Patricia M. Gantt's Fences

Troy’s everlasting impact on Cory and Rose is one that carried on throughout his life and after his death. To his son Cory, he instilled fear into him, ripping his dreams and individuality away from him at a young age until he could no longer stand for it. Troy controlled his life, fearing that Cory would make it further, or not make it at all. Either way, the outcomes Cory would have had living under Troy’s roof while making his own decisions was unacceptable to him, so he ruined those opportunities. He refused to let Cory join the football team even if it meant he would be able to go to college, he refused to give Cory any support besides financial support, and he refused to be a proper father; to love and care for Cory.

In the play Fences, written by August Wilson, he writes many references about baseball and the fence. The fence and baseball are both very significant aspects of the play because of the meaning behind both. Both metaphors are referenced throughout the play among all the characters. The fence is significant because it means something different to each character. Baseball, on the other hand, is more significant in regard to Troy Mason.

Troy was living a life that no longer made him happy, "I stood on first base for eighteen years and I thought . . . well, goddamn it . . . go on for it!" In modern times, we live day by day wondering about financially making payments but we forget the joy of the world and the joy of being truly happy.

This situation makes me wonder if he is actually scared that Cory will be an amazing athlete and will be better than him. Troy maybe jealous that his son has opportunities to succeed that he never had, no matter how great of an athlete he was, he could have never made it to the pros because of his skin color. Now his son is being recruited by professional teams to play for them. Troy may be against this because he doesn't want his son to be able to live the dream that he was never able to live. This makes their father son relationship very interesting. It is said that fathers typically want their sons to be better off then they are, especially not very wealthy people. You would think in this situation Troy would support Cory in what he wants to do and be happy for him that he has such wonderful opportunities. Troy maybe be acting like this because Troy still lives in a dream world and still thinks he a great base ball player. He has trouble accepting that his

August Wilson’s play Fences brings an introspective view of the world and of Troy Maxson’s family and friends. The title Fences displays many revelations on what the meaning and significance of the impending building of the fence in the Maxson yard represents. Wilson shows how the family and friends of Troy survive in a day to day scenario through good times and bad. Wilson utilizes his main characters as the interpreters of Fences, both literally and figuratively. Racism, confinement, and protection show what Wilson was conveying when he chose the title Fences.

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

     Troy took care of Gabriel after the war. This made him think that he was a good brother. Troy wasn’t a good brother to Gabriel. He stole the war money that Gabriel got. He used the money that he got to build himself a house. Gabriel couldn’t take care of himself, so Troy oversaw Gabriel’s life. After a while

However, Troy is refusing to let Cory go off to play football because of the possibility of racism and the discrimination he experience when he tried to play pro baseball. This reflects on the historical criticism that paints a picture of in those times where blacks did not have any equal opportunities and who suffer from frustration because of the lack of opportunities and economic insecurity they experience. Instead of just believing the people around him who was telling him, "They got lots of colored boys playing ball now. Baseball and football" (Wilson) or "Times have changed, Troy, you just come along too early" (Wilson). Troy still dismisses all the facts given and say to Corey, "The white man ain't gonna let you get nowhere with that football noway" (Wilson).

How do you see a fence? Most people might say a fence is a bunch of planks of wood or metal, nailed or twisted together, and formed to surround an area. After reading Fences by August Wilson, it's not hard to tell why the fence is the title of the story and play. Troy thinks of the fence as something to keep people out. Rose sees the fences as something to protect her family, and to Cory, the fence is a boundary. The fence in Fences is seen differently by all the characters in the story.

Fences is a play, set in U.S. society in the late 1950s, which deals with serious and common issues of humankind. It is the sixth in Wilson 's ten-part "Pittsburgh Cycle". Like all of the "Pittsburgh" plays, the play was written in 1983. The beginning scene is about Troy, who is a strong character, in full control of his life, his wife, and his son Cory. The last scene is on the day of the funeral of Troy Maxson. Fences presents characters who are real flawed humans, who struggle to for control and power in their life. Their effort of the play imparts understanding of this struggle to the audience. Fences is the symbol of personal culture, as well as a sympathetic, but unforgettable central character.

The title of a book or play is usually one of the most critical parts of the piece. The term "fences" has different meanings to everyone. For most people, a fence is considered a solid boundary line around a space. But for some, the meaning of "fences" goes deeper than that. In crafting this play, August Wilson had to be deliberate about choosing a title that would represent the meaning of the work as a whole and allow readers to connect with the characters and overall plot. So, why Fences? In August Wilson's Fences, multiple representations of fences such as protection, conflict, and illness are seen, connecting back to the title and allowing readers to relate to the characters and their various fences.

At first glance the title Fences seems to be a ordinary title for a play written by August Wilson. By the end of the play however the title fences is more than just a title. One of the most important symbol in the play is the fence that Troy and his son Cory built. The fence serves as the framework of the plot due to the fact that the character’s lives change throughout the play in constructing the fence. The title “Fences” represents the symbolic fences the main characters are building around themselves in order to keep people in or to prevent people from interfering. “Fence” may appear to be a simple title, but after reading the play it becomes obvious that it is a complex symbol which sums up the whole play. The playwright

In history, a lot of great man have fallen do to pride and selfishness, In the bible it says Lucifer clearly turned out to be so awed with his own particular excellence, knowledge, power, and position that he started to want for himself the respect and transcendence that had a place with God alone. The transgression that ruined Lucifer was self-created pride. I used that lesson from the bible to say that pride can lead to major life consequences. In fences by Agust Wilson we see a perfect example of that when it comes to the main character, Troy is shown as a man who has hurt the people who are closest to him without even realizing it. He has acted in an unsensitive and heartless way towards his significant other, Rose, his brother, Gabriel and his children, Cory and Lyons. Toward the start of the story, Troy feels he has made them proud. He feels this all through the story. He doesn't understand the amount he has harmed them. In the first scene of the play his oldest son Lyons come to ask him for 10 dollars and answers no saying “You ain’t gonna find me going and asking nobody for nothing. I done spent too many years without”(Troy). Troy’s biggest strength and weakness is that he always looks out for his best interest and doesn’t see anyone else’s interest as important as his own.

"Fences" takes place around the 1950s. During this time period there was a lot going on throughout the United States, especially for African Americans at the time. During this period and the recent years African Americans had been subject to a lot of racism. Growing up August Wilson had been subject to racial discrimination. The discrimination that he faced and the environment that he was raised in, as well as racism itself and racial barriers at the time directly influenced how he created the characters and wrote the play.

The word “fences”s original meaning is the use of bamboo, extended to the border, the barrier, also metaphor boundaries, realm, or used to describe a category. In Fences, Rose has been asking Troy to build a fence for their house. And this fence has been built until the man wants to leave the house when he meets a woman who brings happy to him. As Bono said “some people build fences to keep people out, and other people build fences to keep people in. Roes wants to hold you all. She loves you.”(Winson 2017) In our life, the fences are built not only that the builders build in their yard to want to protect something or someone what they think is important but also everyone in order to refused to communicate with other people’s mind and build fences in their heart.