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Fences by August Wilsons: Critical Analysis

The central theme in Fences by August Wilsonsrevolves around the construction of boundaries, both physical and metaphorical, to delineate familial and personal spaces.

Titles and Themes in Fences by August Wilsons

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The central theme in Fences by August Wilsons revolves around the construction of boundaries, both physical and metaphorical, to delineate familial and personal spaces. As Robert Frost aptly noted, “Good fences make good neighbors,” a sentiment echoed by the character Bono when Troy, the protagonist, fails to grasp the rationale behind Rose’s request for a fence to be built. Bono’s pragmatic understanding of this adage stems from his outsider perspective, enabling him to perceive the significance of such boundaries more acutely than Troy and Cory, who are entrenched in their familial roles. Moreover, Bono’s astuteness extends to his awareness of Troy’s extramarital affair with Alberta, a revelation that underscores Rose’s subconscious apprehensions about her husband’s fidelity.

Characters in Fences by August Wilsons

Indeed, Troy faces considerable challenges in providing for his family, given the limited opportunities available to him in his position. As a result, he seeks solace and escape in various outlets, including love, alcohol, and music. His relationship with Alberta, which Bono is aware of, serves as one manifestation of this quest for refuge. When Rose insists on building a fence in front of their home, Troy and Cory are initially perplexed by her request. However, Bono astutely recognizes the symbolic significance behind Rose’s desire for a fence, articulating that “Some people build fences to keep people out and other people build fences to keep people in.” This insight suggests that Rose’s intention may be twofold: to preserve her relationship with Troy and to create a barrier that prevents external influences from disrupting their familial bonds. The title of the play, “Fences,” thus assumes a profound thematic significance, encapsulating the themes of boundaries, containment, and the complexities of interpersonal relationships explored throughout the narrative.

Racism in Fences by August Wilsons

Racism, particularly discriminatory racialism, serves as a pervasive and poignant element that shapes the experiences of the Maxson family in “Fences.” As an African American family, the Maxsons navigate a society where racial prejudice and inequality are deeply ingrained. Troy’s occupation as a garbage collector reflects the limited opportunities available to black individuals in a society where they are systematically marginalized and discriminated against. His thwarted dreams of becoming a professional baseball player further highlight the systemic barriers faced by African Americans, as despite possessing the talent and potential, racial segregation prohibited him from achieving his aspirations.

The metaphorical significance of Troy’s past aspirations underscores the broader theme of racial injustice and the insidious ways in which it restricts the opportunities and aspirations of black individuals. Despite his capabilities and ambitions, Troy’s race serves as a formidable barrier to his advancement, relegating him to a subordinate position in society. His application to become a truck driver exemplifies his awareness of the racial prejudices that permeate the societal landscape, as he confronts the pervasive belief that only white individuals are deemed fit for certain professions. Troy’s refusal to allow Cory to pursue soccer further illustrates the internalization of racism within his psyche, as he perpetuates the cycle of racial discrimination by imposing limitations on his son’s aspirations. Through Troy’s experiences and actions, August Wilson adeptly portrays the enduring impact of racism on individuals and families, shedding light on the pervasive and systemic nature of racial injustice in American society.

Fence in Fences by August Wilsons

Indeed, in “Fences” by August Wilson, each character experiences both gains and losses throughout the narrative. Troy Maxson, for instance, loses his wife Rose when he engages in an extramarital affair with Alberta. However, he also gains a renewed appreciation for Rose’s importance in his life, as evidenced by his return with their daughter Raynell after Alberta’s death. Similarly, Cory experiences frustration and resentment towards his father for preventing him from pursuing his dream of joining the football team. Nevertheless, he ultimately achieves academic success by graduating from high school and later finds fulfillment in his decision to enlist in the Marines.

Rose emerges as a winner in her own right, despite Troy’s initial neglect of her, as she gains Raynell as a daughter through Troy’s affair. Gabriel, despite his mental disability, contributes to the family by helping to pay the mortgage, highlighting his resilience and determination in the face of adversity. Bono, Troy’s friend, serves as a catalyst for positive change in Troy’s life, as he helps to salvage their marriage by revealing Troy’s secret affair to Rose. In this manner, each major character in “Fences” experiences a blend of triumphs and setbacks, reflecting the complexity of human experiences and relationships portrayed in the play.

