August Wilson's Century Cycle -- Fences

 

My sense is Wilson's Fences won the Pulitizer Prize because its story is more classically tragic than his other more mystical and declamatory works -- which might have appealed to Pulitzer judges. It is, in many ways, as great as Miller's Death of a Salesman, whose sad and self-deceived titular character shares much in common with Wilson's Troy Maxson -- a man haunted and frustrated, able to accept his own failings while abjuring those of his offspring. Rose's speech at the end is just as stirring as Linda Loman's declaration in Death that "attention must be paid."

Wilson's Fences, like others in the series, begins in medias res, with Troy and his sidekick, the earnest Jim Bono, getting off work. Troy's got a few things in the works and needs an audience, which his friend is eager to provide. By the end of Scene One, Wilson has introduced us to Troy's universe (he actually describes all of the characters in terms of their relationship to Troy), including his absent brother Gabriel. When Gabriel makes his appearance in the Second Act, those familiar with Wilson's universe understand Gabe's a messenger, the latest in a line of mystics, with one foot planted on the earth and the other in the spirit world. Gabe's battle with the hell hounds, which seem not to be molesting him but those he loves, is a foreboding classical theme made even more ominous when paired with Troy's tales of wrestling with the devil -- the devil of his own bitter and grasping nature.

Troy and Cory Maxson is the first staged father-son relationship Wilson has presented in the Century Series, and it's quite a study. Troy, an undereducated trash man, pours his regret and frustration on top of Cory, a young man who is puzzled by his father's animosity toward his desire to play football.

Troy: ... You go on and get your book-learning so you can work yourself up in that A&P or learn how to fix cars or build houses or something, get you a trade. That way you have something can't nobody take away from you. You go on and learn how to put your hands to some good use. Beside's hauling people's garbage."

It's not until the family is ready to lower Troy into the ground that Cory begins to understand the pain his father was in and to forgive him and his faults.

Wilson juxtaposes two powerful scenes in Act Two to show Troy's dishonorable fall -- Bono's departure and the fight with Cory. The two scenes have starkly different tones -- Bono's leaving his friendship with Troy is graceful, like the guileless man who tried to be Troy's conscience earlier, but the battle with Cory is fierce and bitter, like the father and son who have never really understood one another. Both are tragic and devastating events in the life of a man who's claimed to stare down the devil. At the end of the scene, Troy stands again daring Satan to come at him. He's finished the fence but, alas, it neither keeps love in nor does it keep harm out.