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AUGUST WILSON'S FENCES: THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN WOMEN'S PURSUIT OF
DREAMS SEEN FROM THE PERSPECTIVES OF ROSE
MAXSON
Nandy Intan Kurnia Yogyakarta State University
ABSTRACT This paper portrays the struggle of people of color to reach their dreams as reflected in August Wilson's "Fences". In his work, he described vividly how Afiican-American men force themselves to be successful in reaching their dreams. However, he did not give a large portion of discussion about women and their dreams. His female characters' dreams are remain imspoken. Moreover there is only one woman, named Rose Maxson, who stands as his female protagonist, while the other female characters are only exist in term of names that are mentioned by the other characters involved in the play. It seems that he only gives chance to Rose to speak up her mind as one of the African-American women. Therefore, she is a source full character that can be used as the media to learn about the way women see the importance of having and reaching their dreams. This paper is based on a library research. The primary data used in the analysis were taken from August Wilson's play, entitled "Fences". The secondary data were collected from articles and historical documents such as autobiographiesand notes. Through the use of Liberal Feminist approach and the discussion of the character of Rose (along with her characterization) and the connection between the writer and the history of Afiican-American women, this paper wants to reveal Wilson's point of view on how African- American women see the importance-of having dreams and what they, mostly, do to reach those dreams. Furthermore, the readers will also be able to know what challenges faced by those women in their struggle to gain equal rights and acceptance in the society. Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that Wilson uses Rose, who takes the ideas of reaching dreams as her self-fiilfillment into a new direction with less focus on financial gain and put more emphasis on what some people
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believe as living a simple, fulfilling life, as the agent to open the eyes of (especially) the African American women to think and struggle to reach their dreams, although those dreams are still closely connected to the ideas of fulfilling their roles as the heart of the family. Keywords: African-American women, dreams, the sociology of literature, self- fulfillment, marriage, motherhood.
A. Introduction
Literary works can play a role as historical documents that record social realities, which are artistically portrayed by the author (Weliek and Warren, 1956: 102). Therefore, literature cannot be separated from society, and the study of literature should be related to society. In American history of literature, August Wilson is famous as an African- American's play writer who often writes about Black experiences in the United States.The efforts of people of color to reach their dreams, along with its complex social issues as racism, are shown in one of his plays entitled This is a play about an African-American family in the 1950s who try to survive in the middle of American urban industrial city. The writer himself had to spend his childhood in the black slum community of Pittsburgh-Pennsylvania, which then revealed in many of his dramatic writings {August Wilson 1945-2005). Thus, Fences is used as the object of the study in this paper. This is a story of an African-American former athlete named Troy Maxson (a garbage man of fifty- six) and his family. In his early age, after facing a lot of problems, finally, he has an
opportunity to reach his dream as a professional baseball player, but then he is
prevented by his color from playing in the major leagues. As a result, he has a strong sentiment toward the white American, and he even forbids his son to reach his dream by refusing an athletic scholarship. Throughout the play, the pursuit of dreams has played an important role in the characters' self-fulfillment. However, this play centers its story only on its men charactersand their dreams;Wilson does not go deeper into the minds of his female characters. When he discusses the male characters' dreams thoroughly, his female characters' dreams are remain imspoken. Moreover, there is only one woman, named Rose Maxson, who stands as his femaleprotagonist, while the other female characters only exist in term of names that are mentioned by the other characters
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B. Methodology
This paperis based on a library research. The major concern is to analyze
August Wilson's play, entitled Fencesythat use the issue of the African-Americans'
struggle to reachtheir dreams as the central subjects. There are several steps that
the researcher has to follow. First, the researcher must try to interpret the literal meaning of Fences. Second, the researcher has to find out the meaning and the importance of reaching dreams for African-American women. Then the researcher applies the Liberal Feminist approach and supports the analysis by using the secondary data which were collected from articles and historical documents such as autobiographies and notes.
According to Guerin, et al, "feminist literary critics try to explain how powerimbalancesdue to gender in a given culture are reflected in or challengedby literary texts" (1999: 196). It means that feminist approach examines a literary
workby explaining how the author reflects the injustices experienced by people,
especially women which are caused by the gender stereotyping of the society throughhis/her work. In addition, the main purpose of this paper is to describe the
struggle of the major femalecharacterto gain equalposition and opportunities in
the society.
