Fences: Setting 1 key example

Definition of Setting

Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or it can be an imagined... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the... read full definition
Setting
Explanation and Analysis:

Fences is set primarily in 1957 (with a final flash forward to the 1960s) in the front yard of Troy and Rose Maxson's house. Nobody names the precise city where the Maxsons live, and Wilson makes no reference to any landmarks that directors should include onstage with the actors. Wilson's written introduction and context clues from Troy's backstory make it clear that it is an industrial American city where many Black families moved during the "Great Migration" of formerly enslaved Black people out of the South. Wilson grew up in one such city—Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Fences is considered part of his 10-play "Pittsburgh cycle" or "Century Cycle" that dramatizes, decade by decade, the experience of Black families in Pittsburgh and cities like it over the course of the 20th century.