Pancake Paper.......Fences(#1)

Lei Dennis-Osuagwu
10-14-08
1A-B



ESSAY

“FENCES”
By: August Wilson
Question 1.


Have you ever been put in a situation where it seems as if you have no control of anything around you? where it seems as if you have no say or power. Sometimes we feel as though life has knocked us down so much that there should be nothing to live for you feel as if you’re a victim of life. In Fences Troy Maxson is a tragic figure that is flawed. Fences to me is a play that is ultimately hopeful and not tragic. The only thing that may be considered as tragic is the death of Troy at the end of the play. There seemed to have been many metacomedy parts in the play, that’s gives room for humor, for example on page 14 of Fences, Troy was speaking to his elder son Lyons and he says, “I’ll be damned!, I’ll die and go to hell and play blackjack with the devil before I give you ten dollars”, I found that to be a comic relief of the tension that was there between Troy and Lyons, it was very humorous, because there was no way that he would play blackjack with the devil in hell. August Wilson uses figurative language to get a point across. August Wilson, seemed to have taken his time, to have constructed and written Fences, It portrays the everyday life of African Americans in the 1950’s, showing their struggles, good memories and family drama.
Troy was a man who wasn’t afraid to express himself, he was free spirited and good willed, he always thought he had things under control, he was the man everyone could run to in time of need, a Goodman good friend and good husband, he thought he new the next step of his life. As the play progresses, we the readers learn of the big secret, the fact that Troy had an affair outside his marriage, cheating on hi wife Rose, and fathering another woman’s child, and that was a situation where Troy didn’t have much control. At that point he gad felt as if the weight of the world had finally come down on him, with that we saw a family braking apart, his son Cory left and joined the Marines, and his wife Rose was highly disappointed, he had lost her and trust . Troy had finally caused his wife and other’s he loved while intending not to do so. At this point Troy probably feels as though there is nothing left for him, maybe even to live for.
Troy’s death was symbolic because he died as he was swinging his bat, my guess was that he was rumbli8ng with death. Throughout the play, Troy talks about meeting death, and being ready to fight death till the end, where he can’t fight no longer. Troy was ready for death, he even went ahead to say that if death was ready for him, it should come knocking at his door, and he’ll open, prepared and willing to fight for his life.
Troy Maxson had no control of his life he couldn’t change his fate, and couldn’t undo certain events that occurred in his life. He had to deal with the fact that he had offended people he loved, I’m certain that if the was a way to go back in time in his life he would go and make things right, with his family, be there for them a lot longer and tend to their need a lot more. It seems as if though we have all been put in a situation where we couldn’t control what was going on, our action, and our emotions, where we wish that we can just make the whole world stop so we can rearrange the order of events in our life. I personally can say that I have been there, been put in that binding state where, sometimes I ask myself “why me”?, “when will it end”?, or “is it ever going to end”?, these are the questions I asked myself all the time, I wanted to know if there was a way for me to change my fate or was it just going to be as it was, I had to come to the realization that life should be left as is.