When a person understands the history of baseball, much of what Wilson has to say makes more sense, because the jargon of the book can be problematic for others who have no concept of the game. This does not mean that the book cannot be enjoyable to people who have no real concept of baseball, but most people in America today at least know the basics about the game of baseball and how much significance it has had throughout history. Having a basic knowledge of baseball is good before reading Wilson's work. Having a strong knowledge of baseball is even better, because it makes it much more likely that a reader will get all of the references that are made and have a much better idea of the deeper meanings that Wilson is imparting in his work.
From the very beginning of Wilson's work, the audience is dropped right into his world. Because he does not stop to explain the jargon and the dialect and the references but rather simply uses them in the story, people are left to draw their own conclusions about what these terms and turns of phrase mean. Most of them can be figured out - but they are easier to discover if a person has knowledge of baseball, and that is where the idea of understanding it comes in. The history of baseball and how it evolved from something that mattered little to something that has become very significant in society is much like the way that society itself has evolved. Much of what mattered to people in the far-distant past is not something that still matters today. Conversely, much of what was not seen as important 'back then' may be seen as having...
Fences" August Wilson The Influence of Sports in Fences Sports is one of the principle motifs in Fences, a play written by August Wilson, and is utilized to facilitate the other themes that this work of drama explores. The protagonist, Troy Maxson (Gilmore), is a former Negro leagues baseball player who is still attempting to reconcile his attempts at a career in professional baseball with the fact that he was not
Fences" August Wilson Breaking Out: Autonomous Independence in Fences One of the principle characters of August Wilson's play entitled Fences is Cory Maxson, whose role as the son of the play's protagonist, Troy Maxson (Gilmour 2010), is fairly integral to the thematic issues that the author chooses to demonstrate within this dramatic work. As one of Troy's several sons, Cory represents the distinct ideology that is fairly endemic to all parents
Wilson, Fences August Wilson's Fences allows the ordinary objects of domestic life to acquire a larger symbolic significance in their dramatic use. The play uses these symbols to dramatize a crucial moment in African-American history: the 1950s, when the great advances of the Civil Rights era are taking place, but when an audience might very well question what tangible effect they had on the lives of actual African-Americans. In presenting
His father cannot see him as a new hope; because he is too busy trying to protect him from the past. However, he cannot protect him, and in fact, he lets the past influence his own decisions. Wilson seems to be saying that many black men cannot learn from their past, instead they keep perpetuating the same mistakes generation to generation. Troy is a liar, which also gives a clue
Troy's father beats his fourteen-year-old son and then rapes the boy's friend. Troy understands in this moment that the cruelty in his life is represented by men. And part of the real evil that he seems as emanating from men is that they destroy women and drive them away. Troy sees the real harm that his father has done to women. And yet he also struggles to understand how a
His famed position was that of the lone man, dependent entirely upon his own strength, speed, and skill, in direct competition with the physical prowess of his opponents and with no assistance from his teammates. His mental confrontation with Death, whom he sees variously as a martial force and as a competitor on the field, demonstrate the perspective that Troy has on life and the world, and they also
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