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A short summary of August Wilson's Fences. This free synopsis covers all the crucial plot points of Fences.
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Quick Quiz - Fences: Full Play Summary - SparkNotes
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Themes - Fences: Full Play Summary - SparkNotes
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Context - Fences: Full Play Summary - SparkNotes
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From a general summary to chapter summaries to explanations of famous quotes, the SparkNotes Fences Study Guide has everything you need to ace quizzes, tests, and essays.
Gabe improvises a dance that climaxes as he makes a cry to the heavens. Read a full Summary & Analysis of Act Two: Scene Five. From a general summary to chapter summaries to explanations of famous quotes, the SparkNotes Fences Study Guide has everything you need to ace quizzes, tests, and essays.
Free summary and analysis of the events in August Wilson's Fences that won't make you snore. We promise.
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Troy Maxson, the protagonist of August Wilsons Fences, is the son of a frustrated sharecropper whose harshness drove off his wives and Troy. Troy has made his way north to a world where African Americans live in shacks and are unable to find work. Troy takes to stealing, kills a man, and is sent to prison, where he learns how to play baseball, whic...
Although Troy has tragic flaws, the ending of Fences is not tragic. A spirit of reconciliation is brought by Gabe, who has been allowed to leave the mental hospital to attend his brothers funeral. Gabe thinks that, when he blows his trumpet, Saint Peter will open the pearly gates and allow Troy into Heaven. Gabes horn lacks a mouthpiece, however, a...
Rose, Troys wife, joins Troy and Jim on the porch. Troy explains to Jim about how he and Rose first met; Rose corrects his version of what happened. Troy and Rose disagree about shopping at the local black grocery store versus shopping at the A&P supermarket. Their difference of opinion continues when they discuss their teenage son, Cory, and his p...
Cory wants to know from his father why the family does not have a television. Troy responds by instructing his son on the importance of not going into debt. They discuss Troys baseball days and current baseball players. Troy wants his son to work, not to play football. Troys opposition prompts Cory to ask why his father does not like him. Troy resp...
At the heart of the plays father/son conflict is an unbridgeable disparity between Troy and Corys abilities to believe that society can indeed change the way it treats black Americans. Although Troys unbending harshness often casts him in an unsympathetic light, Wilson grounds his characters personality in the frustrations and injustices that have ...
Wilsons plays are notable for the powerful voice given to black women as well as black men, and nowhere is this more in evidence than in the compassionate, impassioned characterization of Rose. Her words speak for a generation of black women, just as her husbands life embodies the hardships faced by black men.
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