fences by willson August

‘Fences’ by Wilson August explores the evolving African-American experience and examines race relations, among blacks and whites in the United States. The symbol of the fence and the metaphors of baseball used throughout this drama, connect everything back to the sense that Troy Maxon was unhappy with his life, and felt as if he were a failure.  It was not just a story of a life perceived as a failure, but a look into the mind and thoughts of an African American man of the 1950s.

Blacks as represented by Troy, face the problem of racism in the United States. He was a skilled baseball player when he was a young man. It is assumed by Troy and all the other characters in the play that he would have made it to the Major Leagues if it were not for the color of his skin (Wilson, 2006). .  He is very bitter about this injustice, and it has continued to affect him in his adulthood. All the characters in the play are African American, and they must deal with racism every day. The South is still officially segregated and much of the North is, but unofficially. Most of ‘Fences’ is set in the 1950s. There had been some progress made on race relations by this time, such as the integration of pro sports teams. However, on a whole, America had a really long way to go. Slavery has been gone from America for over seventy years, but its shadow still presses down on the country (ibid). 

Blacks faced severe working and living conditions in the South and Northern Cities of the US. The Pittsburgh of the Maxson family is a town where Troy and other men of his generation fled from the savage conditions of sharecropping in the south. After Reconstruction failed, many blacks walked north as far as they could go to become urban citizens (Sparknotes 2012). Having no resources or infrastructure to depend on, men like Bono and Troy found their way in the world by spending years living in shacks, stealing, and in jail. But because the color barrier had not yet been broken in Major League Baseball, Troy was unable to make good money or to save for the future.

Also Wilson gives the audience an understanding of the life of the African American, both male and female, in the mid to late 1950s and early 1960s.  Life was getting better in the sense of gaining citizenship, but this was also before the civil rights movement and shows that citizenship did not mean acceptance or understanding of the assimilated African American culture, or putting into the open the injustice of the past (Burbank, 2009:118). The African Americans of the 1950s were looked upon as less than citizens, and definitely the lowest of the immigrants that were coming to America to find a better life. 

Many of the African Americans in the cities had migrated to the North, which instead of taking them in with open arms, pushed them aside and pushed them back, giving them only the basest parts of life.  It is this aspect of their life that Wilson wants the audience to understand throughout this play (Burbank, 2009:117).  He introduces the fence in this part as well, so the audience will know the importance of the fence as a symbol throughout the play on several levels, both societal and individual. Blacks faced the tragedy of deaths to the extent that they coped with the situation as shown by the words of Troy.  Troy: "Death stood up, throwed on his robe...had him a white robe with a hood on it." (1.1.96)… Troy: "Ain't nothing wrong with talking about death. That's part of life. Everybody gonna die. You gonna die, I'm gonna die. Bono's gonna die. Hell, we all gonna die." (1.1.88). Typically, the figure of Death is depicted as wearing a black robe, but here it's white. It can be interpreted that there's a larger significance in using this, since black-white racial issues are such a big deal in the play.

It could be seen as a deliberate rejection of the idea that the color black should symbolize death. Some might see it as offensive that the same color often used to represent death (as well as evil) is also used to describe African Americans. Death's white robes and hood might also be seen as representing the Ku Klux Klan, the white supremacist group responsible for so many hate crimes in the American South (Sparknotes LLC, 2012). The typical uniform for KKK members was (and still is) white robes and hoods. Perhaps by equating Death with the Klan, the play is referencing the many African Americans who lost their lives (literally and metaphorically) to white oppression.

Blacks lived under dissatisfaction in their life situation particularly discrimination in jobs. Dissatisfaction causes lots of trouble in Fences. The play's protagonist, Troy Maxson, is dissatisfied with his life. He's unhappy that his pro baseball dreams were stopped by racial discrimination. He feels trapped and unfulfilled in his job as a garbage collector. His son constantly disappoints him by not seeing the value of work. And even though he loves his wife, Troy finds a new love in another woman's arms. Fences explores how dissatisfaction can lead to behavior that destroys a person's life and the lives of those around them. He says; Troy: "All I want them to do is change the job description. Give everybody a chance to drive the truck." (1.1.15)

However hard the lives of blacks were in general, they still had dreams of becoming somebody in the future Troy Maxson, the protagonist of Fences, has had his dreams focused at becoming a pro baseball player, but his career was stopped because of racial discrimination. Troy had been in the Negro League and played baseball until he was over 40 years old.  The problem in regard to baseball arises, when Troy is overlooked by the newly desegregated professional baseball league because of his age.  His dreams of playing for the professional white league were smashed, and he had nothing to show his worth in the years that followed.  That is he believed that he was nothing because he never made it to the big leagues (Gantt, 2009:10). 

