Fences Foreshadowing Analysis

In the play “Fences” by August Wilson, there are numerous elements of fiction including irony, symbolism, foreshadowing, and imagery placed in the play that show how main character Troy has failed to achieve living the American dream. The irony in this play is that Troy had dreamed for a long time about becoming a driver for a trash truck but, once he finally accomplished getting the job, it fell short of his expectation. A use of symbolism throughout this play is that baseball used to be something that brought happiness into Troy’s life but, when he got older baseball was what ended his unhappy life. Another element of fiction that plays a major part in this play is foreshadowing. At the beginning of the play Troy talks about how he isn’t

Death is nothing to make fun of, and Troy soon figures this out for himself. In the line “ Death ain’t nothing. I done seen him. Done wrassled with him. You can’t tell me nothing about death. Death ain’t nothing but a fastball on the outside corner. And you know what I’ll do to that! Lookee here, Bono . . . am I lying.” (Wilson 14). It is easy to see here that Troy is trying to downplay death as nothing serious. At the beginning of the play is when the audience first hears Troy talks about death in this manner. This foreshadows what is to come at the end of the play. Troy talked about death a majority of the play and at the end of the story it comes back to get him, taking his life after he suffers a heart

His hopes for becoming a major league baseball player falls through very quickly in his life, and with the use of symbolism the audience sees that baseball becomes one of the most negative things for Troy. Irony shows that he believed that if he gets a job as a track truck driver he will finally become happy with his career choice but, once he finally gets the job he despises it. Imagery takes the form of the broken fences in Troy’s yard just like his family that falls apart over time and his marriage becomes broken. Everything he thought his life would become falls apart very quickly. Foreshadowing showed constantly mocked death all of his life, then one day it caught up to him when he least expected it to. Throughout this play the audience is constantly remind through different elements of fiction of how Troy is not living the life he once thought so confidently he would