Fences by August Wilson - Essay Example

Fences Fences, a Pulitzer winning play of Augustus Wilson examines the experiences and race relation among the African –Americans during 1950s. Theplay narrates the racial and cultural tension that a base ball player from a Negro race suffers. The prevailing tension during the 1960’s and 70’s which measured the African American struggle for the same rights, are well depicted through the characters in the play. The 1980’s observed a cold struggle to morph the two cultures in order to erase the difference between races and people.

The African Americans were dissimilar to any other races or the whites. They were special in their culture and history. The play uses literary devices like personification, metaphors and lots of other symbols which powered it to unravel the conflict of African Americans. The city is a metaphor which is depicted as a replica of the then societal norms. Through Troy and Bono the author delineates the black and the way in which they are treated by the Whites. They want to become drivers. But they are not permitted.

The formation of color consciousness in him begins to develop through the city life. For the author the city is the easiest way to convey briefly the discriminating powers to the audience. In this drama death is a character. It becomes an object that Troy attempts to battle. When he narrates the story he explains how once he wrestled with death and won. When his son leaves his house and goes beyond the ‘fences’, actually Troy is battling with death. “Alright …Mr. Death. See now… I’m gonna tell you what I’m gonna do .

I’m gonna take and build me a fence around this yard. See?.. You stay over there until you are ready for me …” The use of archetypical themes from classical theatre depicts the struggle of Troy Maxon. He is in constant battle with death throughout his entire life to control his own destiny in life. But later this death itself acts as the binding force that reunites the family after the death of Troy. The first scene of Act One tells a story weaved by Troy about his encounter with different forms of death.

“Death ain’t anything but a fastball on the outside corner”. Here Troy compares death to an easy pitch, perfect for hitting a homerun. Thus troy gets the image of indomitable personality as compared to Rose and Bono. The author says that Troy is strong, and daring. The metaphor of death serves here two purposes. He never abandons his identity as a base ball player and he approaches life like that. But he is a common man capable of thinking with the heroism of a mythical figure. Another main character in Troy’s stories is devil.

Troy’s murder of devil as a forerunner of death represents his struggle to survive the trials of life. Many scenes have a dialogue between Death and Devil Troy. The description of Devil as a man in white dress is also notable. He considers Devil as a companion throughout life against whom he has to fight and win over to establish himself as a person fighting for injustice .But Rose is the character who understands the Devil concept of Troy very well. She explains “Anything you don’t understand, you call the Devil”.

The name of the drama itself acts as a metaphor, fences, which is more than a title. The physical fences built in the courtyard places many things inside and outside. Troy tries to fence in his own desires and infidelities. Through this act of trying to contain his desires and hypocrisies, Troy finds himself fences in caught between his pragmatic and illusory ideals. One region of the fences he creates misapprehensions and trimmings on the truth. He was explaining how he wrestled with death, his meeting the devil with a baseball bat etc.

But the other side of the fence he faces realism, with his hopes and frustrations. Bono says “Some people build fences to keep people out and other people build fences to keep people in”. Rose wants the fence to be built and metaphorically it helps her to keep inside it, even when she confronts infidelity from her husband she tries to be inside it because of her strong responsibility and care for her children. But Troy is more concerned with an emotional fence that never permits his son to understand his love for them.

The play is rich in the use of literary devices like personification, metaphor and other influential symbols which easily helped the author to sketch the exact picture of America in 1950’s. The effective application of apposite literary elements led August Wilson to scrutinize his characters to the infinitesimal height of accuracy