C. Author's Biographical Sketch
Frederick August Kittel, who later known as August Wilson, was bom in 1945 and he spent his childhood in poverty in Pittsburgh-Pennsylvania. He was namedafler his drunkardwhite German father,FrederickAugust,who worked as a baker. His mother was an African-American woman, named Daisy Wilson, who worked as a cleaning woman and she became a role model for her six children. Wilsoninheritedhis mother's strong sense of pride and zero tolerance for injustice. As an example "She once turned down a washing machine she had won in a contest when the company sponsoring the event tried to fob ofFa secondhand item on her" (The New York Times, 2005). After his mother got divorced and remarried, the family moved to a largely white suburb. As the only African-American student in hisclass he had to face racism, and it ended whenhe gaveup on formal education.
In his 20's he became a poet. Inspired by the Black Power movement then he and the other poets founded a theater workshop and an art gallery, and in 1968 he
JournatofEngUshandEducation.'WoX.A'i^o. 1 -JtiDi
and Rob Penny founded the Black Horizons on the Hill Theater. Later, he was
knownas an importantcontemporaryAmericanplaywriterwhotriesto portraythe
UfeofAfrican-American community (The New York Times, 2005).
D. Discussion
From the very beginning of the play,Rose is described as the characterimder
the patriarchaldominationand her relationship with her husband is characterized
by her husband's sexist point of views. Similar to the other African-American
women, when she got married, she has to give up her free will and she is owned and fully controlled by her husband.
- Rose's Dreams and her Effort to Pursuit them. Rose Maxson is Troy's second wife and mother of his second child, Cory. Rose is an African-American housewife who has been married for eighteen years and loves her family very much. As the caretaker of the family and home, she showers her family with love and care, and protects themin the same time. This can be seen when one day Rose requests Troy to build fences in their small backyard: "... Go on, Troy! You supposed to be putting up this fence" (p.l323). It is from Troy's friend, named Bono ^.1331), the reason of making the fences can be revealed. In Bono's opinion although it is tme that she had nothing. Rose sees the fences as something necessary: "Some people build fences to keep people out and other people build fences to keep people in. Rose wants to hold on to you all. She loves you." (p. 1331). The NTC's American Idioms Dictionary noted that "fence someone in" means "to restrict someone in some way" (200:114). Thus, Rose sees the fence as the symbol of protection, by building it she wants to restrict her family from leaving their house, or in the other word to keep her loved-ones close, and to keep-out the outsiders from interfering her family's affairs. Her main goal is to maintain her family's relationships from falling apart. In this case we can see that for her, family stands as an important thing and that is why Rose's dreams center arounda hope for a stable, loving family, somethingthat she lackedas a child: And you know I ain't never wanted no halfnothing in my family. My whole family is half. Everybodygot different fathers and mothers... my two sisters and my brother. Can't hardly tell who's who. Can't never sit down and talk
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Rose chooses tostayandprotecther family because she realizes thatwithout
herthe rest of the family'smemberswilllosetheirstrengthin facingproblems. She
sees that it is her responsibility as a mother and a faithful wife to keep the family
together. While Troy in her eyes, tries to escape from his responsibility by having
an affair with Alberta, and she accuses him of being selfish and "taking and not
giving," (p. 1334), because she gives her whole life to 'serve' him, even when she
knew he cannot offer a better life to her.
Rose,as a good motherand faithfulwife, often has to defendher son as her
wayto keep the family relationship from falling apart. First, she tries to 'defend'
Coryin front of Troy;she tries to convincehim that football cannotdo anyharm to
Cory. Therefore she believes that her husband has to support Cory to reach his
dream that can lead him to a better future. Second, although at the first time she cannot believe that she has been loyal to Troy for eighteen years and he has done
badthingstoher,shethen iswillingtobe themotherof theillegitimate child.
