Beyond The Barriers In Fence, By August Wilson

1931 Words4 Pages

The Random House’s online dictionary defines “fence” as a noun by “a barrier enclosing or bordering a field, yard, etcetera...used to prevent entrance, to confine, or to mark a boundary.” As a verb, it defines “fence” as both “to defend; protect; guard” and also, “to ward off and keep out.” (Random House, Inc.) All three of these definitions encapsulate the relationships August Wilson describes in his play, Fences, set in the 1950s. Whether the barrier is too keep something or someone in or out, there is always a struggle to know what is beyond the fence. Wilson uses the fence metaphor to interweave the themes of barriers and protection among the characters in Fences. Troy's character is the centerpiece that all of the other relationships …show more content…

The protagonist, Troy Maxon, creates a barrier with each of the characters he interacts with during the play. Troy is husband to Rose, father to Lyons, Cory, brother to Gabriel, and best friend to Bono. With his wife, Rose, he keeps her within a boundary he’s determined in his head as the role she should play. Troy’s inability to let go of his failed baseball dreams later becomes a barrier between him and his youngest son Cory, as he denies Cory the opportunity of a football scholarship. With his oldest son, Lyons, Troy keeps him at bay, out of a mixture of guilt and disappointment. Troy’s barriers extend even to his own brother, Gabriel, by the way Troy attempts to control Gabe’s life, claiming to be looking out for him. With his best friend, Bono, he allows him into the superficial aspects of his life, but dismisses Bono’s efforts into reigning Troy in. Bono makes it past one barrier, but not all of them. Unlike Troy, Rose sees the fence as a way to protect her family. However, Rose is not protecting it from people on the outside of the fence; she is trying to salvage what is on the inside of the fence. Rose tries to fence in Troy’s antics, tries to ensure Troy doesn’t ruin the relationship with Lyons, and eventually Rose is able to convince Cory to find forgiveness for his father and to leave …show more content…

That all his strength was in permission or denial of events within his own household. He was fighting for control of the next generation. No matter how hard he tried to involve his son in this fence-building chore on a Saturday morning, the more the fence was an illusion for Cory. Perhaps Wilson's focus was narrowing in on the way a black man saw himself, rather than a white man's point of view. Knowing that he and other blacks at the garbage dump got no respect, Troy demanded a "SIR" from his teen-age son. There is surely a heart-breaking point in the play when Troy, trying to defend his dominance, tells his son "Who the hell says I got to like you? What law is there say I got to like you? . . .It's my job. It's my responsibility. You understand that? A Man got to take care of his family" (pp. 37-8).
At the same time, Troy's aim with his son is for him to be different. Perhaps better. Perhaps not as frustrated. When his wife admonishes him about Cory's, "just tryin' to be like you" (p 39) Troy follows with an angry outburst, "I don't want him to be like me. I want him to move as far away from my life as he can get" (p. 39). In this speech, where he also tells Rose that she is the only good thing that ever happened to him, and that he wants that for

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