August Wilson's Fences is a classic play about African-American life written in 1983 and set in the 1950s. of Pittsburgh” by Wilson, which spans ten sections in total. Fences is a period piece set in a decade that Wilson had personally experienced at the time he wrote the play, making it more than likely that he probably drew on real-life experiences and observations for inspiration. create such a realistic representation of black people in the world. 1950s. Its protagonist, Troy Maxson, is widely considered by black baby boomers to be a highly relevant, perhaps even archetypal, character in the black community of that era, but Wilson delves deep into the character's psyche to reveal all the dimensions of Troy, elucidating what is happening. would otherwise be the mysteries of a misunderstood character from the 1950s. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Troy works as a garbage collector for the Department of Sanitation to support his wife, Rose, and teenage son, Corey. Troy has settled into a pace of life that relies on a very bleak outlook, but he prefers it because he has endured too much upheaval in life thus far. He was something of a baseball star in the Negro Leagues, but he was barred from playing in the major leagues, first because he was black, then because he was too old by the time integration began. It therefore represents a common criticism of Jackie Robinson in the black community that, despite the barriers Robinson broke, he was not the best black player who could have broken them. Troy represents this perspective and even bluntly says at one point, "I've seen a hundred niggers play better than Jackie Robinson." Hell, I know some teams that Jackie Robinson couldn't even make! (Wilson II). Troy proves to be a character predisposed to hyperbole, but it remains a relevant statement for many African Americans living today who, perhaps as children, heard these sentiments expressed with great fervor at the era. Troy represents a black archetype, but Jackie Robinson is a sort of invisible character in the story due to the many references throughout the play to his abilities and the barriers he broke. Robinson represents both in history and in reality a successful challenge to traditional norms and, more importantly, to historical change. There is no doubt that August Wilson belonged to a generation deeply influenced by the shift in discourse wrought by Robinson in the second half of the 20th century. New historicism is a lens of literary criticism that defines the term discourse as “ways of seeing and speaking about the world” (Dobie 181). The discourse in the Fences era is halfway, moving from one that not only separated blacks and whites at a subordinate level, but also separated their ambitions. The lives of African Americans were changing because they were able to dream the same dreams as their white counterparts and pursue those dreams (i.e. professional sports). Troy's son, Corey Maxson, is very much a product of August Wilson's generation. He was influenced by the changing American discourse at the time, and as a result, he committed himself to the dream of pursuing a professional career in football, which quickly eclipsed baseball as America's pastime. Corey has been offered a scholarship to play football in college, and Rose harbors this ambition, seeing it as an opportunity,at the very least, to go to college and further his education, or even play for the NFL. Troy, on the other hand, is not at all supportive of his support, and for some it can be frustrating to read or watch on stage without understanding the true psychological motivation behind Troy's reasoning. Carl Jung delved deeper into what is known as neo-Freudian psychology as a student of and, as some call him, a successor to Sigmund Freud. Jung asserted that “we must confront three powerful archetypes that make up the self. They are the shadow, the anima, and the personality” (Dobie 64). Jungian psychoanalysis defines the shadow as the side of oneself that one does not wish to confront, comparing it to a kind of villain or the devil within. The anima (for men; animus for women), on the other hand, is the driving force that moves an individual to act, and Jung suggested that this anima is feminine for men – the masculine animus for women – for indicate it as a characteristic of man. the opposite sex in a person and suggest that people are often only aware of this opposite sex in dreams (a Freudian concept) or by projecting it onto someone else in reality. Finally, personality is most similar to Freud's idea of ​​the ego; it is an external mask that we present to others as an accurate representation of ourselves. Jung believed that in order to achieve individuation (i.e., well-adjusted psychological health), one must discover and accept one's different facets of oneself. Troy fails to achieve individuation because he has not accepted all facets of himself, although all are present and observable. in the room. Troy constantly expresses his love for Rose in the most grandiose ways in front of Bono, Corey, Gabe and Lyons. He is sharp with her and claims that she is the center of his world in one way or another, but he then refuses to admit that he is unfaithful to her. He cheats on her with a woman from work that the public never sees, and Bono confronts him several times. In fact, one of the most classic lines in the entire production comes from Bono's response to Troy about why the fence Rose wants Troy to build is so important. Bono says, “Some people build fences to keep people out…and some people build fences to keep people in” (Wilson). Troy stubbornly responds that he doesn't need anyone to tell him that his wife loves him. The side of him that betrays the woman he seems to truly love is a side of himself that he cannot reconcile with or even acknowledge. Meanwhile, Rose is most definitely the woman Troy projects his anima onto. She gives him the impetus to get up and go to work every day. Troy's invisible mistress can easily be mistaken for his anima projection in that Troy admits that it makes him feel good about himself, but that's not a step toward action. Troy receives, for all intents and purposes, his will to live from his relationship with Rose. His infidelity, however, is evidence that he has lost sight of how crucial Rose is to the constitution of his individual being, an oversight that only further exacerbates his lack of individuation. Instead, he created a lively and highly opinionated personality, supposedly self-sufficient, loyal and supportive. The latter is just as much a lie as the first two since he does not support his son's ambition based on the illusion he has created for himself that the white man will not let any black man achieve anything. since he never realized his own ambitions. Wilson extrapolates these three dimensions from this character, perhaps from real experiences with similar people, and puts them into.