Fences takes place in the era of segregation in the United States, when many public spaces were only open to whites and closed-off to blacks. Augustus Wilson examines the racial tension and the cultural imbalance among the African Americans during 1950s. It also occurs at a time of a burgeoning black rights movement of the late 1950s and early 1960s. when such leaders as Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks would come to the fore and alter history with their courage, conviction, and leadership. By 1957, the year in which Fences is set, black athletes had become an integrated part of professional and college sports, at least on the surface. The all-white teams of the World War II-and previous-years began to include blacks in 1947 when Jackie Robinson became the first black to play professional baseball since the color line was drawn in the 1890s.
‘Fences’ is a “Pittsburgh Play”. Set in the backdrop of 1950’s, ‘Fences’ stands sixth in position among Wilson’s ten- part Pittsburgh Cycle. ‘Fences’ explores evolving African American experience and is a strong document of America’s race relations among myriad themes which the play encapsulates. Wilson received Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1987 for this brilliant work. It earned Tony Award for Best Actor for James Earl Jones too. The play “Fences” August Wilson influenced by historical situations and depicts the protagonist from the racial tension and the cultural imbalance among the African Americans history.
August Wilson was known by the name of August Kittel when he was born to a German father and an African- American mother in 1945 and was raised in Pittsburgh mostly by his mother and his step- father. Wilson witnessed the areas where blacks were highly discriminated and undermined. He himself became the victim of racism when he was accused of plagiarism in school for writing a sophisticated essay and was thrown out of the institute. Fences portray the condition of blacks in the 1950’s. The play begins in 1957 between the Korean and Vietnam wars and ends in 1965. But the themes of the play directly hit the consciousness in a pre-civil-rights-movement and pre-Vietnam –war-era-psyche.
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In the play, Maxson is the representative of an amalgamation of black men’s history of the south and the present life of the north. Wilson’s plays take place in his hometown of Pittsburgh and Fences is no exception. Wilson draws a clear picture of the America in 1950’s. He portrays the time through his play as a new world of opportunity when the blacks began to open up, leaving those like Tory, who were raised in the first half of the century, only to feel like aliens in their own land.
However, August Wilson uses both the history and mythology of baseball to challenge the authenticity of the American dream. Set in 1957, just before the start of the civil right movement, Fences take place at a time when organized baseball has finally become integrated, but when racial discrimination remains wide- spread. Indeed, the protagonist, Troy Maxon- a former Negro League slugger is consumed with bitterness, convinced that if you are a black man in America, “you born with two strikes on you before you come to the plate” (69). Throughout the play Wilson places Troy within the historical context of the Negro Leagues, allowing his character to echo the feeling of actual black ball players who were denied a chance to complete at a major league level
Troy, the protagonist goes back to the 1900s when he was working under the cruel authority of a sharecropper who was himself a product of the Reconstruction era. The mindset of this character plays a lot here when he deals with his son. The garbage collector, who dreamt of becoming the driver of the wagon, knew that to become a member in the National League is a dream beyond his reach.
The past experiences and the desire to become something in future were the two driving forces of Troy Maxon and his son Cory. The personal experiences were poles apart for both, and Cory sees his fortune in a different way unlike his father. Troy has the pain of negligence in baseball where he proved himself to be a talented player. He never wants his son to suffer like him. But Cory replies exemplifying the African American players “The Braves got Hank Aaron and Wes Covington. Hank Aaron hit two home runs today. That makes forty-three”. Troy responds,” Hank Aaron ain’t anybody” (par.7). Cory also realizes that the times have changed since baseball rejected a player as talented as Troy because of the color of skin.
The play Fences is very apt with the use of baseball as the metaphor. The play has such an influential label of American Dream which stands for success, hope and individuality. “According to John Thorn, baseball has become ‘the great repository of national ideals, the symbol of all that is good in American life: a fair play (sportsmanship); the rule of law (objective arbitration of disputes); equal opportunity (each side has its innings)”…(2.5.2).
The walled garden of the playground itself stands for the demarcation and the confinements that prevailed in the society. The protagonist Troy – a former Negro League slugger – is depicted as a victim of this bitterness. If you are a black man in America, “you born with two strikes on you before you come to the plate” (69). Through him the author was exposing the feelings of the black players who were denied a chance to compete at the major league level. According to Koprince, there was simply an understanding among every major league club owner and every minor league club owner for more than 60 years that no blacks could play in so-called organized baseball.
