Fences by August Wilson Ethics of Representation Assessment Answer

Introduction

The death of George Floyd under Derek Chauvin’s knee led to the largest outcry against racism in America in generations. People all over the nation and outside America continue to beseech for justice in the killings of Daniel Prude, Daunte Wright, Breonna Taylor to mention but a few (Stewart, 2022). All these individuals are black Americans who have come to meet premature death in the hands of the white supremacist further giving the view of the prejudiced social laws towards Africans living on their land. Today, these scenes have changed people’s perceptions about the North American nation. On the contrary, the world’s most presumed mature democratic nation is instead thought to be the most racist country on the globe. Nevertheless, some states in the US have been actively trying to update their policing methods although the continued death of Africa-Americans shows to the outside world that there is still a long way to go in the states. As a result, the cases of racial discrimination have been untangled in the cinematograph industry by concerned film producers such as George Tillman Jr ‘The Hate U Give,’ and August Wilson ‘Fences’ and many more who have purposed to show to the world the plight of the atrocities which non-natives endure in the country. This particular essay draws to the case of Fences to depict how documentary cinema and the media in the West represent those outside the west and the differences between making political films and making films politically.

Interpretation and Analysis

It is inarguable that people are most times influenced by the environment surrounding them. As a result, people show different personalities and experiences, behaviors, likes and dislikes based on these influences. Film artists and producers are non-exempt to this more so if it is that they were faced by the same experiences in their past lives (Hassan, 2022). In any case, this becomes the source of their inspiration in whatsoever they do and how they behave in society. Sadly, in the US, the differences between one race and another manifests in fences through misplaced anger that transcends generations and under certain conditions this anger escalates into violence. The assimilation of the white race risks eliminating the black identity according to August Wilson. But still, Wilson’s playwright is authentic to enthuse belief and genuineness amongst viewers and readers. As he would personally quote “my focus is on their dreams, their relentlessness, and the struggles of blacks to find practical and spiritual havens in an essentially hostile society’ (Pereira, 1995).

In view of the above, August Wilson is one of the most well-thought-out film producers whose cinema documentaries attract revered reviews from readers, audiences and researchers alike. The author is a renowned dramatist from the 20 ^th century who brings ‘Black Life to the Centre Stage.’ Gates and West (2002) allude that Wilson is one of the most preeminent characters in black theatre both for his sustained creativity and aesthetic success. To some, he is the closet playwright to the issues that face Africa-Americans in the western world. In ‘Fences,’ Wilson depicts American real life on the popular American stage knitted to the lives of the underprivileged (the Troy family) who endure suffrage and discrimination caused to them by the world that surrounds them. The author depicts the plight that Troy Wilson experiences as a sanitation worker in Pittsburgh in the 1950’s (garbage collector) whose talent and exploits as a baseball athlete are relegated due to the discriminative Jim Crow laws. It is further shown in Troy’s son Croy attempts to play baseball amongst the whites.

Frame

Source: Wilkinson (2016) – Frame I shows Troy Maxson on duty as a garbage collector. Despite his talent as a baseball player, the head of the Maxson’s family can only settle for the dirty casual work. Simply because of being black, Troy was denied a chance to engage in most major baseball leagues in the country.

Wilson’s portrayal of imaginations in fences is intended to show his encounters with the whites. Nevertheless, it ought to be understood that Wilson meant to crystallize and rediscover the identity of blacks and their nature as human beings. The author tailors certain themes in the movie to realize his goals. The film producer concentrates on showing the history of the black man with the intention to rediscover the culture and history of the Africa Americans through his play characters and title: Fences, Black Bottom, Ma Rainey’s, Two Trains Running, The Piano Lesson name it (Wilson, 1986). Certainly, August Wilson purposed to send a visual message to the outside audience about the demeaning conditions and suffrage the black people live under in the west as a result of the high degree racism. To better understand the primary themes beneath the playwright, a reader needs to review fences from a spiritual, mental and physical perspective. While on the other hand the film maybe deciphered as a cultural protection to anyone who has been the subject of cultural discrimination, the film is inspired by Troy’s experiences of racism which are a present day theme in the United States. What is more important, the playwright’s main focus is showing the struggles that Africa-Americans live through in their attempt to represent their cultural values a period in time when the native Americans ascended with the beliefs long held by their ancestors who had failed the red Indians race through racism.

