The Failure of the American Dream in August Wilson's Fences

• Main Author: Peyman Amanolahi Baharvand
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lasting Impressions Press 2017-12-01
• Series: International Journal of English Language and Translation Studies
• Subjects: The American Dream; Baseball; Negro; Racism; Slave; Fences
• Online Access: http://www.eltsjournal.org/archive/value5%20issue4/10-5-4-17.pdf
• ISSN: 2308-5460; 2308-5460

This paper traces the impossibility of the fulfillment of the American dream for AfricanAmericans in August Wilson‟s Fences. It examines why Troy Maxon, as the protagonist of the play, is not able to fulfill his dreams of freedom, and economic achievements in an environment of oppression where he finds himself surrounded by hostile whites who hinder his development. It indicates that the racial discrimination, manifested in various forms including racial segregation prevalent in the white-dominated American society, impedes Troy‟s progress. A large number of African-Americans migrated from southern states to the north in 1920s and 1930s in order to find jobs in industrial northern states. They had been told that the United States was the promised land of equal chances wherein everyone regardless of race and gender was able to progress from rags to riches. They left the South, in which racism was still pervasive despite the abolition of slavery, and moved to the North for the fulfillment of the dreams they had been promised. The advocates of the American Dream claimed that hard diligence and intelligence could lead a man to material prosperity. Nevertheless, this paper demonstrates that since African-Americans are considered to be „„others‟‟ in the white dominated society, financial progress and other aspects of the American Dream remain impossible dreams for them.