Fences Theme Essay

Words: 828
Pages: 4

Fences” is a play written by August Wilson,the play discusses the themes of death ,the will to survive, and the state of reaching manhood with the difficulties that it brings . It describes the mindset and strength of the person, reaching adulthood, playing sports, and end of life issues. These three themes are each crucial in their own way to the development of the story. The story begins in 1957 with two men named Troy and Bono who have been friends for over thirty years. The two men were conversing and drinking with each other on a Friday night, something of a ritual for them. Death was the theme that Troy reminisced about. He spoke of his battle with pneumonia and fight with death which took place in July 1943. The character Troy then stated, “Death standing there staring at me…carrying that sickle in his hand. Finally he say, “You want bound over for another year?” I told him, “Bound over hell! Let’s settle this now!” It seem like he kinda fell back when I said that, and all the cold went out of me.”(Fences 1.1.197-205). The battle Troy …show more content…
The first scene during the fourth act is when both men discuss their fathers and the difficulties that they had growing up with their fathers and how it has then affected them years later as grown men. Bono’s father was not physically abusive to him, like Troy’s father was. Yet his father was unfaithful to his mother and constantly went from one place to another and slept with multiple women and as a result he hardly knew his father. It altered his personality to the extent that he did not even want children, and he decided to be loyal to his wife, which he has done for the sixteen years they were together . Bono then went on to state, “I ain’t never had a chance. My daddy came on through… but I ain’t never knew him to see him… or what he had on his mind or where he went. Just moving on through.”(1.4