Read the directions carefully. Your essay needs to use Fences as the primary source and at least 2 but no more than 4 of the secondary sources included at the end of this document.
WRITING ASSIGNMENT based on Fences, by August Wilson
Directions:
1. You must use quotations effectively and accurately to support your claims.
2. You must frame quotations, transition between ideas and paragraphs, disagree or agree with secondary sources, etc. We worked on this throughout the semester. Look back especially on your first few weeks of work and notes and of course, I will be present on a drafting day to help.
3. No online research or consultation is permitted unless you run it by me a week before the assignment is due. All of the secondary sources you can choose from are listed them, also, at the end of this assignment. You must use at least 2 and no more than 4 references or quotations from these sources to help support and develop your claims.
4. Remember to proofread and edit carefully, as sloppy, avoidable errors and/or unclear sentences will significantly lower your grade if not cause you to fail.
5. The essay should be double-spaced throughout, and no additional space should be left between paragraphs.
6. All essays need a title that reflects the main idea and thesis of your essay.
7. Your essay must of course use quotations and details from both the primary and secondary texts to support your thesis and develop your examples.
8. The required length is 4 (full)- 6 pages, not including your Works Cited page.
9. Remember that this essay is about the text of the play, not the film.
Writing Prompt:
Fences is a play about both figurative and literal fences. Basically, your assignment is to write an essay about the fences in Fences.
This is not a list, but an exploration of fences as symbols, metaphors and themes in the play. You do not have to include every fence you think of. Pick and choose your strongest ideas.
Describe and analyze different types of fences in the play and how they illuminate different themes (of betrayal, loyalty, trust, relationships between fathers and sons, a woman’s relationship to her own identity, dreams and idealism, etc.). You want to write a thesis stating in your own words that there is a variety of fences in the play and they figure importantly into the power (or drama or themes etc) of the text. You want to spend the essay explaining what the different fences are and how they create and/or affect the themes of the play.
Possibilities for your discussion include but are not limited to:
· The literal fence that Troy builds, as per Rose’s request, throughout the play and why she wants that fence (according to the text!)
· Fences between fathers and sons
· Fences between African-Americans especially regarding their attitudes about racism and discrimination
· Fences that characters build around themselves
· Fences that characters tear down
Be sure to address a) who builds each fence; b) how each fence is built; c) the effect each fence has on the characters, themes and plot
Remember NOT to oversimplify. As we have discussed in class, Troy Maxson is many things at one—a hero, a villain and a tragic figure. He both loves and damages the people in his life. Acknowledge in your essay that these are all complex characters. We can analyze them, but we cannot reduce them to a single word or definition.
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90374807
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/01/14/fenc-j14.html
http://www.eajournals.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Image-of-the-Afro-American-in-Fences-1985.pdf
https://eltsjournal.org/archive/value5%20issue4/10-5-4-17.pdf
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