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Essay Instructions: "Fences" by August Wilson
Use of theme in the point of view if "the fence" is about keeping black people in or out?
Symbolism in the point of view if "the fence" is about keeping black people in or out?

One of the major themes points out that black Americans were living in a very different century than white Americans and even white immigrants, yet to become Americans.



VERY IMPORTANT: Need 3 SCHOLARLY Sources on Works Cited.

Essay Instructions: Unit 4: Multiple-Source Research Paper on Fences


1. Students will formulate a clear thesis statement about a theme in the play.

2. Students will organize their discussion coherently.

3. Students will compose restricted, unified, and precise topic sentences for each supporting paragraph.

4. Students will support the thesis by including examples and quotations from primary sources (the play) as well as three secondary sources (which may include literary criticism as well as historical background).

5. Students will demonstrate that they are able to integrate materials from secondary sources effectively by paraphrasing and quoting as appropriate; they will also demonstrate that they understand how to avoid plagiarism in their presentation of material from sources.

6. Student will demonstrate that they can document their use of sources correctly in MLA format.

7. Students will apply grammar and usage rules correctly.

8. Students will apply basic literary terms relevant to drama such as character, setting, theme, climax, etc.


NOTE: Please include some historical background on the author also.

Essay Instructions: Essay: Drama (4 pages)
Texts: Fences (by August Wilson) and Topdog/Underdog (by Suzan-Lori Parks)
Suggested Topics:
I
What is the role of the fence in Fences and the 3-card Monty in Topdog/Underdog? How does the fence and the game function to reveal character? What is the thematic importance of the fence and the card game? Write an essay in which you explore the many uses of the fence and three-card Monty in Wilson and Parks.
II
How do Fences and Topdog/Underdog present gender roles and sexual politics? ?What expectations do the men and women in the plays have of each other? Write an essay in which you discuss the plays? representation and/or performance of gender roles and gender differences.
III
What is the legacy of slavery in the lives of the African American characters in Fences and Topdog/Underdog? ?How do the characters acknowledge or recognize slavery?s influence on the mid-twentieth century lives depicted in the plays? ?How do the characters try to break free of this influence? Write an essay in which you explore slavery?s lingering power to shape the attitudes and behavior of the characters in ?Fences and Topdog/Underdog.
IV
A longstanding ?rule? for playwrights is that if a gun appears onstage, it must be fired by the end of the play. ?Topdog/Underdog follows this ?rule,? while steadily encouraging the audience to consider that a violent climax might be averted at the last moment. Write an essay in which you examine the ways in which Susan-Lori Parks subverts and uses the audience?s conventional expectations that drama is resolved by violence.
V
Both Fences and Topdog/Underdog seem to be about continuities and conflicts between generations. ?Write an essay in which you explore the theme of generations in the plays, exploring the various manifestations of generational influence that the plays feature. ?How powerful is traditional and family influence, and how powerful is generational rebellion?
?
VI
How do hopes and dreams serve as theme for Fences and Topdog/Underdog? You might consider baseball, 3-card Monty, ?playing? Lincoln at a penny arcade, etc
VII
Write an essay in which you discuss how Fences and Topdog/Underdog meet the criteria of realist drama. ?That is, address how the plays meet, fail to meet, subvert the conventions of realist dram and to what effect.
MLA Style: How to quote and cite plays
If you quote a statement from one character in a play, the rules are the same as with any long direct quote:
? If the reference is four lines or shorter when you write or type it out, insert it
within the text of your paper using quotation marks.
? If it is longer than four lines, indent it one inch or ten spaces from the left hand margin and do not use quotation marks.
? In modern drama, cite your reference by using the author's last name and the page number or numbers.
Example
In The Glass Menagerie the reader sees Jim, the 'gentleman caller, 'slowly drawing Laura Wingfield out of the cocoon she has built around herself. When he accidentally breaks Laura's favorite glass animal, her response demonstrates Laura's new-found assuredness: "Oh, I don't have favorites - (Pause) much. It's no tragedy. Glass breaks so easily.? No matter how careful you are. The traffic jars the shelves and things fall off them" (Williams 613).
This tells the reader that the author of the play is Tennessee Williams, and that the passage is from page 613.
If you quote a passage from a play that is a dialogue between two or more characters, set the quotation one inch or ten spaces from the left margin of your text:

? Begin each part of dialogue with the appropriate character's name in all capital
letters: LAURA.

? Follow the name with a period and two spaces, then start the quotation.? Indent all
remaining lines of that character's speech three more spaces.


Example

Even in the following rather simplistic scene between Tom and his mother Amanda, the difference in their personalities is clearly shown:
TOM. All right, I'll guess. You want to know when the gentleman caller's coming - he's coming tomorrow.
AMANDA. Tomorrow? Oh, no, I can't do anything about tomorrow. I can't do anything about tomorrow.
TOM. Why not?
AMANDA. That doesn't give me any time.
TOM. Time for what?
AMANDA. Time for preparations. Oh, you should have phoned me the minute you asked him - the minute he accepted.
TOM. You don't have to make any fuss.
AMANDA. Of course, I have to make a fuss!
TOM. Mother! This boy is no one to make a fuss over.??
(Williams 591)
This tells the reader that Williams is the author and the quote is from page 591.

Essay Instructions: For this essay, you may write on any aspect of Fences. You must however invoke at least three of the secondary sources provided from the source that I have given you. At least one of the sources must be a literary criticism essay. No outside source please!

Choose one of these topic:

1 Explore the role of music or baseball in this play. In order to do a thorough interpretation, identify the major moments in which music or baseball appear in the text. Determine the role or purpose of music or baseball at that particular moment, and then juxtapose these with the other moments. After interpreting the discrete moments and comparing and contrasting them with one another, make a general conclusion (thesis) about the overall role of music or baseball. This is an inductive approach, in which you examine the various examples and, from these various observations, you reach a conclusion. Of course, your individual interpretations of the specific moments (your close readings) need to be sound and accurate.

2. Examine the role of one of the secondary or minor characters in the play, such as Lyons or Gabe. Determine how this character contributes to the play’s central theme or acts as a foil to another more prominent character.