Lyons had a dream of becoming a musician, but is not very successful. In the last scene of the play it comes to light that Lyons did end up defeated, but only to a point.  His love of music was still alive and he was still following his dream (ibid).

Cory had dreams of becoming a big football player in professional leagues. Cory is an excellent football player but his dreams are shattered by his father who refuses to sign his scholarship form.

Blacks didn’t however succeed in fulfilling their dreams because on the way towards their dreams stood the some of their own weaknesses.

When Troy’s attempt to play in professional league fails, his feeling of failure continues into the relationship that Troy has with his son, Cory.  Cory is an excellent football player, and yet, Troy refuses to acknowledge his son’s ability even when he is recruited by a college.  Troy cannot and will not let Cory succeed where he failed and refuses to let Cory go to college on a football scholarship (Gantt, 2009:10).  But this is not the only time that Troy shows resentment of his son.  In Act 1, Scene 3, Cory asks Troy “How come you ain’t never liked me? (Wilson, 1986:504).  Troy is angry at this question and tells Cory that “…it’s my duty to take care of you.  I owe a responsibility to you!” (ibid, 505).

The central conflict of Fences centers around Troy's refusal to let his son Cory play football, which destroys Cory's chances of going to college. In this way, Fences explores how the damaged dreams of one generation can damage the dreams of the next. By the end of the play, Cory must find a way to form new dreams out the ashes of the ones he's lost. He ruined his son’s chances of getting out of this life, fulfilling a dream of playing football, and obtaining a college education. 

Another weakness is that Blacks wanted some of the jobs they had no Qualification for. Troy works to gain power as a man by changing his job situation.  He sees the racism within his workplace and seeks to change it (Arnold, 2009).  After going to his boss and then the union to make his complaint, he is given the job he desires, to be the driver of the garbage truck.  He feels he is entitled to this job, yet he doesn’t even have a license to drive the truck (ibid). 

With all the oppression and injustices Troy has dealt with in his life, as a son, as an athlete, and as a worker, he tries to take back the power and control in his life.  In the essay “Developing Character: Fences,” Shannon (1995) says, “These feelings of being passed over change Troy into a man obsessed with extorting from life an equal measure of what was robbed from him” (95).  Because his father was cruel and unloving and because the opportunities in his life were never fulfilled, he tries to control all the things in his present life, yet through his effort, he ends up bringing the others around him down, too.  He is trying to make up for the oppression in his life, and he ends up oppressing others. 

References

Arnold, T( 2009).The Struggle for Power by August Wilson’s Male Characters posted on April 14, 2009 in http://www.augustwilson.net

Burbank, S. (2009) "The Shattered Mirror: What August Wilson Means and Willed to Mean." College Literature 36.2 117-29. Project Muse. 11 May 2009

Gantt, P. M. (2009):  "Putting Black Culture on Stage: August Wilson's Pittsburgh Cycle." College Literature 1-25. Project Muse. 11 May 2009

Shannon, S. D. (1995) “Developing Character: Fences.” The Dramatic Vision of August Wilson.  Washington, DC: Howard University Press,.

SparkNotes. LLC (2012), Themes, Motifs, and Symbols: Coming of Age Within the Cycle of Damaged Black Manhood © 2012 All Rights Reserved in http://www.sparknotes.com

Wilson, A. (2006)."Fences." Gwynn, R S., ed. Drama: A Pocket Anthology. 3rd Ed. New York: Penguin Academics,

Wilson, A (1986). Fences: A Play (First edition ed.). New York: Plume.