CONTRASTING THE TWO AFRICAN AMERICAN GENERATIONS REFERRING TO THE PRACTICE OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN AUGUST WILSON\\\'S FENCES

August Wilson’s Fences is one of the great literary works in America. It describes about a generation change in which father and son have different experience toward the practice of racial discrimination.
Related to the title, this study is intended to examine about the two African American generations referring to the practice of racial discrimination in their own era. Concerning this matter, this study is focused on analyzing the character’s utterances, especially Troy Maxson and Cory Maxson, and narrator’s narration that is related to the research problems. Then, racism is used as the basic theory to analyze the drama.
This study is conducted by using qualitative method since the key instrument of this study is the writer and the data are described in the form of words. In line with the features of the qualitative research, the data collection was done simultaneously with the data analysis. There were three related processes in the data analysis; reducing data, displaying data and making conclusion.
After the dramas was analyzed, it is found that the author portrays the contrast condition of two African American generations toward racial discrimination in their own era. Troy Maxson as the older generation is suffering racial discrimination in three aspects of his life: discrimination in sports, housing, and employment. On the contrary, Cory Maxson as the younger generation does not experience racial discrimination like Troy Maxson. In Cory’s era, the condition turns to be better after the World War II. The African American people experience gradual changing at that time.