Source: The Kennedy Center (n.d) – Frame 2 shows a small house in which the Maxson’s live, the unease in the face of a white passing by and the anguish within the family. Croy is shown in horror when he sees the white man passing by while Rosa, Croy’s mother standstill helpless and looking sad of their condition.

The film producer (Wilson) view is that no matter how tall your built fence is, people should live in societies where their fences do not hold them back. Unfortunately, when Troy finished building his fence, he completely isolates himself and his family from the outside world. Even though, it is viewed that Wilson’s fence is not actually a fence but instead it is an antisocial behavior which transcends generations because of the oppression Africa-Americans have suffered at the hands of the white supremacists. Simply put, fences endeavors to show the swift development of the blues and jazz following the growing and strong relationship between Africa-Americans in the Western world and the main society stream. The author shows how the blacks protect their cultural identity. In simple terms, Wilson’s movie communicates to the world more so the countries where racism is practiced against the underprivileged demographics. The primary problems causal to the literature of Africa-Americans in the film fences relates to the issues of oppression, abuse, and racism with the Native Americans used by the Natives to subdue the African society (Wilson, 1986). Most texts about Africa-Americans relate to these topics. These bad conditions have been the source of the new literacy genre: the Africa-American genre. Hence, such undesired situations in which the blacks live are to some extent advantageous from the Africa-American perspective since they encourage them to form a new literature that is standard to their identity and culture. It also helps them report to the outside world the injustices present in the worlds presumed most mature democratic nation, USA. Fences is a theatre movie which shows a family arranged in a template of distinguished family backgrounds, the Africa-American culture.

While critics have opposed Wilson’s depiction of African oppression in America based on Troy Maxson’s personal experiences, the author labored enough to bring out the living conditions of the majority blacks in America in many instances. Firstly, Wilson uses different means to show a voice of protest with the hope that his kind of voice will be perceived by the target audience and readers alike. August’s silent voice is represented both directly and indirectly using symbols like the fence, images and by expression throughout his playwright. To put simply, Wilson’s voice is synonymous to the concealed protests inherent in the thoughts of many African-Americans who always are faced with a pronounced oppressive forced enforced onto them by the white chauvinists. In view of this, the author quotes that ‘the glancing manner in which America looks at blacks and the way blacks look at themselves. We have different philosophical ideas, different ways of responding to the world. Different ideas and attitudes, different values, different about style and linguistics different aesthetics-eve the way, we bury our dead is different’ (Wilson, 2006). Wilson relies on the human belief among the blacks that cannot be described other than by his knowledge of the black race and his upheld belief that he was describing what is going on in their minds. As the film producer, Wilson knows that Africa-Americans too have their ways to confront and treat whites which he shows through the manipulation of his character in the movie. However, the author main intention in the publication ‘Fences’ was to encourage Africa-Americans to view themselves as a distinctive identity, as people with different ambitions, aspirations and those that aspire to be treated as humans with full human rights.

Set in 1957, a landmark year for the beginning of the civil rights movement, and a period in time when many black communities were caught in an oppressive, violent past and a bright future to be, fences revolves around the tale of Troy Maxson an Africa American father and husband who is desperate to fend for his family. In the movie, Troy is a man shown to have something to say on almost everything yet again whatever he says speaks of the White man’s discrimination towards the blacks (White, 2017). These emotion are the source of the fence he builds between himself, wife and his sons. As the protagonist struggles to find his purpose in life in the face of the many prejudices and obstacles that stand his way. Troy Maxson the family head is presented as a hardworking garbage collector straining hard to give a decent life to his family. But in many ways, Troy feels cheated by the American bigotry system. For example, Wilson narrates that while in prison, Troy learned to play baseball and he was a great performer. Still, he was kept outside of the major leagues simply because Africa-Americans were barred from participating. It is as a result of his feelings of regret and pain that Troy shows a troubled relationship with his son whose quest for a new life makes them believe they can beat the American discriminative machinery.

