Essay on "Literary Criticism on August Wilson's Play Fence"

Essay 4 pages (1157 words) Sources: 3

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Fences

Baseball as Symbolism in August Wilson's Fences: A Metaphor for Teamwork, Family, and Life

August Wilson's play Fences is one of the most well-known and well-respected plays from the playwright's "Pittsburgh Cycle" which recounts the trials of generally working-class African-American families through each decade of the twentieth century. In the 1950s, the decade in which Fences is set, baseball is all the rage as the American pastime, and the major leagues and have only recently become open to players of color, following Jackie Robinson's ascension to the ranks of a professional ball-player on a non-Negro league. This change has come too late for Troy Maxson, however, who now works for a garbage company though he was once a truly great athlete. His bitterness regarding his lost glory days is a major driving force behind his character and ultimately the action of the play, and baseball serves as a concrete and specific example of the limitations Troy has experienced due to his color.

The theme of baseball that runs throughout the play has more than simple and concrete purpose, however. The sport and Troy's enjoyment of it, as well as his bitterness towards it, have heavily symbolic meanings in the play that mirror some of the larger workings of Troy's life and struggles. Baseball is essentially a team sport, but Troy cannot see himself as the member of a team -- he is driven by personal desire, ambition, and a need for control that existed for him in baseball to some degree, but not in life. Ultimately, his failures and missteps in both baseball and life are revealed to be of similar origin and impact.

Incidents of Symbolism

Though baseball figures at least partially in most of the scenes in the play, there are a few key moments that stand out as especially important in defining the role that baseball has within the play. The first scene, which sets the plot and the tone for much of the rest of the play, is one of these moments. It is in this scene that we learn of Troy's former baseball career in the Negro Leagues, and of his son's prospects to play football for a college. Troy is against the idea of Cory playing any type of sport or even going to school instead of learning a good working trade; he remembers the way that baseball and the world treated him because of his color, and he thinks it is foolish for Cory to think that things have changed. Critic Sheri Metzger notes that, "Troy has become blind to the changes of the past ten years," and remains trapped in his own perspective (Metzger pp. XX). Even though there are African-American players in major league sports, Troy holds his memory of baseball as the only way that things are, and he applies the restraints and limitations that exist in his memory on his son and the other members of his family, as well.

This scene and several other confrontations throughout the play, in which baseball language is sometimes used figuratively and at other times the sport is referenced directly, are also indicative of the control Troy attempts to exert over his family and his world. Wilson uses Troy's relationship with baseball and even the physical details of his athleticism in a highly effective way to make this aspect of the character and the play clear as well.

Troy was not known for his excellent fielding or pitching, the positions… READ MORE

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