Rose seems to believe that as a couple,Troy and herselfare the two halves of
one thought; she puts her faith in her husband. Thereforeit is quite reasonable to
see her first reaction when Troy tries to explain about his affair with another African-American woman, named Alberta. Even though it seems that she is able to
accept and treat Raynell (the name of Troy and Alberta's child) as if she is Rose's
own daughter. However, she refuses to be Troy's wife, for her Troy is only a
"womanless man" (p. 1336). She shows her rebellious fight against him by refuses to talk to him for months and avoids him by going to the church. Rose has her own reason for accepting Raynell as her 'own daughter', it is because she believes that children are bom 'innocent' (This term is used by Troy when he asked Rose to take care of his daughter), thus she will never blame the 'innocent child' for any of the faults of the father, her adulterous husband. She also realizes how much that 'innocent child' will need love from a mother, and then she agreestoraise her with imconditionallove that she no longer feelstowardsTroy. It is obvious that Rose's decision to show her compassion toward Raynell can be seenas her attempt to get self-fulfillment: ..Rose Lee, here is a man that you can open yourself up to and be filled to bursting. Here is a man that can fill all them empty spaces you been tipping around the edges of. One of them empty spaces was being somebody's mother (p. 1340).
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Before manymg Troy, she already sets her dreams; one of them is to be
somebody's mother. For her to be somebody's mother can be seen as self-
fiilfillment because normally woman willbe called as a 'complete woman' if she
already has her own children. Of course, it is clear that when shehad Cory as her
son she feels very blissful because at last she now can be somebody's mother.
However, when Cory has become a grown up man, it seems that she feels very
lonely. She loses the feeling of being somebody's mother and she misses that
momentwhena childcalledher as 'mother*. For herRaynellis hersecondchanceto
be somebody's mother: Like I'd been blessed to relive apartofmy life. Andifthe Lord seefitto keep up my strength... I'mgonna do herjust likeyour daddydidyou... I'm gonna give her thebest of what's in me (p. 1340). She is blessed because she can take care of this motherless-child, she is also
able togiveherbestto this little girland find acureforherownpain.
She can be seenas a successful mother because she successfully provides
'shelter' toher children from their father's destructive behavior andhas raised Cory
and Raynell with her love and compassion. She teaches them about loving and
forgiving, especially when she is able to convince Cory to come to his father's
funeral: "Disrespecting your daddy ain't gonna make youa man, Cory. You gotto
fmd a way to come to that on your own. Not going to your daddy's funeral ain't
gonnamakeyou a man." (p.1340). From this point it is clearthat Rose, at first, represents the traditional woman
that chooses responsibility over herown dreams. She 'denies' herselfthat actually
shehas "dreams andhopes"(p. 1333)becauseas a goodmotheranda faithfulwife,
herultimate dream is tobuilda solid foundation forher family; andthisis themost
important thing in her life.
Althoughas a womanRose is not successfulin pmsuingher dreamtohave a
happy marriage and t^n chooses-to be an independent woman byrefusing to be a
good wifeforherhusband, however whenshedevotes herlifetoher children (Cory
andRaynell) andfindsChurchas her way to escape(p.1336), sheis ableto findher
long lost self-fulfillment. She realizes that a woman can also have another life
outside the house because she also believes that marriage cannot always bring
happiness for people. She is, finally, able to see that she does not need to build
fences around her house toprotect her loved one because Church leads herwayto
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enterprisesthe making of a democratic world can only be made by persons 'who are themselves truly democratic" (1953:164). Society often sees a marriage woman as a complete person when she has her own child. However, as stated by Andersen there are several problems related to the discussion of motherhood, "women's roles as mothers are idealized in our culture as all-loving, kind, gentle, and selfless; however, the objective conditions of motherhood in this society fill the role with contradictions, conflicts, and pleasures"(1997:163).
