Obstacles In The Play Fences, By August Wilson

A fence, by definition, is an upright structure that encloses an area of ground to mark a boundary, control access, or prevent escape. Even though this is so, a fence can take on a theoretical meaning to represent the barriers that limit success. One’s race, ethnicity, culture, or gender can build a fence between the person and society. In the play “Fences”, by August Wilson, the setting is in 1957, which was a time for change for the African Americans of the United States. In the late 1950’s African Americans began to climb over their own fence and their rights began being recognized. For example, in 1957, the desegregation of the high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. Furthermore, each character is faced with their individual fence, symbolizing

Despite his humor, Troy faces many obstacles throughout his life; however, some fences he has not been able to move past. Throughout the entire play he makes references to baseball and for good reason; baseball was his passion and he held an extreme talent for it. Troy compares himself to George Selkirk and states, “Man batting .269 . . . What kind of sense that make? I was hitting .432 with thirty seven home runs!” (1.1). Due to his race he was denied the right to play for the Major Leagues. Major League Baseball was integrated in 1947. At this time Troy was forty three years old, too old to play professional baseball. In a sense, he felt robbed. Troy will never believe the whites will accept African Americans into sports regardless of the talent they hold. His wife, Rose, even told him, “Times have changed, Troy, you just come along too early” (1.1). Once he grew older, his occupation was gathering trash on the back of the garbage truck, but he never got to drive because he was black. Troy overcame this fence by testing the Commissioner's Office and succeeding; he became a truck driver but was still hesitant to trust the white race. Regardless of his hard work, he had nothing to show for it and expressed this thought

They have been friends since they were in jail together, they work together, and they hang out every Friday. Troy choose to commit himself to Rose, and this signaled to Bono that he was a man worth following. Unlike Rose, “Bono gives-in to Troy’s fantasies—to his fictional tales about meeting with Mr. Death, probably as a result of Bono’s own, somewhat blind devotion to what he views as Troy’s strength and work ethic” (Character Analysis). Bono influences Troy’s stories, “That’s what I want to know about, that devil you done seen” (2.2). Later, Bono realizes that Troy is having an affair and warns Troy to stop; when he does not, he ends up having a child. The fence between Bono and Troy is Raynell and his affair in general. Troy ultimately embodies betrayal and the hurt caused by adultery, whereas Bono constantly demonstrates a devotion to his wife, Lucille. He realized that his affair was cruel and he questioned Troy’s whole personality after it occured. Bono did not come around for their annual Friday night