Reading Response Fences

Question #1: In ”Fences” by August Wilson, the title is referring to a central symbol of the play. The way the fence appear in the play is physical, even though it has several underlying meanings too it as well.

First of all I see the fence as a metaphor for the black versus white issue they are talking about in the play. Obviously, there has for a long time been hard for the black people to get to live a life as the white people; there is some kind of boundary or fence in between the two groups of people. In this play the focus is mostly on the baseball and the trouble for the black people to play in the Major League. I would guess the feeling as a black who wanted to play baseball must have been like there was a fence- or a wall- in between them and the thing they really wanted to do.

The fence is also a symbol of the struggling they seem to have to finish projects and hang on to what is important in life. Troy seem t have some difficulties in the commitment to finish the fence project, since he is drifting away from it doing other things instead.

To Rose it seems like the fence is something trying to keep her family togheter. She wants her husband to do something good, keep him engaged and busy in something that is important, and that will help the family to be together. It seems like the fence building also is a symbol of the issues between Troy and his son Cory. The son is supposed to help his father out, but they do not seem to get a long and the building of the fence is supposed to be a team effort made of them both, but it does not work out very well.

Question #4: Troy is a man with a lot of experience in life. He is fifty-three years old and the father of two sons. In his young days he was a really good baseball player, and he still believes he is. Although, since he is black and during his period of life when he was playing his best, black people were not allowed to play professionally in the Major League. Only white people were allowed...