Laraymia Williams Fences

Fences

Fences is a 1983 play by American playwright August Wilson. Set in the 1950s, it is the sixth in Wilson's ten-part Pittsburgh Cycle. Like all of the Pittsburgh plays, Fences explores the evolving African American experience and examines races relation, among other themes. The play earned Wilson the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Tony Award for Best Actor for James  Earl Jones.

The play begins on payday, with Troy and Bono drinking and talking. Troy's character is revealed through his speech about how he went up to their boss, Mr. Rand, and asked why black men are not allowed to drive garbage trucks (they are garbage men); Rose and Lyons join in the conversation. Lyons, a musician, has come to ask for money, confident he will receive it from his father. Troy gives his son a hard time, but eventually gives him the ten dollars requested. It is revealed that Troy has had an affair with a woman named Alberta, whom the audience never sees throughout the play. It is revealed that Alberta is impregnated and dies giving birth to Raynell, the daughter conceived from their union. During the final Act, Raynell is seen as a happy seven-year-old; Cory comes home from war, and after initially refusing to go to his father's funeral due to long-standing resentment, his mother convinces him to pay his respects to his father - the man who, though hard-headed and often poor at demonstrating affection, nevertheless loved his son.