Works Cited: Fences by August Wilsons

Wessling, Joseph H . “Wilson’s Fences.” The Explicator 57.2 (1999): 123-127.
Baharvand, Peyman Amanolahi. “The Failure of the American Dream in August Wilson’s Fences.” International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies 5.4 (2017): 69-75.

Relevant Questions about Fences by August Wilsons

How does the symbolism of the fence in “Fences” by August Wilson contribute to the thematic exploration of barriers, both physical and metaphorical, within the African American experience?
In what ways does the protagonist, Troy Maxson, embody the struggles and aspirations of African American men in 1950s America, and how does his character arc reflect broader societal issues?
How does August Wilson use the familial dynamics and relationships within the Maxson family to explore themes of responsibility, duty, and the impact of past traumas on present-day relationships in “Fences”?

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August Wilson’s the “Fences” Literature Analysis Essay

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August Wilson, the author of the “social realist” drama Fences, gives audiences a glimpse into the life of an African American family trying to gain respect and respectability (Kushner). They are trying to accomplish this at a time when segregation was still nearly universal. The fences that appear in the title, and often throughout the drama serve to represent some of the challenges the family faces. Fences are rich in symbolic possibilities. They are barriers for property lines, for keeping livestock in, or predators out.

They segregate, exclude, protect, and even imprison. They also symbolize all the ways that this family tries to keep the things that threaten them out and their family unity in. Whether the fences that the family erects, both symbolically and physically, are successful in preventing the negative and promoting the positive, the audience remains uncertain.

The yard fence that sits unfinished at the beginning of the play is one example of this use of symbolism. It parallels the career in baseball that Troy Maxson wanted to pursue (Wilson, Fences Act I, Scene i). Like the fence, one of his major life ambitions remains unachieved for much of the play. It sits there, reminding him of what he has not accomplished. Unlike baseball, however, he finally builds the fence (Wilson, Fences Act II, Scene iv). The problem of not achieving everything one hopes to in life strikes a nearly universal chord.

Fences also demarcate private property, which, in this instance, is a sign of the improved status of African Americans in the 1950s (Nadel 86). As Sanders notes, the symbol of the fence refers to the historically painful connection,” between property rights and human rights, for African Americans” (Sanders).

As August Wilson points out in his introduction to the first act, the northern cities that African Americans migrated to in search of a better life were only grudgingly welcoming and permitted the migrants only the lowest-paid jobs (Wilson, Fences Act I, Scene i).

Thus, although Troy could legally own home, he was able to acquire it only by appropriating a portion of Gabriel’s disability payment from the Army (Wilson, Fences Act II, Scene v). Nonetheless, he is fiercely proud of, “his own house and yard that he done paid for with the sweat of his brow” (Wilson, Fences Act II, Scene iv).

The fence, or his intention to build a fence in response to his wife’s request, represents his pride in what he has managed to accomplish as a man, a husband, and a bread-winner. He wants to demonstrate that he is strong and competent as a man, in terms of which he is capable of.

He is so committed to being a good husband, according to his own lights, that he describes his role as a husband as giving Rose everything, even “the lint from my pockets” (Wilson, Fences Act I, Scene iii). Part of being a good husband is his desire to fulfill his wife’s wish for the respectability of a fence, even though he comes home tired each evening.

The fence, as a long-established and highly visible marker of ownership, marks the territory in which he exerts authority (Nadel 86). This is the space in which he has the prerogative to say who can stay and who must go. This includes throwing his son Cory out (Wilson, Fences Act II, Scene v). He even blusters at “Mr. Death” that he will, “build me a fence” and Death must, “stay on the other side” (Wilson, Fences Act II, Scene ii), unsuccessfully of course.

Rose, in singing, “Jesus be a fence around me every day,” expresses a longing for God’s protection from evils around her and her family (Wilson, Fences Act I, Scene ii). This is an example of both August Wilson’s use of the song for what Murphy calls the “spiritual and metaphorical,” and direct symbolism of the image of fences (Murphy 257).