The readers can assume that he would have gone through the same experiences as Robert Peterson, “they were travelling in packed automobiles and broken-down buses, playing a game almost every day and competing all over the country” (par.4). George Giles who was a Negro Leagues player revealed his irritation to racism which forced him to give up the profession at the age of 30. According to David Craft“ The racism we faced while I was in the Negro League was one of the things that eventually pushed me out of baseball…I was treated like a second class citizen in my own country by people who knew they hated me before I could eve say ’Hello”(1.2.5).
When Cory shows the similar promise in football, Troy, fearing his son will face the same obstacles, prevents him from playing. The decision is unacceptable to his family. That affects their familial relations too. Troy slowly begins to move away from Rose. Troy’s friend Jim Bino argues with him and tells that since Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball, the black players are more supported, but Troy responds, “I done seen a hundred niggers play baseball better than Jackie Robinson.
Hell, I know some teams Jackie Robinson couldn’t even make! What you are talking about Jackie Robinson. Jackie Robinson was nobody. I’m talking about if you play ball then they ought to have let you play. Don’t care what color you were. Come telling me I come along too early. If you could play…. then they ought to have let you play.” The voice of the members of Negro the league is sounded in the words of Troy. According to Sandra Shannon” Troy’s grumbling serves to foreground the voices of the nameless masses.”
Troy is a pure African American who confines himself within the fences of racism. But Cory represents another generation who wishes to break the confinements of society. He aspires for his own success. He represents a group who seek to fold themselves into the white culture of the day. Troy fears that his son will lose the difference of his race in his drive for success. Troy himself is undergoing such a change. His advancement in his job as the truck driver is a symptom of this revolution. But unfortunately, he himself is not comfortable with this advancement. His wish to retire soon from his present position reveals the tension in him to adjust with the changing culture. Troy has been caught in the changing culture and represents a generation lost in their understanding of the world around him.
Troy dies as a warrior to himself and to the society, and the ground was depicted as a sacred place. Thus, Wilson turns his protagonist into a social reformer whose spirit now dominates the era of Civil Rights. Baseball becomes a powerful ground to create the racial tensions, thereby making so many heroes and heroines from the African Americans who are now ruling the kingdom of sports. The final line of the play is the prophetic words of Gabriel, “That’s the way that go”, which to a great extend become true in the present context.
Fences ‘experiences’ have universal relevance, though the characters are more personal. Rose becomes a strong archetype of African America woman. She has put her life and soul into Troy, and yet he has sought out companionship of another. But Rose is elevated to women of high power. The character Cory who is more complex in nature who had to break the ‘fences’ erected between himself and his dream, himself and his father and himself and the society. When his father dies, he refuses to attend the funeral, his mother offers him the opportunity to change. He accepts the possibility and becomes emotionally mature, thus making sure that his life will be a different one from that of his father.
All in all, August Wilson examines the racial tension and the cultural imbalance among the African Americans history, Wilson creation of the play influenced by historical situation on fences based on the American baseball history. The play is appropriate with the traditionally white cultural form – baseball – to depict the tension in the twentieth century. August Wilson greatly succeeded in bringing out the stained racism in the national play which brought revolution in the era. There is no lying in Fences. It is 300 miles and more than 60 years of telling the raw, bit
Works cited
- Sterling, Eric. “Protecting Home: Patriarchal Authority in August Wilson’s Fences.” Drama Criticism, edited by Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau, vol. 31, Gale, 2008. Literature Criticism Online, https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.pgcc.edu/apps/doc/ZYETIA782604899/GLS?u=pgcc_main&sid=GLS&xid=56262d8a. Accessed 3 Dec. 2019. Originally published in Essays in Theatre/Etudes Théâtrales, vol. 17, no. 1, Nov. 1998, pp. 53-62.
- Metzger, Sheri. “An essay on Fences.” Drama for Students, Gale. Literature Resource Center, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1420002765/GLS?u=pgcc_main&sid=GLS&xid=516881d8. Accessed 3 Dec. 2019.
- Koprince, Susan. “Baseball As History and Myth in August Wilson’s Fences.” Drama Criticism, edited by Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau, vol. 31, Gale, 2008. Literature Criticism Online, https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.pgcc.edu/apps/doc/YNLTQX368021956/GLS?u=pgcc_main&sid=GLS&xid=959cd353. Accessed 3 Dec. 2019. Originally published in African American Review, vol. 40, no. 2, Summer 2006, pp. 349-358.
