Theater class 090307

• What do you think of Rose's relationship with the other characters? Does she do all she can for her husband, sons, or brother?
• Overall what did you think the play was telling you, not what Fusi said, but what do you feel was the meaning of the piece? And did it achieve it? Did it move you?

I think that I do have fences to keep people out, at least initially. I find it hard to let people know what I'm really like before I know that they like the watered down and less crazy version of me. I could attribute my unopenedness to wanting to make a good impression, but I don't put out an effort to be a better version of me, just a quieter less-obvious one. Once I trust people, I let them in, and if I really like them, I do erect fences. The fences I erect then are to protect them and keep them near because I am intensely loyal to my close friends.

To me, Troy's actions were the cowardly way out. That's not to say that I don't empathize with Troy, or that I could have done better at that time being whoTroy is, but Troy could have done things differently. I think that Troy was erecting fences around his feelings and his dignity. He was stern and uncaring toward's Cory's ambitions to be a football star because Troy's own ambitions as a baseball star came to nothing. If Troy had allowed Cory to continue with football, Troy would have been forced to confront his own history with sports, and unachieved ambitions in sports. Troy could make up stories of why he didn't succeed in sports as long as he was the only one involved in sports. What if Cory succeeded in football? Then Troy would have to confront his own failur and stop blaming others for it. Troy could have been vulnerable and allowed Cory to succeed where he had not, but he took the cowardly way out at the expense of his son's dreams. I disagree with Troy in that sense: I think that taking away your son's dream, telling him you know he will fail is much more irresponsible than not feeding or clothing him.

Troy's unfaithfulness also stems from creating fences around himself. He created a fence to keep his wife, son, and Bono out because they all need and want something from him. Support, love, nurturing, leadership are all expected from him at the same time from different people, so he distances himself to preserve his dignity, the part of him that doesn't live to give to others. He creates the fence, so he is alone with his feelings and dignity, but then runs out the back gate to be with Alberta because he don't want to confront his feelings. He went to Alberta because she didn't expect to be loved or supported by him and neither did she force him to confront his feelings.

I think that Rose did all she could do for her family: she took care of them, nurtured and loved them. One could blame her for the fact that she always expected something from Troy, but given her equally hard life, she did the best she could. Rose took care of the family and didn't even have the limited advancement of moving to the front of the garbage truck like Troy did, and yet she stayed faithful to her husband and dutifully served her family.

I think that the play commenting on the different kinds of fences, and saying that the ones to keep people in are the ones worth erecting. I feel that the play showed how there are different options in building fences, one could take Rose's journey, instead of being alone, like Troy.