In class we talked about how Fences was more about character development than plot development. Some people may not like books, movies, plays, or other works that focus more on the characters with little plot progression. While sometimes this can make a story boring, when it is well done, as I think it was with Fences, the story can still be interesting and enjoyable. I thought of an unlikely comparison to Fences, based on the focus on character development.
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold is a book about a teenage girl who is murdered looking down on her family from heaven as they try to find her killer and cope with her disappearance and death. While there is more plot movement than in Fences, as the investigation goes on, the book really is more about how the characters develop as a result of the events of the murder. Therefore, there is not much focus on the actual plot. It's more about knowing the characters through their actions or emotions. This is similar to August Wilson's approach--the play was more about the characters' reactions than the actual events themselves. There is a Lovely Bones movie as well, but it focuses more on the plot of finding the killer, and less on the characters themselves. I think it loses something important by doing this. For me Lovely Bones was about the people, not the plot, and because it was done well in this case, it was also one of the reasons why I enjoyed it so much.
I like it when something focuses on character development. It makes things more real. Fences did a great job of making it all seem real. When the character development is taken out of a story, it loses a huge part of what makes it seem real and relatable.
ReplyDeleteOh, very nice. I was going to say, "Wasn't there a movie?" but you have it covered. I really enjoyed Fences, but for me i'd like a little more action, more abstraction; however, Fences did do a very good job with character development, which sold it for me.
ReplyDeleteI think it's fine for a short story or play like Fences to focus more on character development, but I don't think a full-length novel could pull this off. I've never read Lovely Bones, but I think if the main focus of a longer book was on character development I would be really disatisfied by the end. I would question the purpose of the novel, and I would feel like I didn't gain anything from it. It worked for fences, though, so I guess that's a testament of how good of a writer August Wilson was.
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