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The success of August Wilson’s “Fences” Play in Using Metaphors and Symbolism
Fences is a play written by August Wilson about a man known as Troy. Troy had been working hard to ensure he supported his family in the late 1950s. Throughout the play, the audience is presented with a Troy who hurt people closest to him. For instance, he has been very unkind and uncaring to Rose, his wife, Gabriel, his brother, and his son. Unlike most people, Troy puts his interests in front of his son’s dream leading to a conflict between him and his son. Fences were written at a period when there was a great fight against segregation with Troy representing the main protagonist of isolation. In the play, August Wilson through the play, Fences, reveals a reflective perspective of the real world and that of Troy and his friends and family. The title fences put out a revelation of the significance and meaning of the impending construction of the fence in the Maxson yard.
Additionally, the play presents a detailed exploration of the turmoil within the socio-economic situations that faced the African Americans at the time and their experiences in civil rights. Life and personal relationships. This paper explores how August Wilson in the play Fences succeeds in discussing and demonstrating the turmoil faced by African Americans with symbolism and metaphors.
August Wilson significantly uses the symbolism in his play, fences. The fence is itself a symbol used on various occasions. Some of the three instances when the analogy is used are depicted by protection Troy Maxson and Rose Maxson’s relationships and by Troy against Mr. Death. All through the play, the characters create “fences” which are symbolic and physical aimed at protecting himself or herself or what they value. For instance, we see Rose protecting herself from her husband, Troy as well as Troy protecting himself from death. Accordingly, the play Fences central theme is on the symbol of a fence, which assists readers in getting a clearer understanding of the events in the play. The lives of Rose and Troy change upon the fence building project that acts as both a figurative and literal symbol, which is a representation of the relationships that break or bond in the backyard.
Throughout the play, the readers are met with various instances where Troy and Rose use a fence to protect themselves. At the beginning Rose is seen as safeguarding herself through a song where she sings, “Jesus, be a fence all around me every day, Jesus, I want you to protect me as I travel on my way,” (Wilson, p.23). Through this song, one can see that Rose desires protection, and to her, a fence is symbolic of love. Rose yearning for a fence symbolizes that she is a representation of love and nurturing in a safe environment. However, Cory and Troy, on the contrary, feel that a fence is too much of a burden; thus they reluctantly work towards completing Rose’s project (Wilson, p.62). Besides, Troy chooses to use hardwoods in building the fence rather than the soft pines as he feels that the hardwood should offer him protection from death. Consequently, as Wilson (p.62) highlights although the characters build fences for different reasons they all perceive the fence as a symbol of protection. The fence has thus been used to symbolize the desires of African-Americans to having protection from segregation from the whites.
Baseball is part of America’s history with the baseball game dates back to 1839. In the play, August Wilson sees potential for sending his message, which he strategically incorporates in Fences. Fences indicate the 1950s and use metaphors to address the struggles of African Americans at the time. Consequently, Wilson has in several instances used baseball as a metaphor for life. Examples of such cases can be seen at the start of the play when Troy tells his friend, Bono, about his perception on death as a “Fastball to the outside corner” (Wilson, p.12). This is meant to show that Troy is not at all scared of death, but he is eager and ready for it to appear so that he can strike it away.
Additionally, another instance of a metaphor can be seen when Troy enters into an intense argument with Cory, his son regarding him taking Cory off the football team and calling off a meeting with the team’s recruiter (Wilson, p.59). Towards the end of this argument, Troy notifies Cory that he only has one strike which he would better not use (Wilson, p.60). In this case, Troy was pretty much telling his son that he made a great mistake and it was better that he doesn’t make two mistakes. Besides, there is also a big metaphor from Troy when he tries explaining why he had to cheat on his wife, Rose (Wilson, p.61). At this point, Troy notes that “you are born with two strikes on you before you come to plate….You can’t afford a called strike….” (Wilson, p.61). This metaphor shows what happens when people (the whites) are led by self-interests ignoring the damage this might have on others. Troy’s interests are a symbol of racism that had taken a toll on American at the time.
In conclusion, this paper explores how August Wilson has succeeded in demonstrating the turmoil is faced by African-Americans following race-based segregations. Two key literary devices (symbolism and metaphors) are examined as well as their application in the play. It is evident that August Wilson succeeds in using symbolism and metaphors to portray the issue of racism to the readers throughout the play.