August Wilson Fences Symbolism

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Robert Frost once said, “Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.” In life there are really only two reasons why a fence is put up; to keep out the outside influences, or protect what is on the inside. These two reasons are why the title of August Wilson's dramatic play, “Fences”, is so appropriate. In the dramatic comedy, “fences” by Augusta Wilson the main characters, Rose, Cory, and Troy, all perceive the idea of a “fence” in a different but symbolic way, which accounts for most of the conflict In the play. Rose is using the fences to keep her loved ones at home. Troy is using the fence to have two lives, while Cory is being almost held hostage by the fence and his father's influence.

The first instance in which the fence symbolizes an internal struggle is with the main character’s wife Rose. Rose is conflicted over the idea of having her family exist outside the protection of the symbolic fence she built. “Some people build fences to keep people out… and other people build fences to keep people in. Rose wants to hold onto you all. She loves you”(Wilson,61). Rose, openly admits, she is using the fence to keep her family in. While
To Rose the fence symbolizes hope, the hope of keeping a family together. And to Cory, the fence symbolizes almost, a type of imprisonment in which he is being held against his will. He is doing what someone else wants him to do, and not what his heart wants to do. Finally to Troy, the fence represents the life he really wants, and the life he is stuck with. When he is on one side of fence, he acts a certain way, but when he gets on the other side of the fence, it seems as though he breaks free. The fence is a symbol of family ties and working together, but it also symbolizes the coming apart of familial relationships and the separation of different

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