Fences Analysis

Troy's lack of commitment to finishing the fence that Rose wants put up represents his lack of commitment in his marriage. He doesn't understand that Rose wants to keep the family close because he never truly had a close family. He becomes a womanless man. “From right now… this child got a mother. But you a womanless man” (79). Troy pushes Lyons away by refusing to hear him play his "Chinese music" (48). He also damages his relationship with his other son, Cory, by preventing him from playing football and rejecting his only chance to get recruited by a college football team. The “fence” also depicts that Troy is disowning Cory when they get into an argument and Troy kicks him out on to the streets. Troy states that Cory’s things will be on “the other side of that fence” (89). As a result, Troy ends up driving everybody away just like his father. The “fence” acts like a physical divider between the Maxson’s household and the outside world because Troy doesn’t bring anything others would normally have into his house and Rose does not want any outsider intruding her family.

The play “Fence” by August Wilson’s has a connection with real world fence. “The yard is a small dirt yard, partially fenced, except for the last scene, with a wooden sawhorse, a pile of lumber, and other fence-building equipment set off to the side. The Opposite is a tree from which hangs a ball made of rags. A baseball bat leans against the tree. Two oil drums serve as garbage receptacles and sit near the house at right to complete the setting” (Wilson 2). He mentions that the fence has three parts open, unopened and cornerstone. The word yard and fence are symbolically represented structure and dream of country, society and Troy’s family.

Fences written by August Wilson is an award winning drama that depicts an African-America family who lives in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania during the 1950’s. During this time, the Mason’s reveal the struggles working as a garbage man, providing for his family and excepting life as is. The end of segregation began, more opportunities for African American people were accessible. Troy, who’s the father the Cory and husband of Rose has shoes fill as a working African America man. He is the family breadwinner and plays the dominant role in the play. Troy’s childhood was pretty rough growing up on a farm of 11 children. Overtime, he realizes the change of society. He builds a friendship fellow sanitation worker, Jim Bono while in the penitentiary. Troy planned to build a fence around his house to control the number of people on his property. The fence also plays a symbolic role throughout the drama. These motives and characteristics control is what makes Troy the friend, father, worker, and husband he is today.

Lives are lead with anxiety over certain issues and with apprehension towards certain events. This play, Fences written by the playwright August Wilson deals with the progression of a family through the struggles of oppression and the inability to obtain the American Dream. The characters in the play develop throughout the story and can be viewed or interpreted in many different ways, but one man remains constant during the play and that is Troy. Due to certain events that transpired as he was growing up, Troy is shaped into a very stubborn yet proud man. To be a man who was black and proud ran the risk of getting destroyed, both physically and mentally. The world of the 1950s and 60s was rapidly changing and

The fence becomes a representation of the barrier that Troy tries to create between him and mortality. Troy has a fixation on Death. He talks about how Death is an easy “fastball on the outside corner” (I. i). Troy always speaks about how he could easily knock a baseball out of the park. Comparing Death to a fastball shows how Troy thinks that he can continue to always keep Death on the other side of the fence because like a

In the Fences, by August Wilson shows that life of African Americans in the U.S. in the 1950s with the story of Troy and his family. Wilson uses the symbol of the fence to show the desires of each character like Rose’s desire is to keep her family together, Troy’s desire is to keep death out and to be not bound forever, and Bono’s desire is to follow Troy, his best friend, as an example of the right way to live and to be with Rose and Troy who are basically his family. Rose and the other seen characters represent people and show gender roles of the time, like Rose is a housewife, Troy is the provider. Also Cory is the new generation of emotion over responsibility, Gabriel represents the war heros that were permanently disabled from war

As with most works of literature, the title Fences is more than just a title. It could be initially noted that there is only one physical fence being built by the characters onstage, but what are more important are the ideas that are being kept inside and outside of the fences that are being built by Troy and some of the other characters in Fences. The fence building becomes quite figurative, as Troy tries to fence in his own desires and infidelities. Through this act of trying to contain his desires and hypocrisies one might say, Troy finds himself fenced in, caught between his pragmatic and illusory ideals. On the one side of the fence, Troy creates illusions and embellishments on the truth, talking about how he wrestled with death, his

Set in the late 1950s, August Wilson’s Fences follows a man plagued by the demons of

Through Troy’s perspective, he sees the fence as a barrier between his enemy known as; death. If death gets through the fence, it would have to come through Troy himself, since he believes that instead of loving his family; protecting them has more worth. It is clear Troy starts to build the fence to keep those who are mistreating his family out; although he himself grows distant. We can infer that Rose and Troy’s perspective of the fence had started to collide. Rose had viewed the fence to keep those she values and cherishes within the fence; while after Troy confesses he is cheating on her with Alberta a division with his family is shown. Division with their family occured due to Troy mistreating Rose and not realizing his mistake sooner. This is to show that Troy’s trait of responsibility reinforces the main symbol. Troy had acknowledged his mistakes resulting in a mental and emotional separation between the couple. “[...] A motherless child had got a hard time…. From right now this child got a mother. But you a womanless man. [...]” (Wilson,122) This confirms that even with the presence of Raynell; Rose will not acknowledge Troy for what he used to mean to her. Further into the play it is revealed that even with this rift, Rose continues to communicate with him to keep order within the house, although emotionally her ties have been severed with Troy.