Rose desires a stable family life, seeking what Wilson called the “inherent values that are a part of all human life,” and which were often denied to African Americans (Wilson, The Ground on Which I Stand). This is a step up for her because as Rose says, “I ain’t never wanted no half nothing in my family. My whole family is half.

Everybody got different fathers and mothers” (Wilson, Fences Act II, Scene i). The fence she wants is supposed to help her, “hold on to you all,” and keep this sort of family disruption away, but it cannot keep Troy out of trouble after all (Wilson, Fences Act II, Scene i).

Throughout the play, the image of Fences reappears to evoke ideas of all sorts of barriers. As Bono says, “Some people build fences to keep people out… And other people build fences to keep people in” (Wilson, Fences Act II, Scene i).

Fences, for Wilson, represent unmet ambitions, the achievement of property ownership, Troy’s commitment to marriage, his hard-won right to exert authority, Rose’s attempt to acquire spiritual protection, and an effort to preserve family unity. In its richness of meaning, the symbol offenses, both in the title and throughout the drama, evoke a moving range of ideas that bring the life and struggles of African Americans into sharper focus for the audience.

Works Cited

Kushner, Tony. “Author Notes.” Program . Costa Mesa: South Coast Repertory Company, 2010. Web.

Murphy, Brenda. “ A Review: Understanding August Wilson by Mary Bogumil .” MELUS 26.1 (2001): 256-258. Web.

Nadel, Alan. “Boundaries, logisitics, and identity: The property of metaphor in “Fences” and “Joe Turner’s come and gone”.” Nadel, Alan. May Alll Your Fences Have Gates: Essays on the Drama of August Wilson . Ed. Alan Nadel. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1993. Web.

Sanders, Leslie. “Review of “May all Your Fences have Gates”: Essays on the Drama of August Wilson. by Alan Nadel.” African American Review Vol. 31, No. 1 (Spring, 1997), pp. 151-154 (n.d.): 152. Web.

Wilson, August. “Fences.” Titleofcompilation . Ed. Editorsfirst name Editorslastname. cityofpublisher: Publisherofcompilation, Year. 1833-1883. Print.

The Ground on Which I Stand . New York: The Theatre Communications Group, 2001. Web.

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by August Wilson

Fences essay questions.

Why does Gabriel carry a trumpet around his neck?

Because of a head injury, Gabriel believes that he is the angel Gabriel and that he is able to open the gates of heaven with his trumpet. While the audience knows that this is not literally true, the final scene shows that Gabe becomes the play's figure of redemption. He unsuccessfully tries to blow his trumpet and when that does not work, dances his brother into heaven. Troy does not have the play's last word; instead, it is the fool, the representation of innocence, that finally offers Troy deliverance.

Why is the setting of the play important?

The setting of the play is important because the 1950's represents a time of great upheaval in race relations in the United States. Troy Maxson represents a previous generation that now watches the world move on around them. They have been maligned by white transgression in the past and yet have been able to procure a small portion of the country's booming wealth for themselves. Troy dies, however, in 1965, the year of the greatest legislative triumph of the Civil Rights era. He is not able to enjoy the victory that he helped bring about.

Why is Troy Maxson considered an "everyman" character?

Troy Maxson is a character of universal type. Though his life is dictated by the particulars of the African American experience of the early twentieth century, his failings as a man as well as his small measures of redemption are applicable to all people. Wilson deftly creates a character who is a flawed and identifiable hero, through his responsibilities to family and his inabilities to live up to his own high expectations. His battles with his sons resonate across racial and cultural lines as universal human experiences.

Explain the play's principal metaphor of the fence.

Jim Bono best sums up the play's overarching metaphor by explaining to Troy, "Some people build fences to keep people out…and other people build fences to keep people in.” Both Troy and Rose Maxson attempt to build emotional fences throughout the play. Rose attempts to keep her family within her fence by being a good and faithful wife. Troy is more concerned with an emotional fence that never permits his sons to understand his love for them.

Is Rose's character an example of feminism or an example of the repressed role of women in society?

