred and injustice” (Peterson). Within the ten plays, he won Pulitzer Prizes for two of them: ‘Fences’ and ‘The Piano Lesson’.
‘Fences’ is a play about Troy Maxson, a 53-year-old African American garbage man who is trying to keep his family afloat while struggling with poverty, racism, and his own guilt. The play has themes of poverty, masculinity, and dreams which are all incorporated within the African American experience. Wilson wrote the play in 1983 (Zeitchik) which “premiered at [the] Yale Repertory [theatre] in 1985 [and after a successful run] opened on Broadway [in 1987 at 46th Street Theatre]” (PBS). The play was lead by James Earl Jones and Mary Alice and ran for a year, closing on June 26, 1988, with a total of 545 performances. That summer, it went onto win four Tony Awards including Best Play as well as Wilson’s first Pulitzer Prize for Drama (IBDB). The play received mostly positive reviews praising Wilson for accurately portraying the hardships of being an African American man in urban America. Brent Staples, a New York Times theater critic, who happened to be an African American man in his forties when the play opened, wrote that “for some portion of [the production], this is not theater, this is life”. Wilson’s play was so effective that during moments in the play “some of the black women in the theater vocalized or moan[ed] or nod[ded] or cr[ied] as though [it was] a tent revival meeting and the preacher was summoning up the Holy Ghost” (Staples). Wilson was able to write specific characters like Troy and his wife, Rose, but even though their story and struggles were not identical to the struggles of the modern 1987 audience, it was still effective because every black audience member has “lived and breath[ed] a Troy Maxson” in their lives (Staples). Even though the audience wasn’t Troy or Rose, or related to them, they’ve experienced a Troy-like character. Most of the 1987 audience saw their own fathers in Troy and to their surprise, identified with Troy’s teenage son, Cory. Wilson brilliantly told his story while simultaneously putting the childhood of the 1987 Black audience on stage which resulted in a cathartic and unique experience for everyone in the theater.
Since its original premiere, the play has been performed around the world and continues to be taught as an accurate and brutally honest portrayal of the Black American experience. In 2010, ‘Fences’ returned to Broadway with Denzel Washington and Viola Davis where it won three Tony Awards including Best Revival of a Play (IBDB). Later, it was adapted into a feature film in 2016 with the 2010 Broadway cast, directed by Washington, where it went onto to win one Academy Award out of its four nominations (IMDB).
The main way ‘Fences’ is read, taught, and understood is as a story of how the average black man is made invisible by the white man’s world in America. The audience learns this fact through the Maxson family, especially through the character of Troy. Wilson first describes Troy as “fifty-three years old, a large man with thick, heavy hands; it is this largeness that he strives to fill out and make an accommodation with” (Wilson,1). Before the play starts, we know that Troy is a big and strong man with the potential and desire to be something more than what he currently is. Within the first scene of the play, the audience learns that Troy was once a baseball player in the Negro Leagues and an extremely talented one. “Ain’t but two men ever played baseball as good as [Troy]. That’s Babe Ruth and Josh Gibson. Them’s the only two men ever hit more home runs that [Troy]…[Troy] was hitting .432 with thirty-seven home runs!” (9). Troy easily could have been, and maybe even was, the star of the Negro Leagues and it is because of baseball, that Troy gave up his life of crime in order to pursue his dream and become a successful man (55). With Troy “the closest [he] comes to participating in the American dream-and hence inhabiting such a paradise-is during his life in the Negro Leagues” (Koprince, 313). But the Negro Leagues wasn’t Troy’s full American dream and it wasn’t an easy job. The players were still African Americans living in an extremely segregated country where they were treated like second class citizens. African American players “had to contend with racism in the United States [and] were unable to stay at hotels that catered to whites” (311). Troy and the other players were extremely overworked and forced to play in areas where they would be the victim of extreme racism. It was also common for players to play internationally because “most players found greater freedom and respect when they traveled outside the borders” (311). It is likely that as a baseball player that Troy, even though being extremely talented, played “a game almost everyday and compet[ed] all over the country” (311). Meaning Troy was playing baseball all year long, everyday, without a day off or off-season as well as being face-to-face with the racism African Americans experienced in the 1930s and 1940s. People within the country still didn’t like the fact that African Americans were allowed to play baseball in the first place which made the sport, at times, unenjoyable. It isn’t until Troy was in his forties when Jackie Robinson broke that glass ceiling by becoming the first African American to play in the major league, making it impossible for Troy to live his American dream.
In the current time of the play, Troy feels, like all African American men in the 1950s, that he has never been appreciated in this world. This is learned when he frequently tells his wife or son exactly how he feels about the world. Tory repeatedly tells them that African Americans are “born with two strikes on [them] before [they] come to the plate…[they] can’t afford to let none get past [them. They] can’t afford a call strike…everything is lined up against [them]” (Wilson, 69). Troy is stating that compared to white Americans, Black Americans are always at an extreme disadvantage and they cannot afford to fail because they will never get another opportunity again. Troy has learned this from personal experience with the Negro Leagues. In his opinion, it didn’t matter that he was a talented baseball player. He is black, so his dream won’t come true in his America. In Troy’s mind, if he were white he would have been in the major league living a life of extreme wealth, fame, and happiness. But since he’s black, he was never allowed to try out for the major league. Despite being a talented ballplayer, he is now a garbage man without “a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of” (9). Troy is annoyed and angry with how his life has turned out and the fact that he is “standing in the same spot for eighteen years” (70), unable to move up the socioeconomic ladder in America. Wilson allows that fact sear in the audience’s mind throughout the play so when Rose begs Troy to understand that he never got a chance at the major league because he was too old it strikes a nerve with him and the audience. “What do you mean too old? I just wasn’t the right color. Hell, I’m fifty-three years old and can do better than Selkirk’s .269 right now!” (39). Throughout the play, Wilson shows how the denial of the American dream can affect a person throughout their life.
