What are the themes of the play Fences?
Fences Themes
- Blackness and Race Relations.
- Practicality, Idealism, and Race.
- Manhood and Fathers.
- Family, Duty, and Betrayal.
- Mortality.
Why does Gabriel carry a trumpet around his neck?
He believes that he spent time in heaven, possibly the result of time in a coma after the injury. He carries a trumpet in order to be prepared to open the gates of heaven when necessary. Gabriel is clearly deluded, but his delusions are generally benign, and his family goes along with his fantasies.
What has Hambone been getting from Lutz for 9 years?
Nine years before the start of the play, Lutz hired Hambone to paint his fence and explained that his payment would be a chicken. However, if he did a good job, then he would be paid a ham.
What is the significance of Gabriel’s name in fences?
Because of his head injury, Gabriel thinks he is his own Biblical namesake – the archangel Gabriel himself. Gabe spends a lot of time chasing hell hounds and reminiscing about all the lovely biscuits he’s shared with St.
What do you think is Troy’s philosophy on life?
Troy’s philosophy here is that misfortune is inevitable, it is a part of life and one must experience it.
How does Gabriel open the gates of heaven?
Peter told him to blow the horn when it’s time to open heaven’s gates for the day of judgment. So Gabriel decides that the day of his brother’s funeral is the day of judgment for everybody. He triumphantly raises the trumpet to his mouth and blows as hard as he can.
What surprising thing is found on Hambones body after he dies?
Hambone is of great symbolic importance to the play, and the main characters all come to feel an affinity with him and sadness at his death. West reveals that he had scars all over his body, and this image recalls flogging marks of blacks from the South, helping to depict Hambone as a symbol of the oppressed black man.
What is the meaning of the title Two Trains Running?
The title of the play is curious. Memphis refers to “two trains running” every day between Pittsburgh and Jackson, Mississippi, where he is from and where he still has the deed to some farmland.
Is it a betrayal when Troy signs Gabriel into the mental hospital Why or why not?
The third betrayal in the pay would be when Troy put his brother, Gabriel, into a mental institution so that he could benefit from his brother’s insurance money.
What does the name rose symbolize in Fences?
Bono observes that Rose wants the fence built to hold in her loved ones. To Rose, a fence is a symbol of her love and her desire for a fence indicates that Rose represents love and nurturing. Troy and Cory on the other hand think the fence is a drag and reluctantly work on finishing Rose’s project.
What are Troy’s major dissatisfaction in life?
Here’s another major source of dissatisfaction for Troy: he had to use his brother’s disability checks to buy his house. Perhaps he resents his home in some ways because he wasn’t able to earn the money for it himself. Troy’s affair with Alberta is a way for him to escape the life he’s led for eighteen years.
What does Rose tell Troy about her dreams?
That I wanted someone to make me laugh so I could feel good? . . . But I held on to you, Troy. I took all my feelings, my wants and needs, my dreams . . . and I buried them inside you.
What does rose mean by you can’t visit the sins of the father upon the child?
Rose decides that the baby is innocent and shouldn’t be blamed for Troy’s sins, saying, “you can’t visit the sins of the father upon the child this child got a mother, but you’re a womanless man.” She takes in Troy’s baby as her own child, but refuses to honor her partnership with Troy.
What is the significance of Troy’s Dog Blue?
The song, which celebrates the virtues of the hound dog Blue, is classic masculinist sentiment in its memorialization of the unconditional devotion and obedience of the creature so commonly styled “man’s best friend.” When Cory and Raynell, two of Troy’s three children, sing the song together after Troy’s death, they …
What does Gabriel blowing his horn mean?
The name refers to the Christian tradition that (albeit not strictly supported by the Bible itself) identifies the archangel Gabriel as the angel who blows the horn to announce Judgment Day.
What happens when Gabriel blows his trumpet Fences?
Gabe blows his trumpet but no sound comes out. He tries and tries but the trumpet will not play. Disappointed and hurt, Gabriel has a painful realization in his mind.