Part 1: So What??
1. Important Characters (Characteristics, appearance, thoughts, actions, speech, what other characters say, character development) - Troy (the main character) is obviously important. He is a black man in his 50's. He works at as a garbage man and he thinks that he is better than everyone, that he works harder than them and that they owe him something.- Rose (Troy's wife) is a compassionate woman that is in love with Troy but she doesn't take any of his lip and she doesn't let him lie. She is the calm balance to Troy’s' ranting personality.- Bono is Troy's best friend. He works as a garbage man with Troy. He often hangs out with Troy at his house on payday (Friday) and drinks. He is a lot calmer than Troy but he tends to agree with everything that Troy says.- Cory is Troy and Rose's son. He is 17 and plays football. He wants to go to college and make something of himself. He had a chance of that with his football scholarship but that got blown. He has a mind of his own and he tries not to let his dad push him around.- Gabriel is Troy's brother that has a plate in his head from the war. He thinks that he is the angel Gabriel whose job it is to blow the horn that opens the gates to heaven. He walks around and sings songs, and is always friendly. Although through out the play he seems crazy it also seems like he knows that something big is happening.
2. Essential Plot Elements (Introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement)-The introduction of this play is Troy and Bono sitting on the porch drinking. Troy is complaining (which helps set up his character) about his job as a garbage man and he is telling Bono a story about another man that they work with. Bono also mentions Alberta but Troy brushes it off. Rose is introduced and you can tell that she is able to stand up for herself.- The rising action starts when Troy and Rose start to argue about what to do with Gabriel (to send him to a hospital or not), Cory being able to go to college and play football on his scholarship. Also when they argue about Troy spending so much time at Taylor's and how Troy thinks it's stupid that Rose buys lottery tickets. It starts when they start to argue.- The climax happens when Troy comes home and tells Rose that Alberta is pregnant with his child and when Cory and Troy get in a fight about Cory wanting to go to college and him quitting his job.- The falling action happens eight - nine months later when Alberta gives birth and dies. Rose agrees to take the baby and raise it as her own but she no longer wants Troy. Cory gets in a huge fight with Troy and leaves.- The denouement happens when Troy dies. The baby is named Raynell is now seven. They are getting ready for Troy's funeral and Cory arrives. He isn't going to go to the funeral but then changes his mind. Gabriel tries to blow his horn to open the gates for Troy. Nothing happens but then he dances and the gates open.
3. Setting (place, time, mood, weather, social conditions) - The entire play takes place in Troy's backyard. Through out the play a fence is slowly being put up. The entire play except for the last scene takes place in 1957 ("Fences." Spark notes: Time and setting 29 Sep 2008). The central mood of this play is a "tense" mood. Most everything that happens in this play is dramatic and leaves a tense feeling behind. The weather never really seems to be an important part of the setting. You know that it is during the school year because Cory is in school and that it is warm enough for the characters to stay outside and talk. The social conditions are complicated. The ties between all of the characters seem to be strong but in the end they really aren't. Rose leaves Troy, Bono stops hanging out with Troy, Cory leaves. Troy leaves them all.
4. Central Conflicts (internal or external) - Since this is a play I would say that most of the conflicts are external. But there are also some internal conflicts. The conflicts are all man vs. man and man vs. self. Rose vs. Troy is one example. They are constantly arguing because Troy lies all the time, won't let Cory go play football and because he cheats on her and gets another woman pregnant. It is a constant struggle for Rose. Another is Troy vs. Cory. Troy refuses to let Cory become his own person and got to college and get his scholarship. Troy vs. self is an internal conflict. He is convinced that the world is out to make his life hard and he doesn't want to admit that someone else could be right. Rose vs. Self is also another internal conflict. She is in a constant battle with herself about what to do about Troy. He won't let Cory do what he wants; he cheats on her (and blames her. She has to decide what to do about him. Gabriel vs. Society is another one. Gabriel is always getting in trouble for silly reasons because he is an easy target and Troy will play his way out. They want to send him to a hospital so that he won't be in the way anymore.
5. Major Themes (central message, controlling idea, important insight about humanity).- The central message is that you’re not always going to be happy with what you have. Troy is never happy with his life. Cory is sick of his life so he leaves. Rose is tired of Troy's "ways". In the end none of them really get what they want.- A controlling idea in this play is death. All throughout the play Troy says that death won't ever find him and when it does he will be ready to fight it. And deep down you know that he is afraid to die. On the other hand Gabriel is always ranting and raving about how he will be there to open the gates of heaven for Troy.- I think that this play says a key thing about humanity. It says that no matter what we are never happy or satisfied and we are always afraid of death. No matter what seems to happen to people deep down they are never happy with their lives-they may be for a certain amount of time but then they will want something different. And no matter how many times people say that they are okay with dying and they aren't afraid they really are.
Part 2: How??
1. Imagery- I personally love the imagery in this play. One part that really sticks out in my mind is when Gabriel is scared of the "hell hounds" that he said were at Troy's feet. Although there isn't a really good description of the "hell hounds" I think what we know about Gabriel makes it really easy to see how he would react to this. After all, he believes that he is the Angel Gabriel and he doesn't want anything to do with hell. Another part that sticks out in my mind is when Cory is fighting with his dad and he picks up the baseball bat. He is threatening Troy with something that he lost and that means a lot to him. I can see the combination of anger and sadness on Troy's face as he realizes what is happening to him.
2. Elements in Drama- In class we came up with a list of things that we think drama is/ what it does. The very first thing that is on that list is "illustrates aspects of humanity-message conveyed through speech and body only". In my opinion that is the first thing that comes to mind when I think about the elements of "Fences" it embodies the things that people deal with all the time. Adultery, death, money problems, job problems, relationship ups and (mostly) downs. Another thing that stands out from our list is (since we didn't watch it) the idea that what can't be described can be embodied. Since we read this in class and didn't watch it, we had to make up our own assumptions of what the characters did. "Fences" also did a great job of showing us the time period. That money was hard to get and that black people still weren't being treated TOTALLY fair. But they still had rights. The only thing on the list that I don't agree with that is on the list is that everything happens immediately. Troy doesn't die until seven years after the play starts. That is far from immediate.
(All list items from "elements of drama" were taken from Alexspare.com AP Lit week 9/8 "Why Drama?" Period 8 list)