In fact, as stated in Women's Studies: A Reader, Marriage and motherhood have been recognized, not only, as the main sites of women's oppression, but also as relationships which give them the meaning of life and from which they derive a sense of self-worth. When women decided to get married, they (mostly) expecting emotional fulfillment and companionship, but then they realized that sometimes they could not have an equal relationship (Jackson., Atkinson and Beddoe, 1993:181-182). And for centuries Afiican-American women were often believed that their way to survive and reach their self-fulfillments were by becoming wives and mothers. As stated by Billiard Yellerday in Littlefield's Black Women, Mothering, and Protest in 19th Century American Society: even in the slavery era "When a girl became a woman, she was required to go to a man and become a mother. There was generally a form ofmarriage." (2007:57). When they failed to gain their dreams to have a happy marriage, they still had one thing to hold on that was Motherhood: Motherhood for black women was survival. Black women had children, set up households, nursed and cared for their children, and formed communities. As mothers, black women loved their children and cared for them in spite of the multiple tasks they performed. (Littlefield, 2007:57) Based on the above quotation, it's clear that the bond between Afiican- American women to their children were strong. They shower their children with love,affectionand also protection. The history also noted that the culture set up new identity to the African- American women. In both the Afiican culture from which they came and the American culture into which they grew up, their identities were bound up in and even defined by their familial roles and their sense of self depended on "fulfilling thoseroles" (Bine and Thompson, 1998:16).
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The warniatmosphere andcloserelationship betweena motherandchildren
also can be seen in Wilson's own family.As what mentioned before, he was bom in
a familywitha tightrelationship, especiallyto theirmother(DaisyWilson). He and
his siblings projected their mother as theirrole model, whilehis father wasmostly
absentduringtheirchildhood's period.His motherwas the onewho taughthim the
importance of having strong sense of pride and zero tolerance for injustice (The
New York Times, 2005).
As an African-American writer, he could not escape the influence of culture where he grew up (included his past experiences deaUng with racism) and he created his plays based on those values that he learnt from his life:
We'relike ourparents.The thingswe are taughtearly in life, how to respond to the world, our sense of moralityeverything, we get from them. Now you cantakethe legacyand dowith it anythingyouwant to do.It's inyourhands. (Bamet.,eds: 1342). Further he states that his plays offer a different perspective on how people (Americans in general) see the African-Americans, which will have an effect on how they think and deal to each other (TheNewYorkTimes, 2005).
In 'Tences", \^lson creates the one and only female character, named Rose Maxson. He uses her as his weapon to show how hard the life of an African American woman is. Her failure in gaining her dream to have a happy marriage, and her decision to focus her life more on her motherhood's side resembles the life of Wilson's own mother and even many other African-American mothers. His mother, who was failed to have a happy marriage during her first marriage, as well as her accomplishment in shaping up her children (The New York Times, 2005), is his tools to lead his reader to a better understanding of the history of African- American women.
When Rose finally listens to her heart and uses her liberal thought by choosing to be an independent woman, refusing to be a good wife for her husband, making her own decision to determine'what activities she wants to do, and most importantly she thinks right for herself. Her behavior has fulfilled Andersen's definition of liberal which is being "open-minded, tolerant, or socially nontraditional" (1997:320). She has shown to the people living around her that she wants to make a kind of social reform in her own life. She wants to have a valuable and meaningful hfe. Therefore, she makes such a final decision by undermining all her feelings towards her own husband.
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position by men and the patriarchal system, and this situation make them hardly have a chance to think about their dreams, moreover to reach those dreams. However, the situation gradually changes when women have enabled themselves to be independent, like the one done by Rose Maxson. She starts her new journey as an independent woman when decided to leave her husband, Troy, as a "womanless man" and beginning to set her new goals, which are to be a religious person and a good mother for her children. She shows that she has the freedom to choose the right things for herself and her rebellious spirit seeking for freedom enables her to reach her dreams. She takes the ideas of reaching those dreams into a new direction with less focus on financial gain and put more emphasis on what some people believe as living a simple, fulfilling life. After analyzing Wilson's female protagonist's perspectives on marriage and motherhood and relate those findings with the society where he lives, it can be
inferredthat, as anAfrican-American playwright, he is aware of thelife ofAfrican-
American women's around him and he creates his writings based on those phenomena. His femaleprotagonist is his tools to lead his plays' readers to a better understanding of the history of African-American women who often choose to neglect their own dreams as a free individual. He opens the eyes of the African-American women to think about their dreams and even, to struggle to reach those dreams, althoughthose dreams are still closely connected to the ideas of fulfilling their roles as the heart of the family. He
is successful in revealing his point of view on what challenges faced by those
women in their struggleto reach their dreams as one form of the equal rights and
acceptance in the society.
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2010).
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