The majority of the world reads Wilson’s play as an honest look into the internal and external world of the average Black American. But Wilson also drives deeper surrounding Troy’s relationship with his son, Cory. With Cory, Wilson is able to show the intense conflict that the young revolutionaries had with their elders, particularly their fathers, at the beginning of the Civil Rights movement. Troy was born in 1904 meaning that his grandparents were slaves and his parents, most likely, were the first generation of free African Americans. From that upbringing, he is used to being left behind in America and being treated as a second class citizen. Cory, on the other hand, is in high school with the hopes to go to college. He, as well as the majority of young African Americans in the late 1950s, believe that they are entitled to the same opportunities as white Americans and are willing to fight for them in order to move up the American socioeconomic ladder. These two opposing views on the world are the sparks that are surrounded by gasoline throughout the entire play, waiting to ignite.
Cory has inherited Troy’s athletic skills and plays on the high school football team. In the first scene of the play, Rose tells Troy that Cory “got recruited by a college football team” (8). Troy, knowing from experience, shoots down the fact that his son could go to college as a football player. He states that “the white man ain’t gona let him get nowhere with that football…he ought to go and get recruited in how to fix cars or something where he can make a living” (8). Throughout the play, even when Rose or Cory tries to convince him otherwise, all Troy can see for his son’s future is to graduate high school and acquire a skilled job where he can work for the rest of his life. Troy values a job over a potential scholarship because, in his mind, Cory will never get recruited because of his skin color. He quickly wedges himself between Cory and his football, going out of his way to make sure he doesn’t get recruited. Troy makes Cory do his chores when he has practice and demands that Cory to helps him build a fence around their backyard. Troy quickly becomes obsessed with building the fence “to keep people in” (61). He wants to “build a fence around what belongs to” him, keeping everything he owns safe and protected from the white man’s world (77). But Cory doesn’t want to be fenced in, he wants to have a better life than his father’s and is willing to try to make that happen.
In the final scene of act one, Troy “went up to the school and told [Cory’s] coach [that Cory] can’t play football no more [and] told the recruiter not to come” (57). Troy single-handedly ruins his son’s opportunity to go to college. When asked why he did it, Troy explains that the reason was because Cory didn’t have a job at the A&P shop. This causes tension between the entire family for the rest of the play as everyone in the family’s fire has been ignited. Cory doesn’t believe Troy and screams that Troy ruined his chances because it is “just cause [Troy] didn’t have a chance! [He’s] just scared [Cory’s] gona be better than [him]” (58). Troy, still bitter that he was too old to join the major league and participate in his American dream, sabotages his son’s opportunity to participate in his. In Troy’s mind, if he, an extremely talented athlete couldn’t fulfill his dream, neither should a slightly above average athlete, even if it is his own son. Troy refuses to accept that the world is actually changing for the younger generation of Black Americans.
The play takes place in 1957 meaning that the Little Rock Central High School has been integrated, Rosa Parks refused to move her seat, starting the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the supreme court said that segregated schools were unconstitutional (History.com). Life is getting better and easier for Black Americans, benefiting Cory’s life, but it came too late to benefit Tory’s and he cannot accept that.
August Wilson made it his life mission to tell the stories of the invisible man throughout American society. Through ‘Fences’, he was able to discuss the universal yet specific struggles that the average Black man faced and still faces in America today. The American audience knows the story of slavery, the story of the emancipated, and the story of the freedom fighters. But what about the generation in the middle? The generation that was born too early and too late? With the character of Troy, Wilson shows what the life of an average person born into that forgotten generation was like. He depicts the toll a person can face when their dream is rejected by their society and the tragic realization that one’s nation has left you behind as the next generation quickly passes you by.
Works Cited:
- “August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 28 Jan. 2016, www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/august-wilson-the-ground-on-which-i-stand-august-wilsonbiography-and-career-timeline/3683/.
- “Awards.” IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/title/tt2671706/awards?ref_=tt_awd.
- Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “August Wilson.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 20 Apr. 2018, www.britannica.com/biography/August-Wilson.
- Fox, Randy. “ Pittsburgh’s Hill District: The Death of A Dream.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 15 Sept. 2012, www.huffingtonpost.com/randy-fox/pittsburghs-hill-district-dream_b_1669867.html.
- History.com Staff. “Civil Rights Movement Timeline.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2017, www.history.com/topics/civil-rights-movement-timeline.
- Koprince, Susan. “Baseball As History and Myth in August Wilson’s Fences.” Drama Criticism, edited by Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau, vol. 31, Gale, 2008. Literature Criticism Online, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/YNLTQX368021956/LCO?u=mlin_w_umassamh&sid=LCO. Accessed 21 Apr. 2018. Originally published in African American Review, vol. 40, no. 2, Summer 2006, pp. 349–358.
- Peterson, Richard. “Storytelling: August Wilson and the Building of Fences.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 14 Jan. 2017, www.post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/2017/01/14/August-Wilson-and-the-building-of-Fences/stories/201701140047.
- The Broadway League. “IBDB.com.” IBDB: Internet Broadway Database, www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/fences-4446.
- The Broadway League. “IBDB.com.” IBDB: Internet Broadway Database, www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/fences-485594/#awards.
- Wilson, August. Fences. Penguin Group, 1985.
- Zeitchik, Steven. “Adapting August Wilson: How His Play ‘Fences’ Became a Movie (and Why so Much of His Work Hasn’t).” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 5 Jan. 2017, www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-fences-august-wilson-20161215-story.html.
