Fences by August Wilson: How?

Fences by August Wilson


Figurative Language (language that isn’t meant to be taken literally: metaphor, simile, symbol, hyperbole, rhetorical question, euphemism, irony, metonymy, personification, paradox, etc.)

• Motifs: One of the motifs seen in this story is death. Personification is used to describe death for Troy states, "Death ain't nothing to play with. And I know he's gonna get me". As if death was actually a person. Throughout the story Troy brings up death. Another motif includes baseball. Troy continually mentions baseball and uses it as a metaphor for his life. When he tells Rose that he is cheating on her he describes it like he was stuck on first base and wanted to steal second base. Another motif includes growth. Each character develops and Rose takes the qualities of an actual rose for she is a beautiful woman who protects her family.
• Symbols: The most important symbol has to be fences. The fence that Troy and Cory build can symbolize Rose's love and protection for her family. For it holds them in. However, the fence can also symbolize keeping people out and pushing people away. For Troy seems to be pushing away his loved ones and forming a barrier around himself. Also trains can be seen as a symbol . Towards the end of the story Troy is singing a song, "Please Mr. Engineer". Trains can represent entering a new event in life.

The elements of drama we drew up in class.

In class we came up with a list of why we should study drama as well as how we should approach it differently than other types of literature.

• Why we should study drama:

1. Illustrates aspects of humanity-message conveyed through speech and body only : Even though we read the story, it was written to be performed. Thus, the interactions that occurred between all of the characters help develop the characters. Thus, every time Troy would say something absurd Rose would pretty much tell him that he was crazy. So from this we could see that Rose was a down to earth person. Thus, we get a great sense of what these people are like.
2. pure: derived from spoken word--dialogue-based, interpretive: From reading the play we we were not given a lot of description of these characters at all. Thus, we had to learn about them through their dialogue and their interactions with other people. However, each person still interprets the character differently. Thus, there these more room for people to view the characters. Depending on who was reading a specific idea was formed about the characters.
3. actions speak louder than words: drama = words + action : Seeing something done or even said by a person creates a real feelings. In this class we did not see the play performed but we did get to hear somebody else read it. Thus, it made it more real instead of just listening to it in our own heads. These people became their characters.

• How must we approach it differently?

1. patience: At the beginning of fences we were thrown into this conversation where we new nothing about these characters. However, after listening what Troy had to say we could see that he had been through a lot in his life and that he was kind of biter about it. However, we still did not know everything about him, so it really takes a lot of patience to get to know the characters.
2. italics (e.g. "speaking abruptly") : Even if the play is not being performed you are still able to receive the same affect by looking at things such as words in italics. These words can bring a whole new meaning to the word itself. In this story when Troy would be mad the text would take on a new meaning.