Analysis of Plays, "Fences" and "A Raisin in the Sun"
Jose Morales
English 164
Dr. Kidd
08/03/2012
“Fences” and “A Raisin in the Sun”
Plays, “Fences” and “A Raisin in the Sun” share similar plots. They take place in the mid-western United States in the 1950’s and explore the family dynamics of the African-American Family and the paradigmatic shift it experienced between two generations. The older generation, who could remember slavery by first-hand experience or by being born during a time when success for the average African-Americans was systematically stifled by racist and unconstitutional laws that were put in place when slavery was legal, and the young generation that began to show some sense of entitlement, had begun to overcome institutional barriers to succeed and empower themselves with knowledge and education, but who without the proper guidance and support, were willing to compromise their honor and family for monetary or superficial gain. Throughout both plays, conceived notions of masculinity and femininity with their respective roles are simultaneously intertwined with intergenerational conflicts. In “A Raisin in the Sun,” Walter Younger is at odds with his mother, Lena Younger, over his plans to use his father’s life insurance money to invest in a liquor store. By her values, a dishonorable business in itself for its profit from alcoholism, but using his father’s life insurance money, which see considers in a way to be the sum of his life, the price given to what the value of his life was, would be an abomination. And Walter just doesn’t get it until the very end. In “Fences,” Troy Maxson, is a middle-aged, African-American man who was born and grew up under extremely oppressed circumstances, has been in prison, played baseball but couldn’t play professionally because of the baseball commission’s ban of black players before Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Troy refuses to let his son, Cory, to go to college on a football scholarship possibly out of bitterness for not
English 164
Dr. Kidd
08/03/2012
“Fences” and “A Raisin in the Sun”
Plays, “Fences” and “A Raisin in the Sun” share similar plots. They take place in the mid-western United States in the 1950’s and explore the family dynamics of the African-American Family and the paradigmatic shift it experienced between two generations. The older generation, who could remember slavery by first-hand experience or by being born during a time when success for the average African-Americans was systematically stifled by racist and unconstitutional laws that were put in place when slavery was legal, and the young generation that began to show some sense of entitlement, had begun to overcome institutional barriers to succeed and empower themselves with knowledge and education, but who without the proper guidance and support, were willing to compromise their honor and family for monetary or superficial gain. Throughout both plays, conceived notions of masculinity and femininity with their respective roles are simultaneously intertwined with intergenerational conflicts. In “A Raisin in the Sun,” Walter Younger is at odds with his mother, Lena Younger, over his plans to use his father’s life insurance money to invest in a liquor store. By her values, a dishonorable business in itself for its profit from alcoholism, but using his father’s life insurance money, which see considers in a way to be the sum of his life, the price given to what the value of his life was, would be an abomination. And Walter just doesn’t get it until the very end. In “Fences,” Troy Maxson, is a middle-aged, African-American man who was born and grew up under extremely oppressed circumstances, has been in prison, played baseball but couldn’t play professionally because of the baseball commission’s ban of black players before Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Troy refuses to let his son, Cory, to go to college on a football scholarship possibly out of bitterness for not
Cited: Hansbury, Lorraine. "A Raisin in the Sun." New York: Vintage books, 1951. Wilson, August. “Fences.” New York: Dramatists Play Service Inc., 1983.