Fences (Paperback)

by August Wilson (Author), Lloyd Richards (Introduction) "It is 1957. TROY and BONO enter the yard, engaged in conversation..." (more)
Key Phrases: Uncle Gabe, Miss Pearl, Troy Maxson (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A Pulitzer Prize winner. Garbage collector Troy Maxson clashes with his son over an athletic scholarship.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author
August Wilson is the most influential and successful African American playwright writing today. He is the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Fences, The Piano Lesson, King Hedley II, Ma Rainy's Black Bottom, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Seven Guitars, Two Trains Running, Jitney and Radio Golf. His plays have been produced all over the world. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Plume (June 1, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452264014
• ISBN-13: 978-0452264014
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (83 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,021 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #1 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( W ) > Wilson, August
  #14 in	Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Special Groups > African-American Studies
  #15 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Drama > United States

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There Will Be Better Days, January 9, 2001

A Kid's Review

Fences, by August Wlison, is a play that potrays the many roles of an African-American family that lives during a difficult period of time when Africans were being segagrated. In the play, Rose Maxosn, a house wife in her early-fortys, has a difficult time handling her family. She always finds herself battling between the decisions that her husband, Troy Maxson, makes and with what she thinks is right. Throughout the play, life for Rose was a graet challenge, but even though the pain was great, she always holds her head up high and waits for better days. This play teaches us that being able to forgive and go on with your life potrays a lot of who you really are inside. When this script was placed in my hands, my head ached to the thought of having to read another boring book. To my surprise, when it was read out loud with great feeling, my heart jumped with excitment and joy. After I had gotten a sense of the characters feelings and language, I was unable to put it down. This book reached out to me like no other book has ever done before. The way that Rose was able to forgive so many inappropiate acts is very astonishing to me. I franckly admire Rose for being able to be a strong women and for sticking to what she says. I wish that everyone that reads this script is able to take a bit of sweetness from Rose.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars August Wilson's, "Fences", March 1, 2000

By	Summer B. (Flagstaff, AZ, USA) - See all my reviews

"Fences," by August Wilson, is a wonderful mix of drama and comedy that emphasizes the tribulations and confusions people were going through, during the changing sixties. In this two-act play, Troy Maxson is a middle-aged African American who is struggling to raise a son, keep a family together and deal with the new desires and needs everybody is beginning to feel as social standards slowly begin to change. As a child growing up, Troy did not have a great father figure, and he was not able to persue his dream of becoming a great baseball player as he grew older, because of racial limitations of the time period. Now as things begin to change for the better, he is still afraid of these limitations and overcoming them. His son wants to play football, but Troy doesn't want him to. He wants him to get a job and become good with his hands. As he refuses to let his son play, he pushes him away. He begins to push his wife away too, because he feels he needs his own space and has new desires. This play becomes a struggle for Troy to try to pass on morals he thinks are right and to be a proud man in a time where hatred is strong and boundaries are being broken. Troy Maxson is having to change his ways according to change and he grew up doing what he could to survive, so changing after so many years of living a certain way to survive is harder than anything he has had to deal with before. Will he come out of it successful?

A wonderful blend of characters, hysterical, beautiful, bold, courageous and passionate; this play is sure to win your favor.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fences: Responsibilites, November 15, 2001

By	"dramaly" (New York) - See all my reviews

"Every right implies a responsibility, every opportunity, an obligation, every possession, a duty." This is how one man by the name of John D. Rockefeller Jr. interprets the term "Responsibility". It is the quality by which one is dependable. The way one chooses to deal with the course of their actions. Different people handle their responsibilities in different manors. Some voluntarily fulfill their duties, others find it a hassle they feel obligated to deal with.
"Fences," by August Wilson, is set in the mid-1960's. The storyline deals with a man and his family as they go through the struggles and conflicts of life.
Troy Maxson, the leading character in the play, is a good example of one who finds his responsibilities to be obligations. Troy is a fifty-three you old, black man who makes his meager living as a garbage man. He and his wife have two children. Troy looks at fatherhood as his duty. He brings home a paycheck, he puts food on the table, and he puts clothes on his childens' backs. He rarely shows any of the affection that one might hope he holds for his children. Perhaps this is because his father never showed him any love.
In Act I Scene I, we see Lyons, Troy's son from a previous marriage, come by to ask ten dollars of his father. His father reluctantly hands him the money after a drawn-out argument over Lyon's jobless lifestyle. Lyons and Troy have two very different views on life. Troy feels that his son, a man of thirty-four years, should be responsible for supporting himself with a steady job. Lyons disagrees, claiming he knows he has to eat, but he has to live too. He feels it is more his responsibility to enjoy life than to worry about where his next meal is coming from.
As the story progresses, we find Troy and Lyons discussing the ways of Troy's father in Act I Scene 4. Troy states that his father "cared nothing about no kids...all he wanted was for you to learn how to walk so he could start you to working." He then goes on to talk of how his father would sit down at the dinner table and eat until he was full enough to give his eleven kids whatever remained. Lyons finds this hard to believe declaring, "everybody care about their kids...that he should have just went on and left". Troy explains that his father knew he was trapped and he felt a responsibility towards his children. Without that, he would have walked out.
One can trace many similarities between Troy's behaviors back to his father's. They both feel the obligation to provide the bare necessities of life for their children. Neither happily volunteers to fulfill their parenthood duties. One difference between the two is that of the feelings Troy has for his children. He loves them, though he may not always express it.
To be responsible is to be able to answer for one's conduct and commitments. There are various ways to go about fulfilling these duties.