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Summary And Symbolism In August Wilson's Fences

619 Words3 Pages

In August Wilson’s Fences, it should come as no surprise that the fence Troy is building throughout the course of the play holds multiple points of symbolism and importance, from Troy’s innate need to keep things at arm’s length, to an overarching symbol of Rose and Troy’s marriage, to a subliminal motif of the boundaries that kept Troy from his dream of reaching the Majors. For Troy, the fence is viewed as a chore and a nuisance at the beginning of the play. Troy shirks the chore to go “listen to the ball game” at “the Taylor’s” (33). On page 34, Cory retorts that his father has claimed they were to work on the fence “the last four or five Saturdays”, but his father “don’t never do nothin’”. By page 71, his old friend Bono is so convinced Troy will never finish the fence that he makes a pricey deal with Troy saying “when you finish building this fence for Rose… I’ll buy Lucille (Bono’s wife) that refrigerator”. However, by the end of the play, the fence becomes much more than a tiring chore to Troy. …show more content…

Troy’s speech directed to death is an example of the distance he wishes to attain through his fence, telling death “I'm gonna build me a fence around what belongs to me. And then I want you to stay on the other side” (85). Shortly after this, during a dispute with Cory over Troy’s role in their home and in Cory’s life, Troy tells Cory to “go on and get away from around [his] house” (98). To which Cory responds he will “come back for his things” which Troy informs him will be “on the other side of that fence” (99). The importance of this lies in the symbolic exile of Cory from Troy’s life. Once again he wishes to push something he’d rather not face to the other side of his fence to be forgotten about for as long as

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Bono tells Troy that he will destroy his relationship with Rose while he is in the middle of preventing Cory from a successful future; however, Wilson does not state a clear reason for the fences. In addition, the metaphor of the fences represents how slaves were kept within boundaries. Wilson keeps the meaning behind the fences a mystery for the readers to interpret it their way. Furthermore, Troy states, “It’s just she gives me a different idea. A different understanding about myself.

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Comparing The Bond Between Father And Son In August Wilson's Fences

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The dynamic between a father and son is never a simple journey, but instead, comes with curveballs thrown left and right. In Fences, by August Wilson, he writes of the hardships between a father and son relationship and the difficulties a father has over trying to shield his son from life’s cruelties, to the salvation found between being fenced in and finally being placed outside of the fence—both literally and metaphorically. Through out the play, there are numerous confrontations between Troy and Cory—whether it be when Cory asks Troy whether or not he loves him or when Cory throws his football helmet towards the direction of Troy—which show the difficult and complicated relationship between father and son. Also prevalent in the play, was the lack of a father and male figure in Troy’s own life, during his most influential and important years. Troy recognizes that and the way he was/is treated by society in general and wanted to “help” his son by showing Cory the difficult lessons Troy learned during his youth, as a way to lessen the pain that would be inflicted on his son later on.

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Troy As A Tragic Hero In Fences, By August Wilson

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In the play “Fences”, written in 1957 by August Wilson annotates how Troy’s childhood experiences affected his life and put a strain on his relationship with family and friends. Troy’s enormous amount of pride, flaw of judgment, and malicious actions lead to his shortcomings and resulted into him becoming a tragic hero. In the story, Troy had a lot of flaws in his character throughout the play. As Troy was growing up he never had the proper guidance, so he had to take care of himself the best way he could.

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He even stops talking to his best friend Bono. He also cheats on his wife and ends up putting his brother, Gabriel, in a mental hospital so he can collect his government check. It eventually all catches up to him and he ends up dying. Throughout the play, the reader thinks that the title refers to building literal fences in the yard, but in the final act, Act II, it is discovered that Troy is building literal and figurative fences in order to keep Death, or the Grim Reaper, away.

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The hardships that people face, coming from racial and gender injustice, can sometimes affect not just those directly concerned, but their families as well. These injustices, such as the treatment to Troy in Fences during his younger years, change the ways he acts to his sons and the rest of the characters and is the source of much of the conflict they face. Many of the conflicts in the play arise because the characters disagree with the way they see the past and what they want to do in their respective futures. For example, Troy and Cory see Cory's future differently because of the ways they have been treated in their pasts.

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Throughout the play, Troy is building a fence in the backyard of their home, which is a constant throughout the plot. At first, the fence seems as though it has no significance, but as the story continues, the readers understand that it is just more than a barrier in

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The fence symbolized that love and family are kept inside and everything else, bad and hated outside. It takes guts and courage to accept being taken out of one’s family, especially by one’s father. Other teenage boys would have revolted and kept on fighting/arguing but Cory did not, instead, he accepted punishment which

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Inside the film Troy betrayed essentially his entire circle of relatives just off of one mistake and it triggered him to lose the humans near him whose circle of relatives performed a key role in growing this subject. Wilson suggests this by way of portrayal of circle of relatives lifestyles- of how its characters view their roles as personal circle of relatives participants, and how they ever define their commitment or responsibility to the circle of relatives. via the entire ebook/ film they symbolized the fence so an awful lot because it symbolized their circle of

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In the play “Fences” by August Wilson, Troy is first seen as a responsible husband who cares for his family. He makes the duty of being a “providing” husband his whole persona. Being the head of the household has made him sensitive to criticism and open-minded. He is egoistic, making others feel little and scared to question his rights for wrongdoing. His son and wife live more in the present than him.

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B.) I believe the title, “Fences”, symbolizes how Troy keeps attempting to fence his family members in from their full potential.

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This affair put a huge strain on his relationship with his wife, as Rose practically put an end to their relationship even though they still lived under the same roof. Furthermore, Troy does not have any friendships in Fences, aside from working with Bono. Troy and Bono met in jail and built a relationship from working together cleaning up garbage. Nevertheless, outside of Bono, Troy doesn’t have a clique of friends, a therapist, or anyone he can go to with his deeply rooted problems. Towards the latter end of the play, he stops talking to Bono almost entirely once he is promoted to driving the garbage truck.

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Symbolism In The Fences

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The Fences also represents another major symbol of the play. As Troy neglects to build the fence, his attitude demonstrates the irresponsibility and lack of commitment he had with his wife. Rose believes the fence is a symbol that will keep her loved ones together and eventually create bonding time with Troy and Cory as they build the fence. The baseball represents the injustice Troy had to face while

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Building The Fence Analysis

601 Words | 3 Pages

A fence is a barrier put up to protect what's inside of it , protect as in not letting unwanted things in and wanted things out. Troy is the husband of Rose , father of Cory and Lyon, brother of Gabe. Troy loves all the people I called out and wanted to keep them inside of the fence to protect them. In his process of building the fence to keep them all in he was slowly pushing them all away from him. His purpose was keeping them in to be closer to them and keeping death out , it wasnt that he was scared of death he just felt as if it wasn't his time yet.

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"When the sins of our fathers visit us, we do not have to play host. We can banish them with forgiveness; As God, in His Largeness and Laws"(Wilson X).This epigraph by August Wilson provides an insight into the importance of the topic in the play Fences. In Fences, the play depicts the relationships of the Maxson family and their friends. Troy Maxson, a middle-aged African American man, is happily married to his wife Rose and takes care of his son Cory whilst occasionally interacting with his other son from a previous relationship. However, the complexities of Troy 's past create issues for him and his family and their relationships begin to deteriorate.

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The significance of the title “Fences” is of many. The fence has different symbolic meanings to different characters. It represents Troy being “trapped” or “fenced in, which could also explain why it is taking so long for him to build it. He is trapped by the responsibilities that he has to control with his family. I believe that this pressure lead him to cheat on Rose as an escape from the role of responsibility that he was feeling.

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