Is August Wilson's Fences And How Are They Reflected By African Americans?

In August Wilson’s play, “Fences” (1985), he expresses his views, challenges, and frustrations of the legacy of a racial caste system passed down to four generations of black families through patterns of behavioral conflict, and societal limitations in the late 1950’s. The color line in American baseball excluded players of Black African descent from Major League Baseball and its affiliated Minor League until 1947. The blacks were not able to enjoy the same opportunities as whites. Wilson states that Black families “have passed on a legacy of morals, mores, attitudes, and patterns through stories with and without music,” (Wilson, Introduction 1985) from slavery until now. The search for self-authentication in “Fences” is reflected in the attitudes

and behavior of the characters within the social flux of the late fifties, in their individual and collective struggles to hew a niche for themselves in the rocky social terrain of postwar America” (Pereira, 37).

The time is 1957 and the place is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania one of the centers of the American steel industry. “The Milwaukee Braves won the World Series, and the hot winds of change that would make the sixties a turbulent, racing, dangerous and provocative decade had not yet begun to blow full,” (Marin Theatre Company, 2018). Chance and the color of one’s skin, chance again, can tip the balance, “You’ve got to take the crooked with the straight,” (Wilson, Introduction 1985).
Troy Maxson the protagonist in the play is a second generation, 53-year-old, illiterate black man, ex-convict, ex-baseball player and son of a failed sharecropper. He grew up without a mother

and no guidance into manhood from his daddy, only whippings and psychological abuse. He left home and moved north at the age of 14 to escape his father’s abuse, and witnessed his dad rape his thirteen-year-old girlfriend. Troy said, “When I see what the matter of it was, I lost all fear of my daddy. Right there is where I become a man…at fourteen years of age,” (Wilson, 52). He thought of his daddy as the devil, “cause he [his daddy] was the devil himself,” and the only love shown him was, “laying right there by the creek, and Blue…this old dog we had…was licking my face,” (Wilson, 52). Troy was destitute in the North and became a rogue to feed Rose and Cory. He was in jail 15 years for trying to rob a man. After his release from prison, he still tells stories of how he almost played baseball in the Negro Major League. Although “prison, separated him from his family, Troy found what he had been seeking—baseball, (Pereira, 40). It gave him “new direction, renewed meaning, and the opportunity to redefine himself and prove that he could do something well. It save his life in prison and then became his raison d’etre.” (Pereira, 41). Although his father abused him, he learns respect for home, and the value of an education because he does not have one. He says, “A man got to take care of his family,”…It is my responsibility, but liking your black ass wasn’t part of the bargain,” (Wilson, 38). However, Mr. Death has become Troy’s nemesis.
In Act 1 Scene 1, Troy is now a garbage collector worker, the first colored garbage truck driver in the city, and on his second marriage. His family and “fences” consists of his wife Rose Maxson, Cory Maxson, Lyons Maxson (son from an earlier relationship), Gabe (older brother), Alberta (Troy’s mistress), Raynelle (Troy’s illegitimate daughter), “Blue” his dog, Jim Bono (co-worker, closest friend, whom he met in prison), his father’s shadow, and Mr. Death (whom Wilson depicts as a character in the play). Troy is very conscious that he, like his father, is incapable of showing love to his family, with the exception of his mistress, Alberta. Lyons Maxson is a jazz musician and often come around to borrow money from Troy. Troy disagrees with Lyon’s profession, shows him the same contempt as Cory about his ambition, however, he did not put him outside the fence. “His [Troy’s] resurrection of the ghost of his father—which occurs at the end of the scene following his rejection of love as a part of his duty to his sons—clarifies for us and for him the constraints (the fences?) (Bloom, Bloom and Bloom, 84).
Troy has internalized his frustrations on life’s responsibilities and his bitterness about missed opportunities to play baseball in the Negro Major League. He has known racial exploitation and racial discrimination his entire life. He feels that it was because of his race that he was not successful in baseball. However, by the time the color barrier was broken in 1957, he was in his 40’s and too old to play baseball. Rose reminds him “times have changed since you was playing baseball, Troy. That was before the war. Times have changed a lot since then,” (Wilson, 9). Troy uses Gabriel’s disability check to buy their home. Using Gabriel’s money is also a contributing factor to his frustrations.
In Wilson’s play, “Fences” there are many themes, symbolism, imagery, motifs, idioms and allegory built around the fence in the play.

With this language, Wilson creates the imagery of Troy; and the hyperbolic language depicts and establishes Troy’s character. The legacy of the “sins of the father” passed onto the sons, racism, and baseball seems to be the central themes. The illusion of realism for Troy and baseball is a ball made of rags and a baseball bat that leans against the tree. Troy and Rose’s house has a small dirt yard and is partially fenced. This fence in the play is viewed by the characters as many things. Such as major conflict, survival, personality, anger and identity issues that each person has experienced. However, the fence symbolizes Troy’s bitterness and all the barriers that he created mentally and physically for himself, separation of family, friends, and Mr. Death’s foreshadow. Troy has neglected and destroyed relationships with his family and refuses to accept that change has occurred in the world. His main conflict is within himself. He wrestled with Death when he had pneumonia; survived an abusive father and deplorable living conditions in Pittsburgh, and jail. “His own name, Troy, is a metaphor for the defensive wall erected against the Athenians in the Trojan War. He wants to stay on the other side of his fence and challenges death in any conflict or situation he does not understand. This is evident with Cory leaving and Alberta dying in

childbirth (death). Troy did not fear death; however, he viewed death as an equal. Troy says, “Death ain’t nothing but fast ball in an outside corner,” (Wilson, 37). A quote that describes Troy’s character was, “I don’t care what nobody else say, I’m the boss…do you understand? I’m the boss around here, I do the only saying what counts,” (Wilson, 36). This statement shows that he is not willing to discuss any decisions with his family, shows his masculine and domineering behavior in his role as head of household. His hamartia brings about his tragic downfall. Hamartia is the “defect in a hero’s personality known as a “tragic flaw,” (Oxford Dictionaries| English, 2018). Troy’s pride and poor judgement to include his family in his fences brings about tragedy for not only his family, but also his friend (Bono). Imagery is throughout the play through music, when Troy sings the Blues, about his dog “Old Blue”, Troy “(Sings.) You know Blue was a good old dog. Blue treed a possum in a hollow log.” A song his daddy “made up,” (Wilson, 44). One example of the motif of the fence is the completion of the fence for Troy to keep death away for his family and himself. Examples of allegories are, the brother Gabriel who wears a trumpet, named like the angel Gabriel, and is Troy’s allegory to salvation. Raynell’s Garden in the final scene is another allegory when she runs out in her nightgown to see if her garden has grown. Rose tell her, “You just have to give it a chance. It’ll grow,” (91),