Fences

Mr. Rand

Bono and Troy's boss at the Sanitation Department who doubted that Troy would win his discrimination case.

Mr. Stawicki

Cory's boss at the A&P

Coach Zellman

Cory's high school football coach who encourages recruiters to come to see Cory play football.

Theme: Dissatisfaction

Dissatisfaction causes lots of trouble in Fences. The play's protagonist, Troy Maxson, is dissatisfied with his life. He's unhappy that his pro baseball dreams were stopped by racial discrimination. He feels trapped and unfulfilled in his job as a garbage collector. His son constantly disappoints him by not seeing the value of work. And even though he loves his wife, Troy finds a new love in another woman's arms. Fences explores how dissatisfaction can lead to behavior that destroys a person's life and the lives of those around them.

Theme: Betrayal

Fences explores many different types of betrayal. Troy Maxson manages to betray just about everyone in his life: his son, his wife, his brother, and his best friend. Pretty much every character in the play is betrayed by Troy in some way. Of course, the play does go deeper than that. Though many of the characters are hurt by Troy's actions, the final scene shows that they also have respect for him. Perhaps they see that, in some ways, Troy never betrayed them in his heart. Troy never apologizes for anything he does in the play. It could be that this is why the other characters respect him by the end. Though they were all disappointed by the things he did, Troy always did what he thought was right. You could say then that Troy never once betrayed himself.

Theme: Men and Masculinity

Fences is often thought of as a father-son play. The main conflict centers around the tension between Troy Maxson and his son Cory. The play shows how Troy in many ways repeats the mistakes of his own father while raising Cory. By the end, we're left with the hope that Cory will be able to break the cycle. Fences also questions what it is to be a man. Throughout the play we are forced to ask what it takes to be a good man. Is it duty to your family? Is it following your heart?

Miss Pearl

Gabe's landlady at his new apartment.

Bonnie

Lyons' girlfriend who works in the laundry at Mercy Hospital.

Theme: Race

Most of Fences is set in the 1950s. There had been some progress made on race relations by this time, such as the integration of pro sports teams. However, on a whole, America had a really long way to go. Slavery has been gone from America for over seventy years, but its shadow still presses down on the country. All the characters in the play are African American, and they must deal with racism everyday. The South is still officially segregated and much of the North is unofficially. Keep in mind that the play takes place before the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Fences shows what it was like in the decade before the movement caused such radical change in America. Some of the characters seem to sense that progress is in the air, while others are still trapped in America's troubled past.

Theme: Family

Revolving around the trials and tribulations of the Maxson family, Fences is a great example of a family drama. We watch Troy struggle to fulfill his role as father to his son and husband to his wife. You could say that Troy doesn't do such a great job in either role; before his death, his family has all but disintegrated due of his failures. However, by the end of the play, we see that the family has also grown by his example. Fences depicts the complex dynamics that both tear families apart and hold them together.

Troy Maxson

The protagonist of Fences, a fifty-three year-old, African American man who works for the sanitation department, lifting garbage into trucks. Troy is also a former baseball star in the Negro Leagues. Troy's athletic ability diminished before the Major Leagues accepted blacks. Hard-working, strong and prone to telling compelling, fanciful stories and twisting the truth, Troy is the family breadwinner and plays the dominant role in his over thirty-year friendship with fellow sanitation worker, Jim Bono. Troy's character is the centerpiece that all of the other relationships in Fences gather around. Troy is husband to Rose, father to Lyons, Cory, and Raynell, and brother to Gabriel. Troy is a tragic-hero who has excessive pride for his breadwinning role. Troy's years of hard-work for only meager progress depress him. Troy often fails to provide the love and support that would mean the most to his loved ones.

Cory Maxson

The teenage son of Troy and Rose Maxson. A senior in high school, Cory gets good grades and college recruiters are coming to see him play football. Cory is a respectful son, compassionate nephew to his disabled Uncle Gabriel, and generally, a giving and enthusiastic person. An ambitious young man who has the talent and determination to realize his dreams, Cory comes of age during the course of the play when he challenges and confronts Troy and leaves home. Cory comes home from the Marines in the final scene of the play, attempting to defy Troy by refusing to go to his funeral, but Cory changes his mind after sharing memories of his father with Rose and Raynell.

