Write a tentative proposal or plan for how you might address the task. Which character will you focus on?

1. Summarize the assignment for Essay #2. What questions do you have? Write a tentative proposal or plan for how you might address the task. Which character will you focus on? What admirable traits and / or what flaws do you observe in the character that seem responsible for a choice the character makes? What other influences that may be beyond a character’s control–family history, money, race, gender–contribute to your analysis of the character’s actions, feelings, thoughts? What specific scenes in the play might you summarize and quote from in order to illustrate and explain your understanding of the character?

2. What scene in Act II seems to you to be the climax or turning point of the plot of Fences? How do the tensions among the characters–the conflicts of feeling and attitude–come to a head and begin moving toward some resolution? Is the ending tragic in your view? What factors, for example, have led to the scene where Troy confesses his infidelity to Rose or to the scene where he kicks Cory out of the house? How much is Troy to blame, in each case? Are there any reasons why he might seem as much a victim as Rose and Cory?