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    A Study Guide for "Fences" (lit-to-film)
    A Study Guide for "Fences" (lit-to-film)
    A Study Guide for "Fences" (lit-to-film)
    Ebook41 pages31 minutes

    A Study Guide for "Fences" (lit-to-film)

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for "Fences" (lit-to-film), excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateApr 19, 2019
    ISBN9780028671161
    A Study Guide for "Fences" (lit-to-film)

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      Book preview

      A Study Guide for "Fences" (lit-to-film) - Gale

      19

      Fences

      2016

      Introduction

      Fences is a 2016 film drama adapted by director and actor Denzel Washington from the 1985 play of the same name by August Wilson, one of America's foremost playwrights. The film was a critical success, winning praise across the board for its solid and faithful translation of a famous play to the screen, though the majority of reviews also called it a work of convention. It grossed $64.4 million, easily recouping its $24 million budget, and in its opening week made sixth place at the box office.

      The story concerns Troy Maxson, a once-great baseball player turned garbage-truck driver, and his relationships with his wife, children, and an old friend. Unresolved frustration over his own wasted potential imperils these relationships and transforms the lives of those around him in unpredictable ways, even after he is no longer around.

      The play was the sixth of Wilson's Pittsburgh Cycle, a group of ten plays exploring African American life in a Pittsburgh neighborhood. Each play is devoted to a particular decade of the twentieth century, and Fences is set for the most part in the 1950s, though the last act takes place in 1965. Both play and film employ the diction of the streets of Pittsburgh's Hill District, the largely African American neighborhood where Wilson grew up, and explore issues of the past and its effects on the present as well as race and gender. In 1987 the play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as the Tony Award for Best Play, and it is widely regarded as a pinnacle of American theater. The University of Pittsburgh Press published it as part of Three Plays in 1991.

      Plot Summary

      The credits for Fences are accompanied by the sounds of a garbage truck in the streets. The film opens with a high-angle shot of the garbage truck, Troy and Bono hanging on the back. They discuss potential trouble at work, where Troy has confronted his boss about the fact that only white men are allowed to drive the trucks. Bono is concerned Troy might get fired. On their way home, Bono warns Troy that he has observed his romantic interest in a woman named Alberta and his visits to her house when he is supposed to be at Taylor's, a bar.

      As they enter Troy's backyard, his wife, Rose, joins them. Troy flirts with her, regaling Bono with a well-worn story about his courtship of her. Rose mentions a football recruiter's visit with their son, Cory, and the camera dollies toward Troy as his mood turns dark. He broods about his treatment when he was an up-and-coming baseball player and

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