In the play when Cory and Troy fight, Troy kicks Cory out of the house saying, “Cory: Tell Mama I'll be back for my things. Troy: They'll be on the other side of that fence." (Henderson) It is in this particular passage that Troy uses the fence physically to represent the dividing line between Cory and him, but more specifically the emotional barrier he’s put between him and his family. Troy grew up with an abusive father which makes his complete emotional disregard towards his family logical. If the man that raised you taught you keep your emotional guard up even with your family, you would probably treat your family the same way that Troy treated his; with complete emotional neglect and disregard. The fence working as barrier could also symbolize Troy trying to protect himself from feeling too deeply towards things which could end up disappointing him or already have. For instance, when Troy became passionate about becoming a Major League Baseball player he suffered extreme disappointment when he was rejected because of his race. It was this life lesson that reinforced Troy’s upbringing of emotional disregard towards things he could grow to either want, love, or feel passionate about like his family and friends. Troy’s philosophy in building the fence was that if you don’t grow an emotional attachment to something then it cannot hurt you, and he stayed by philosophy till his death. The fence also became symbolic of the barrier Troy wanted to

The first character is Troy Maxon. The significance of Troy’s metaphorical fence is built upon throughout the play. In troys case his metaphorical fence is to keep death away from him, his things, and the ones he loves. “Alright...Mr. Death. See now…. I’m gonna tell you what i’m gonna do. I’m gonna take me a fence around this yard. See? I’m gonna build me a fence around what belongs to me. And then you to stay on the other side. See? Stay over there until your ready for me…” (2.2). In this scene you see an insight on how Troy thinks of the fence as more than just any fence, he thinks of it as something that could even stop the forces of death from entering his home. “Troy’s efforts to wall-off his home resonate with his ongoing conflict with “Mr. Death” by fortifying the perimeter of his home, Troy

The character from Fences, Troy Maxson, builds a fence, this symbolizes himself. He is the fence that keeps all of the characters together. This is shown in the novel where he is the one person keeping all the other characters together “inside” the fence. When Troy falls apart, all of the characters go their separate way. When Troy cheats on Rose, this is when he himself falls apart as a fence. “From now… This child got a mother. But you a womanless man.” (wilson 79) This shows when Rose leaves Troy after he cheats on her and crumbles apart as the “fence” holding everyone together. Another example of this is when it is discovered that Bono stopped being Troy’s friend soon after the incident with Rose. “You aint stopped by in a month of Sundays” (Wilson 82). This is where Troy talks to Bono about him not coming to visit. This shows the symbolism of Troy as a fence keeping everyone together, but he

In Fences, Troy Maxon builds a fence around his property that contains metaphorical reasons as well as the literal meaning. During a conversation with Troy and Cory, Bono mentions the fence Troy is building for his wife Rose and says “Some people build fences to keep people out...and other people build fences to keep people in. Rose wants to hold on to you all. She loves you” (61). Bono explains this to Troy because Cory was unable to comprehend why Rose wanted the fence up in the first place. This opens the reader up to the symbolization of the fence itself. The fence allows Rose to keep Troy with her because she has loved him for so many years and does not want to let him go or leave her for another woman. Later, in Act two, Troy, after speaking to Rose about his new baby who he had with his mistress Alberta,

The combination of Rose as well as Troy is a more appropriate symbol for the fence; it is the combination of the two characters that creates a stronger representation of a fence. Rose is the driving force that forces Troy build the fence, so in reality it is Rose’s strength that carries the power that Troy needs to create a protective barrier around their home, life, and weaknesses from the outside forces of the world. Rose feels the need for a protective barrier, a fence, which can be built around her home for the protection of her family and her household. Her idea involved keeping the things and people who are important to her inside rather than keeping things and people outside. Troy is the opposite and wants to keep everything out. Interestingly, both Rose and Troy want the fence to protect their lives it is just a matter of perception. The title "Fences" symbolizes the figurative fences that the characters are wrapping around themselves either to keep people from departure or to prevent them from entering.

The fence also turns into a blockade that Troy tries to put up between himself and death. Troy is first confronted by death when his mistress, Alberta dies during childbirth. Troy knows that he will one day eventually die and leave this world. The fence symbolizes to us that Troy will go out kicking and screaming when death comes for him. It is surprising, but death is one of the only thing that make us realize Troy’s vulnerability. Troy finishes building the fence in the end as way of finally trying to protect himself, his daughter Renelle and Rose.