Rose And Amanda

Rose and Amanda

Who is Rose Maxson? What drives her to be so embracing, to have a startling ability to be sturdy, compassionate, and forgiving? Who is Amanda Wingfield? Her relationship with men and family is turbulent, what attributes emanates from her to be a nurturing mother? What drives her to be poignant? How are these women perceived? What should we learned from them? Are their lives to be discarded or honored?

Fences is a compelling story of a Black family in the 1950s. A tale of the encounter of the released black slaves trying to survive in the middle of American urban industrial city. A story of four generations of Black Americans and of how they have passed on a legacy of morals, mores, attitudes, and patterns of life.

Fences examine the escalating racial tensions in America during the 1950s. It deals with such complex social issues as racism and adultery. The author also recognizes that the family lies the foundation for American society as a whole, and chooses family as the emphasis for the story. The family is built with that specific form of love, respect, friendship, belonging, affection, and values that defines the true basis of society. Its importance to the Black culture dates back to the times when Blacks where taken from their native land and brought to a foreign and hostile land. The protagonist of Fences is former baseball player-turned Pittsburgh garbage man Troy Maxson, and the antagonist is clearly racism. It is racism which has defied Troy Maxson at every turn and his skin color stood in the way of his quest to grab a piece of the American dream for himself and his family. Racism creates the conflict, which causes Troy to feel that he has been fenced in by a discriminatory society. There are heated tensions within the Maxson home between Troy and his wife, Rose, and Troy and his son Cory.

Rose, like the author's mother's name, Daisy, is the name of a flower. Flowers, seeds and planting comprise a motif that Wilson uses in Fences to represent nurturing, loving, kindness, and care because of the parallel qualities these attributes share with all living things that need nurturing to grow or change, like love and patience and forgiveness. Rose Maxson exemplifies these traits of compassion in all of her relationships, especially as a parent. "She is ten years younger than Troy, her devotion to him stems from her recognition of the possibilities of her life without him: a succession of abusive men and their babies, a life of partying and running the streets, the Church, or aloneness with its attendant pain and frustration, She recognizes Troy's spirit as a fine and illuminating one and she either ignores or forgives his faults, only some of which she recognizes. Though she doesn't drink, her presence is an integral part of the Friday night rituals." (Wilson, 1550). Unlike Troy, Rose is a fair judge of character. She puts her faith in her husband and son and hopes for a better future while not begrudging the stagnant present situation. Rose learns the value of family and the fact that the woman takes responsibility to stay with her man and her family no matter how difficult circumstances may be. She learns respect for a home and family because she doesn't have one before he met her husband. Her whole family is half; everybody got different fathers and mothers. She valued the lasting significance of spiritual guidance.

Undeterred by her husband's infidelity, she kept her spirit alive. She captured the hearts of the readers for her staunch support for her family and her commitment to keeping them together. She tried to be everything a wife should be. Everything a mother could be. Rose devoted her life holding on to her man, to be there wherever he is going and wherever fate takes them. She endures the hardships in her life. Took what life offered her in the way of being a woman, get her strength from her religious faith and give the best of what's in her. She holds on to her husband with both hands until the time of his demise.

The Glass Menagerie is a dramatic play about human nature, the conflict between illusion and reality. The struggle between the love of freedom and the love of family. If there is a signature character type that marks Tennessee Williams's dramatic work, it is undeniably that of the faded Southern belle. Amanda is a clear representative of this type. A faded belle from a prominent Southern family, who has received a traditional upbringing, but has suffered a reversal of economic and social fortune at some point in her life. Her relationships with men and her family are turbulent, and she staunchly defends the values of her past. Amanda is the play's most extroverted and theatrical character.

Although the family life seems to be doomed to failure against the overwhelming odds of an industrialized society, there is a nobility and valor in the struggle. The Wingfield family is broken; mother, son, and daughter are fragmented and unprepared to cope with the overwhelming and uncertain world. The Glass Menagerie is a startling and moving glimpse of the human condition.

Amanda clings to an illusion of herself as a beautiful belle in an elegant Old South, where, by her own account, she was pursued by countless suitors. Trough the course of the play, Amanda represents the futility of trying to recreate the past. Caught in an illusion of her own making, she can't accept her children as they really are. At times, Amanda overwhelms her children with her endless and breathless talking. However, despite Amanda's self-deception, she does not live entirely in the past, and that she is sensitive to the fragile condition of her family and the desperation of their current situation. Hoping for better opportunities for her children, she encouraged her daughter to go to college and her son to seek a better future.

Amanda Wingfield is the first in a line of memorable women Tennessee Williams has created in his stories. And like the others, she is a many faceted, unique individual. Amanda is also a universal type, a mother with the characteristics qualities of devotion to her offspring and determination to survive for their sakes. She however carries these traits to their limits and beyond. She may like, all mothers, nag her children to eat more, do homework, clean their rooms, avoid smoking, stay away from alcohol, but after that, she still cheerfully greet her children in the morning to start a brand new day. Although the family now lives in reduced circumstances in St. Louis on Tom's salary of sixty-five dollars a month as a warehouse clerk, Amanda never stops reminding her children of her own affluent past.

Amanda's illusion of herself in the legendary Old South of elegant beaux and belle makes the present somehow more bearable for her.