Robert Lawing

29 April 2004

A Fence Unconsidered: Racial Barriers in African-American Drama

            Since the beginning of Western civilization, drama has been a central means of communicating thoughts and feelings to a community.  The Greeks sought a cathartic experience, and as time progressed, this element remained a priority.  In the contemporary, African American writers employ the strengths of drama, bringing the issues of life as a minority to public attention.  Of course, the problem with public attention is that it can quickly be translated to the attention of the dominant culture.  This is an unavoidable circumstance, but it can be successfully worked through.  After all, there are many outstanding African American playwrights, among them Lorraine Hansberry and August Wilson.  In their respective plays A Raisin in the Sun and Fences, the African American experience of the 1950s is explored before and after the Civil Rights movement.  From these two experiences, one finds a subtle censorship before the movement toward equal rights.  Between the pair, the differences are most distinct in considering objectives 1b, 2b, and 1d.  In one sense, these objectives apply directly to the plays.  At the same time, there is equal validity in considering the productions and their critical receptions.  Although both productions were well received, Wilson received a Pulitzer for his work.  Hansberry’s was complimented for displaying the positive qualities of a traditional Negro family.

            To begin, one should consider objective 1b, the issue of voice and choice.  Obviously, production on Broadway creates a great voice, but this is imperfect.  In critical review, there was “a common impulse to access perceived authentic black culture.  And in doing so, of course, these approaches re-asserted whiteness in the norm” (Bernstein 18).  This is a disappointing reality of producing a play addressing African American issues in 1959.  America’s dominant culture was unwilling to accept the African American minority as equal.  Instead, elaborate gestures, such as producing, watching, and praising A Raisin in the Sun, were endorsed, making the dominant culture feel gracious.  At the same time, the play was only two hours.  Its problems, however, political, could be confined to the stage. 

This is a harsh sentiment, admittedly.  However, by comparison, Wilson gains far more favorable reception for his productions, spanning the 1980s to the present. Fences is set in 1957, two years previous to the setting of A Raisin in the Sun.  Yet, the play treats characters of similar circumstances much more harshly.  Hansberry portrayed a mostly honorable family that escapes impoverished conditions through the fortunate coincidence of a pension.  Wilson creates a family trapped by their poverty, their house also purchased by a pension.  However, the money is not Troy’s, but his brother Gabriel’s.  Furthermore, Gabriel is not allowed to live in the house shortly after it is purchased.  On one level, Troy can be compared to Walter: “a man struggling to achieve stature both in his home and in the world . . . [although] he hurts the people he loves most” (Klaus 1337).  However, Troy does not have a stirring climatic monologue about pride and self-reliance; he has died before the last scene Fences and does not repair his harms.  This gritty reality is something Hansberry could not have written in 1959, because it would have enforced negative stereotypes of African Americans to the dominant culture.  As is, the characterizations were left as positive stereotypes.  Therefore, one finds a greater breadth in the matter of voice and choice before and after the civil rights movement.  This statement is deceptively simple, for it is in the more liberal culture that one sees a truer representation of issues.  In addressing the psychological harms of segregation, both within and without the African American culture, one requires a very liberal dominant culture.

The issue of truer representation becomes even plainer with Objective 2b, the detection of class as a repressed subject of American discourse.  Once again, with the censorship of 1959, one finds the low-income life of the Younger family socially enforced but not discussed.  Yes, Beneatha is going to college, but the money to pay for continuing semesters is a continual question.  Without offense, she courts two separate men during the play, and is debating the marriage of one at the end.  Walter goes so far as to say, “You better marry yourself a man with some loot . . .” (Hansberry 1075).  From this, it is worthwhile to argue Beneatha has been allowed to attend school in order to find a husband above her socio-economic level.  While this is perfectly realistic, Hansberry briefly explores the possibility, again probably because of the censorship barrier.  In a similar sense, Walter is a chauffer, his wife and mother are house keepers.  Given these occupations, the family is residing in an area they could afford.  More importantly, the family is not being offered the means improve themselves socially.  There are no scholarships or aids, and surprisingly few occupations that would accept African Americans employees, degree or no.  This returns to the issue of Beneatha, but really, what success can an African-American female doctor expect in 1959?

Of course, one must not become lost in finite details.  In considering the difference between African American dramas before and after civil rights, one should analyze parallels between the dramas.  In Raisin and Fences, the issue of repressed class is also symbolized in the purchase of the houses.  Specifically, the parallel is in the money to purchase the houses.  In both plays, the money comes from army pensions.  Where Raisin’s money comes from the death of Mama’s husband, Fences’ house is purchased with the living brother’s pension.  Gabriel passes by the house throughout the play, and he is clearly insane.  Furthermore, Troy does not allow his brother to remain in the house, despite the fact that his money purchased it. 

In this comparison, one again sees the censorship before civil rights.  In Raisin, there is a lack of mourning over the deceased husband, father, or grandfather, respectively.  Instead, everyone eagerly awaits the money.  In Fences, Troy is repeatedly attacked for the way he treats his brother.  More importantly, the house is not located in a white neighborhood, but rather “a two-story brick house set back off a small alley in a big-city neighborhood” (Wilson 1338).  This is not an undesirable location, but it is not in a white neighborhood.  While the white neighborhood creates a spokesman to carry the plot and address issues, it is based on an improbable circumstance, not unlike the beginning of the play.  Regardless of logic, this is what censorship does.  Fences is being realistic in the discussion of African Americans in the 1950s.  The Maxons own a house, but it came to them at great emotional expense.  Furthermore, they do not own a television or refrigerator, keeping an old icebox out on the porch.  This suggests that the expense of the house is considerable, an item beyond their economic status.  Since it is not a residence the family could afford on its own income, class is a repressed subject.  The same is true of Raisin, but the issues of finance remain unaddressed.