Scholars have been divided on Rose's role in the play. Some have seen Rose as the prototypical 1950s housewife, disappearing into her husband and leaving no room for her own self to flourish. Others, however, have seen Rose as occupying a feminist position; she does remain a housewife and mother but only because she makes the choice for herself. No one forces motherhood on her. She admits that when Troy takes pieces of her, it is because she gives those pieces out of her own choice. But then, what other choice does she have?

Discuss the role of the blues in Fences .

Troy's blues song for his dog, Old Blue, is an example of Wilson's use of blues music in the play. Troy takes on the role of an archetypal blues character who has seen his world taken away from him for his transgressions. The blues also acts as a form of aural tradition. Cory and Raynell sing Troy's blues song as they bury him, representing pieces of Troy that pass down through generations.

Discuss the meaning of baseball in the play.

Troy uses baseball as a metaphor for his own life, yet the audience comes to understand that the game Troy plays is not necessarily the one in which he sees himself. Troy remembers himself as a star in the Negro Leagues, but he was never given a chance to prove himself. His relationship with Alberta, and the selfishness that it inculcates in him, is his chance to please himself in a way that he never could while playing baseball. Troy, however, fails at his own game. His failures in his relationships with his wife and son represent two strikes in his life. The inevitability of his death is his third and final strike.

What traits make Troy Maxson an unlikable protagonist?

Troy is seen as an unsympathetic character for much of the play because of the emotional fence he builds to keep his sons and wife from seeing and accepting his underlying love for them. This is best observed when Cory asks Troy why Troy does not like him. Instead of offering a reassuring remark, Troy shames his son by telling him that there is no law that says he must like him. The fence that Troy puts up to keep his sons from accepting him also acts as a fence to keep the audience from sympathizing with Troy.

What traits make Troy Maxson a redeemed protagonist?

For all of his faults, Troy Maxson is ultimately redeemed. This is accomplished through the small glimpses of care and affection that his children remember in the play's final scene. Raynell tells Cory that Troy always called her room "Cory's room" and that he never threw out Cory's football equipment. They close the play by singing Troy's old blues song about his dog. It is inevitable that fathers pass on pieces of themselves to their children. Through this process, Troy becomes a redeemed character and a flawed hero, but a hero nevertheless.

Discuss the cycle of father-son relationships in the play.

In the play, sons become outraged at the actions of their fathers. This outrage turns into hate, and yet the sons cannot help but bear a resemblance to their fathers. For Troy, this happens when he assaults Cory and kicks him out of the house. Troy believes that he is protecting Cory from a life of failure in football, yet Troy has become the same man that his father had been. The final scene sees Cory struggling with this same dynamic. He seeks to reject his father, but he cannot completely leave Troy - he carries his memory, influence, and song with him.

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Fences Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Fences is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Troy seems to limit Rose to the domestic. Rose is the only character that is a woman that plays a role. Troy seems to marginalize her and seems to view women as ultimately disposable in some way.

Why does Troy refuse to accept Lyon's repayment of the loan?

Troy naturally assumes that Lyons will soon be back for another "loan", it's a bit of a habit for Lyons to come to his father for money. Thus, to prove his point, Troy tells Lyons to put the money in the bank, so he can just go and take it out...

Discuss your thoughts on Cory intial decision not to attend Troys funeral. Why did he feel this way ? Do you agree?

I was actually surprised that Cory traveled home for the funeral, and yet, he decided not to attend. On one hand, we can consider the fact that Cory's last fight with his father and the fact they never came to terms weighed heavily on Cory... it's...

Study Guide for Fences

Fences study guide contains a biography of August Wilson, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

About Fences
Fences Summary
Character List

Essays for Fences

Fences essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Fences by August Wilson.

The Importance of Dreams
The Significance of Songs in August Wilson's Fences
Death and Baseball: August Wilson's Fences
Rebuilding Relationships in Fences
The Apple and the Tree: Family Ties in The Namesake and Fences

Lesson Plan for Fences

About the Author
Study Objectives
Common Core Standards
Introduction to Fences
Relationship to Other Books
Bringing in Technology
Notes to the Teacher
Related Links
Fences Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Fences

Introduction
Productions
Cast and characters
Awards and nominations

Home / Essay Samples / Entertainment / Fences / Fences: Film Evaluation

Fences: Film Evaluation

Category: Entertainment
Topic: Fences , Movie Review

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