Source: (Coatess, 2023) – Frame III above shows a baseball team of whites in the 1950s in confirmation of Wilson’s claim that the blacks were prohibited from participating in major baseball leagues with the whites.

How Fences is Politically Made

Prior to the Black Lives Movement intensified, modern attitudes and black social continuity, playwright August Wilson filmed a black cultural viewpoint of the grievance, ambition, and political beliefs that were borne by the black people experiences. As aforementioned, the play revolves around the life and experiences of Troy Maxson a sanitation work in Pittsburg in the 1950s who regaled his two sons, wife and brother due to the ill experiences he went through to make means in a harsh racial society. In a word, Maxson’s defensive and tough attitude stems from his failed athletic career that was stifled by the discriminative Jim Crow laws. Indeed, Maxson is Wilson’s archetypal character of the person he needed, and mouthpiece he needed to show the bitterness he held about existential inequalities Africa-Americans have since endured because of the racism of Americans.

While the film stems on the black oral tradition, the ideas that Wilson meant to express were by no means marginalized or obscure. On the contrary, these are experiences that are so familiar among many Africa Americans living in the United States until now and the outside world thereby needs to know. By the scenes, Fences is a conformist playwright that is unfortunately artistically but interestingly political. Wilson’s deliberate and ornately dramatic poetry is why the play is considered conservative. Nevertheless, the rebuttal of Fences to a pseudo-political social movement happens unintentionally as a consequence of Wilson’s concerns with the experiences of the black values rather than a political making. 

Conclusion

Wilson’s ‘Fences’ mirrors the lowest of the Africa-American families. The family representative of the lives of many Africa-American families shows how blacks in American fight for a power that is very much distant from them as others specifically the whites have fenced to themselves the influential power politically and socially. Wilson shows the kind of disease that the blacks in America live with; it inflicts humans just as it affects Troy’s sons Croy and Leon and distorts the peaceful life of many people worldwide even as it would have not been anyone’s fault to be born black. In summary, ‘fences’ gives a clear picture of the white man’s view of blacks and how these bigotry beliefs have been harbored amongst whites from times immemorial. The racist cases suffered by blacks like George Floyd, the gun violence on streets and racism suffered by black footballs as shown in main stream media is testimony of the white man’s disdain of the black race.

Bibliography

Coatess, A., 2023. Where did Troy learn to play baseball? - Facts to know . Wezen-Ball. https://wezen-ball.com/where-did-troy-learn-to-play-baseball/

Hassan, H. A., 2022. The Culture Heritage Protection: Suggestive Themes and Views of August Wilson’s Fences. Journal , 4 (1), 1-12. https://www.redalyc.org/journal/6890/689072705002/html/

Gates, H.L, & West, C., 2002. The African-American century: How black Americans have shaped our country. Simon and Schuster, 2002. Print.

Pereira, K., 1995. August Wilson and the African-American Odyssey. University of Illinois Press, Print.

Stewart, T. J., 2022. Racism in America . PBS. https://www.pbs.org/articles/racism-in-america/

The Kennedy Center. (n.d.). August Wilson + fences . https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-resources/media-and-interactives/media/theater/august-wilson--fences/

White, A., 2017. Sense vs. nonsense . National Review. https://www.nationalreview.com/2016/12/august-wilsons-fences-film/

Wilkinson, A., 2016. Denzel Washington and Viola Davis are remarkable in the timely and timeless fences . Vox. https://www.vox.com/culture/2016/12/14/13935782/fences-review-denzel-washington-viola-davis-august-wilson

Wilson, A., 1986. Fences. New York: Penguin, Print.

Wilson, A., 2006. Conversations with August Wilson. University Press of Mississippi, Print

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