Of course, the inability to address every realistic concern is not the focus of this essay.  Raisin and Fences both raise important social issues, regardless of the periods from which they emerge.  Both pieces address life before the civil rights movement, a world without the unifying words of Dr. King, or the march of a million men to D.C.  Rather, this is a world where skin tone is a cause for division and altered expectations.  For everything Hansberry could not discuss, objective 1d, the color code, is thoroughly explored.  Raisin is not slanted in its treatment, either, for both social groups are treated in a balanced manner. 

Rather than fretting over the conflict of moving into the neighborhood, one should sooner consider the scene in which Mr. Lindner appears to request the family not move.  He is quite civil and works to not cause offense.  Rather than shouting “We don’t want your kind” and then assuming a violent position, he sits and speaks for some time.  In turn, the Youngers respond politely, Beneatha removed.  Interestingly, Mr. Lindner does say, “. . . most of the trouble in this world, when you come right down to it—most of the trouble exists because people don’t sit down and talk to each other” (Hansberry 1066).  This gesture is one of respect, because he has come to the Youngers’ home in person to make his request, albeit an unpleasant one.  Nonetheless, he has extended a courtesy fitting of someone with proper manners.  This respect is apparent even when Mr. Lindner finally makes his request, saying, “It is a matter of the people of Clybourne Park believing, rightly or wrongly, as I say, that for the happiness of all concerned that our Negro families are happier when they live in their own communities” (Hansberry 1066). 

Before attacking the request, consider the judicious use of “rightly or wrongly,” questioning the moral value of the judgment.  Now, consider the single issue in the Younger family moving, and the justification for it.  Color is the single concern in the move; Clybourne Park, though it has no reason to doubt the integrity of the new family, would prefer they stay away.  Furthermore, in his speech of representation, Mr. Lindren comments of happiness with “their own community”; this again suggests segregation as a positive social philosophy.  However, Hansberry is again unable to speak as passionately as she might were it not for censorship.  This is not suggesting that Mr. Lindren would be altered, only that the issue cannot be explored in greater detail.  Therefore, even color, the problem the play handles most directly, is treated softly.  Of course, the family does move in the end, but it does not solve the real issue.

In Wilson’s work, one finds a similar predicament.  Fences discusses the issue of color a great deal, though in a far less positive manner.  Troy, after all, had aspirations of being a baseball player, but segregation kept him out.  When his son Cory is offered a scholarship to play football, Troy refuses to support the idea in any manner, solely for the fear that Cory will suffer his previous disappointment in turn (Wilson 1354).  Despite Cory’s best efforts throughout the play, Troy cannot be made to allow his son the opportunity, even though it represents education and a chance to improve circumstances.  In this play, then, segregation’s damage is not delivered by white men.  Rather, it has already been cultivated within the African Americans, perpetuating the damage without maintenance.  After all, Cory never attends college but joins the military instead.  This does bring success (Wilson 1364), but at the cost of pursuing his dream.  While Troy appears a monster for his decision, it is done out of love.  This reverse method, perpetuating the color code through an African American figure, is what makes Wilson’s style outstanding.  In an essay, Keith Clark commented, “Wilson does not repudiate protest inasmuch as he depicts characters that may have experienced crushing racism” (Clark 101).  This is the epitome of Troy; the harm of segregation from baseball turns him into an anti-hero.  Instead of embracing his family and looking to the future, Troy continually seeks a project that will give him the passion baseball once did, be it building the fence or having an affair.  Since he cannot grow beyond a hateful past, Troy is condemned to life without a future.

With all of these factors considered, what is one to think?  Obviously, censorship in the representation of African American life has vastly improved after the civil rights movement.  Wilson won a Pulitzer for Fences, while Hansberry was proclaimed for showing the positive and lovable qualities of the Negro.  At the same time, as the dominant culture, are the issues being provided with enough attention and consideration?  Is there still a sense of taboo in discussing the issue of minority and the African American experience, especially in plays set in less friendly periods?  With this consideration, time becomes a certain disservice.  As America grows more comfortable with discussion, the issue grows older.  Already, there is a pattern within the dominant culture to dismiss the issues of a piece like Raisin, since it was produced forty-five years ago.  Yet, forty-five years is a little over half average human expectancy in the present.  The issue is not old; it is still quite fresh.  How America chooses to handle the matter as time continues will remain to be seen, but it can be hoped that these plays will never be placed on a shelf so high that they cannot be taken down again.  At the same time, these are both plays, and so there is always the hope of breathing life into the problems each time these works take the stage.

Works Cited

Bernstein, Robin. “Inventing a Fishbowl: White Supremacy and the Critical Reception of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun.” Modern Drama 42.1 (1999): 12 p. Academic Search Premier. 24 Apr 2004.

<http://search.epnet.com/direct.asp?an=2609240&db=aph>

Clark, Keith. Black Manhood in James Baldwin, Ernest J. Gaines, and August Wilson. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2002.

Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. Stages of Drama: Classical to Contemporary Theater, 5^th ed. Ed. Carl H. Klaus, Miriam Gilbert, Bradford S. Field, Jr. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2003.  1040-1076.

 Klaus, Carl H; Gilbert, Miriam; Field, Jr., Bradford S. (Ed.). “August Wilson.” Stages of Drama: Classical to Contemporary Theater, 5^th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2003.  1335-1337.

Wilson, August. Stages of Drama: Classical to Contemporary Theater, 5^th ed. Ed. Carl H. Klaus, Miriam Gilbert, Bradford S. Field, Jr.  Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2003.  1338-1367.