Metaphor in Fences Essay

In the play Fences by August Wilson he puts in many metaphors that have meanings that relate to the characters. The two important metaphors are fences and baseball in my opinion. The metaphors used throughout the book make you think what August Wilson is trying to portray through the character and what it is representing that is significant. In the play many metaphors have meaning towards the character saying them. Troy constantly uses baseball metaphors in his speech due to the fact that he was in the Negro Baseball League and got to old when African Americans were allowed to play in the majors. He uses baseball metaphors towards his son in my opinion meaning he doesnt want his son to go down the same road he did and end up with nothing from playing a sport his whole life. The fences metaphor constantly used throughout the play represents the barriers put up by certain characters in the play and Troy wanting to keep his family together, even though his family gets torn apart towards the end which is ironic in the sense that it was suppose to keep them together.

Troy constantly uses the baseball metaphors, for example Death ain't nothing but a fastball on the outside corner (1129). Near the beginning of the first scene of Act One, Troy entwines a tall-tale in the African American tradition, about his hypothetical encounter among different forms of death. With these words, Troy contrasts death to an effortless pitch, just right for hitting a homerun. As a result, Troy portrays himself as unbeatable and everlasting to Bono and Rose. With this speech, August Wilson creates the notion that Troy is strong, passionate for life, and courageous. This portrayal of Troy, so early on in the play, helps to establish Troy's character. The fastball/death metaphor serves two purposes in the dramatization of Troy's character. Troy no longer plays baseball, but he continues to approach life as if his identity never changed. Wilson's use of the fastball/death metaphor portrays Troy as a ordinary man capable of thinking with the heroism of a mythological figure. More significantly, Troy's metaphor foretells an unavoidable collapse into the position of a tragic figure. When a man believes he can beat death, the unavoidable discovery of that feat's impracticality awaits him. If Troy maintains an unsystematic outlook on death, ultimately he will reveal his flaws. In the first scene, we do not yet know how the humorous, strong, and good-humored version of Troys collapse, but we get a sense that Troy's capability to be in charge of his own fate reduces during the play.

In the play Fences all the characters constantly use the fence Troy is suppose to build as a metaphor, for example Some people build fences to keep people out and other people build fences to keep people in. Rose wants to hold on to you all. She loves you (1155). In the first scene of Act Two, Bono explains to Cory and Troy why Rose wants a fence built around their dirt yard. Neither Cory nor Troy recognizes why Rose insists that they complete the fence. It takes a friend of the family, Bono, to examine why this project is so very important to Rose, and what the fence represents. The initial part of Bono's rationalization sheds light on the behavior of his best friend, Troy; standing before him and the second part describes the woman he loves. By this point in the second act, I observed as Bono describes the first type of fence builder. Troy keeps people out of his life by opposing their decisions, like his first son, Lyons' decision to play jazz. Troy keeps Rose away through disloyalty and holds back Cory from a hopeful future to be a football player. Furthermore Troy's brother, Gabriel, recently chose to leave Troy's house for an indefinite reason related to Troy that most likely relates to the fact that Troy used Gabe's money to buy himself the house. Bono's statement provides insight into the Maxson family tensions and warns Troy that Bono disproves of Troy's affair with Alberta by bringing attention to Rose's love for him. The metaphor also refers historically to the white people keeping black people within the fences of slavery. Bono emphasizes the two purposes a fence can have, depending on the way one looks at its intention. By implying to slavery, Bono invokes the historical circumstances following slavery's abolishment that considerably impacted Troy's destiny. Troy's suffering in life directly relate to the situation in the United States for black men and women livelihoods throughout the outcome of restoration, and the height of Jim Crow segregation. Bono conveys sympathy with the interpretation of Rose's fence because he expresses disapproval of Troy for his behavior of shutting out his loved ones but also empathizes with the rationale of why he reacts fiercely, in resentment and in dread.

There are many quotes that can be described to what they mean to the reader and what they represent to the character. The two quotes that I used to describe baseball and fences are just a few of many that can be described. In this play you dont get to see how the white people treat the African Americans because its from their point of view, but due to the fact that we know how it was in those times it gives us a better sense of the hardships that Troy and his family go through. An example being that there is only one black truck driver and the rest of them have to pick up the garbage. Baseball is a very significant metaphor used mostly by the main character Troy. The fences being brought up throughout the play show us the importance it has towards the characters and what it represents to them. To each character there is a meaning to what kind of fence they have up and especially with Troy.