Theme: Duty

There's lots of discussion about duty in Fences. Most of this involves the duty of a father to his family. Troy Maxson, the play's protagonist, seems to think that a father's only real duty is to provide food and shelter. He doesn't think it's important for a father to show love to his son, and he doesn't feel his duties to his wife include fidelity. Troy has an affair, but doesn't believe it's necessarily wrong. He's provided for his wife and loves her, but his love now includes someone else. Though Troy fulfills his own idea of his duties to his family, others may question this. What do you think? What does a father and husband owe his family? What is he required to give?

Theme: Mortality

Though there are only two actual deaths in Fences, mortality is a constant theme. Troy Maxson kicks it off by telling a story where he literally wrestled with Death and won. We get several monologues throughout the play where he taunts Death, almost daring Him to try and take him again. In the end, Death does take Troy, but we're left with the impression that Troy doesn't go down without a fight. Fences seems to view human mortality as both a dark inevitability and our ultimate chance for peace. When the gates of heaven open for Troy at the end of the play, we're left with the impression that he's found rest in the afterlife.

Theme: Dreams, Hopes, & Plans

Troy Maxson, the protagonist of Fences, has had his dreams taken from him. He wanted more than anything to be a pro baseball player, but his career was stopped because of racial discrimination. The central conflict of Fences centers around Troy's refusal to let his son Cory play football, which destroys Cory's chances of going to college. In this way, Fences explores how the damaged dreams of one generation can damage the dreams of the next. By the end of the play, Cory must find a way to form new dreams out the ashes of the ones he's lost.

Jim Bono

Troy's best friend of over thirty years. Jim Bono is usually called "Bono" or "Mr. Bono" by the characters in Fences. Bono and Troy met in jail, where Troy learned to play baseball. Troy is a role model to Bono. Bono is the only character in Fences who remembers, first-hand, Troy's glory days of hitting homeruns in the Negro Leagues. Less controversial than Troy, Bono admires Troy's leadership and responsibility at work. Bono spends every Friday after work drinking beers and telling stories with Troy in the Maxson family's backyard. He is married to a woman named Lucille, who is friends with Rose. Bono is a devoted husband and friend. Bono's concern for Troy's marriage takes precedent over his loyalty to their friendship.

Gabriel Maxson

Troy's brother. Gabriel was a soldier in the Second World War, during which he received a head injury that required a metal plate to be surgically implanted into his head. Because of the physical damage and his service, Gabriel receives checks from the government that Troy used in part to buy the Maxson's home where the play takes place. Gabriel wanders around the Maxson family's neighborhood carrying a basket and singing. He often thinks he is not a person, but the angel Gabriel who opens the gates of heaven with his trumpet for Saint Peter on Judgment Day. Gabriel exudes a child-like exuberance and a need to please.

Alberta

Troy's buxom lover from Tallahassee and Raynell's mother. Alberta dies while giving birth. She symbolizes the exotic dream of Troy's to escape his real life problems and live in an illusion with no time.

Raynell Maxson

Troy's illegitimate child, mothered by Alberta, his lover. August Wilson introduces Raynell to the play as an infant. Her innocent need for care and support convinces Rose to take Troy back into the house. Later, Raynell plants seeds in the once barren dirt yard. Raynell is the only Maxson child that will live with few scars from Troy and is emblematic of new hope for the future and the positive values parents and older generations pass on to their young.

Lyons Maxson

Troy's son, fathered before Troy's time in jail with a woman Troy met before Troy became a baseball player and before he met Rose. Lyons is an ambitious and talented jazz musician. He grew up without Troy for much of his childhood because Troy was in prison. Lyons, like most musicians, has a hard time making a living. For income, Lyons mostly depends on his girlfriend, Bonnie whom we never see on stage. Lyons does not live with Troy, Rose and Cory, but comes by the Maxson house frequently on Troy's payday to ask for money. Lyons, like Rose, plays the numbers, or local lottery. Their activity in the numbers game represents Rose and Lyons' belief in gambling for a better future. Lyons' jazz playing appears to Troy as an unconventional and foolish occupation. Troy calls jazz, "Chinese music," because he perceives the music as foreign and impractical. Lyons' humanity and belief in himself garners respect from others.

Rose Maxson

Troy's wife and mother of his second child, Cory. Rose is a forty-three year-old African American housewife who volunteers at her church regularly and loves her family. Rose's request that Troy and Cory build a fence in their small, dirt backyard comes to represent her desire to keep her loved-ones close to her love. Unlike Troy, Rose is a realist, not a romantic longing for the by- gone days of yore. She has high hopes for her son, Cory and sides with him in his wish to play football. Rose's acceptance of Troy's illegitimate daughter, Raynell, as her own child, exemplifies her compassion.