English Literature

Earned his first Pulitzer Prize, Fences is the award-winning piece of August Wilson written in 1983. The renowned piece is an impelling drama that tackles the life and relationship of Maxon family.
The lead character of the story is Troy Maxon. He is a former baseball athlete and eventually became a trash-collector in the story. He is described to have a contrasting personality for being deeply flawed yet has strong conviction towards justice and equality. The story took place around 1950s. His flaws were pointed to be unappreciative and unable to adapt in social change - this is regarded as his ticket to be a symbol of human nature during the period. Other external aspect from Troy is symbolism of his character such as the fence, the porch, the house, and the makeshift baseball.

Troy Maxon
Troy Maxon was said to be based upon the character of the authors step-father according to Joseph Kelly, author of the The Seagull Reader Plays. The basis of the character of Troy is also the ones that his step-father is noted for such as athlete, doing crime for living, imprisonment of 10 decades for murder.

The house of Troy can be rooted as the cause of the flaws of his characters. The house is said to be the cause of his pride for being able to provide house for his family. On the other hand, the house is also the cause of his shame when it was brought out when he realizes that he was only able to afford the house through his WWII veteran mentally unstable brothers disability checks.

An important representation of the story is the fence, which is apparently an answer why it was chosen to be an answer. The story gives weight to what the fence represents in the story.

The fence was described by the author himself as something that is badly in need of paint. In the story, it says that the fence is newly installed by Troy. However, it was left unfinished and unpainted. The same goes as well in the porch as it was left unfinished.

The fence and the porch are said to be representation of Troys marriage life to Rose for eighteen years. At first he put much effort in their marriage but eventually he just neglected her. In parallelism, the porch and fence are not the only ones that needed attention. His non-lasting commitment to his marriage is the apparent meaning behind the fences and the porchs unfinished state.
Influenced by Baseball

The story opened in a baseball scene where Troy and his son Cory were practicing swinging. In this scene, Wilson gave hints through the metaphorical concept of the baseball equipments. The ball of rags tied in the branch of the tree and the bat that is leaning against it could mean the supposed promising future of Cory to be a football star was not materialized as he was tied with the circumstance that took place in his argument to his father.

Through his friends eyes, Bono, Troy is an excellent baseball player. But he got bitter when he was not allaowed to play with the white teams, while other black players have made it to the white teams. The reason he always cited is that he was born at the wrong time thats why the opportunities and riches that were meant for him were slipped away from him as what he believes.