August Wilsons Fences Essay Example For Students

August Wilsons Fences Essay It is easy to make the case that August Wilsons play Fences is a tragedy and that Troy Maxson is its tragic protagonist. Few comedies end with a funeral, and there is no denying that Troys character and life are the stuff of tragedy. But Wilsons vision is much larger than Troys heroic side, his deeds and omissions. Troy, for all his strengths, is flawed humanity in need of grace and forgiveness. Such grace and forgiveness are the spirit of true comedy, and a case can be made for viewing Fences as a comedy or, perhaps, a metacomedy. The protagonist of Fences is former baseball player-turned Pittsburgh garbage man Troy Maxson, and the antagonist is clearly racism. It is racism which has defied Troy Maxson at every turn and his skin color stood in the way of his quest to grab a piece of the American dream for himself and his family. Racism creates the conflict, which causes Troy to feel that he has been fenced in by a discriminatory society. It has heated tensions within the Maxson home between Troy and his wife, Rose, and Troy and his son Cory. August Wilson establishes an impression of the 53-year-old Troy Maxson early in Act I, writing that he is a large man with thick, heavy hands; it is this largeness that he strives to fill out and make an accommodation with. Together with his blackness, his largeness informs his sensibilities and the choices he has made in his life He can be crude and almost vulgar, though he is capable of rising to profound heights of expression (1). The central focus of the play is clearly Troy his family relationships, his adulterous affair with Alberta