Preview

Fences Baseball

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1320 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Fences Baseball
BaseballKristy McInnis
Mr. Krantz
English 3
5\16\2013
The Symbolism of Baseball Fences by August Wilson is a play full of baseball imagery, which is key to understanding the writing. Being a play the reader must interpret the scenes from emotions, setting, tone, and interpretation. This gives them insight to how August Wilson wants to portray the book. Being a white man writing from the perspective of a poor black man he sends the reader back into a time where blacks were inferior. They were pushed into a life where they could never climb the social ladder in sports or work. Troy being a former baseball player holds resentment towards the world and becomes bitter over the years. He has experienced injustice for many years and this has had a toll on him. Troy has the power to future to look at the situation differently but falls into the victim roll. Foreshadowing from the first scene of the play Troy's has arrogance toward death leads to his death in the last scene with a baseball bat in his hand. The play is based around Troy's love for baseball and how characters compare it to life situations. "Death ain't nothing but a fastball on the outside corner"(1.1.82). Troy seeing his life as a baseball game compares a fastball to death. During Troy's life he encounters an experience that supposedly brings him close to death. This may not actually be the case due to Troy's practice at telling stories, but its importance is from the idea of a perfect pitch. Troy's sees this perfect pitch as a homerun, showing the reader that Troy likes to bring drama to any situation. Troy being a former baseball player reverts to old ways when he was playing, he never made it to the big leagues and holds resentment. By never growing from his baseball years, he approaches every situation as if he is in a game. Troy introduces his tale early in the play giving the reader a chance to understand his character. "You got to take the crookeds with the straights. That's what Papa used

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Play report on Fences

    • 1725 Words
    • 7 Pages

    All the main conflicts of this story are presented to the audience in the first act. Troy trying to be able to drive his garbage truck, Troy having an affair with a woman named Alberta, and Cory wanting to play college football. Troy is vehemently against letting his son experience the abuse he suffered in sports due to the color of his skin. He wants to protect his son from the life that he lived. Troy eventually becomes so dead set on not allowing Cory to play that he asks the coach of the football team to not allow Cory to play anymore.…

    • 1725 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Fences Study Questions

    • 2069 Words
    • 9 Pages

    8. Troy states that “Death ain’t nothing but a fastball on the outside corner” (10). Explain what Troy means by this statement.…

    • 2069 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The idea of the fence has a number of symbolic meanings in the play. You have Troy’s baseball, Raynell garden, and the fence. This play focuses on the symbol of a fence which helps readers receive a better understanding of these events. “Fences” symbolizes a great struggle between the literal and figurative definitions of humanity and blackness. Of course, this fence is much more than just a fence – it's a complex symbol that pretty much sums up the whole play.…

    • 641 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Eng15 Fences

    • 1382 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The play Fences by August Wilson revolves around the front yard of the main characters Troy and Rose Maxson between the years 1957 and 1965. Rose is a long, responsible mother, wife, and friend who tends to show forgiving and selfless character traits. Many of her words and actions also show that she is a strong and assertive yet tender woman. Her husband Troy, on the other hand, is pretty much her opposite. Troy’s character is very dominant. He is and imaginative and boastful person who mostly comes off as selfish and bitter. Within the eight years, which the play takes place, Rose and Troy find themselves in a tragedy. Troy’s character changes between Act I and Act II, however, both his and Rose’s character are responsible for the tragedy.…

    • 1382 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Troy refers to the past where he didn’t get the chance to play baseball in the Major Leagues. But in fact he was just too old to play baseball and he is not going to accept this because it would kill his imagination that he was treated unfair. He sees baseball as one of the most important things in his life, but also as the death of his dreams and hopes.…

    • 978 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Troy Maxson is a classically drawn tragic-hero. He begins the play loved, admired and getting away with his secret affair. Eventually, Troy's death leaves many negative attributes as an inheritance for his family to sort out and accept. Troy Maxson spends the better part of 1957 building a picket fence around his yard, at his wife's request, seems like it is one of those household projects that never seems to end. The hero of August Wilson's Fences has faced far more daunting walls in his lifetime. Fences explore boundaries, both actual and figurative, within society, within personal relationships and within himself. Troy has found a way to become a hero in all of…

    • 908 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Paper on the Book, Fences

    • 999 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Essay On Fences We all lead lives filled with anxiety over certain issues, and with dread of the inevitable day of our death. In this play, Fences which was written by the well known playwright, August Wilson, we have the story of Troy Maxson and his family. Fences is about Troy Maxson, an aggressive man who has on going, imaginary battle with death. His life is based on supporting his family well and making sure they have the comforts that he did not have in his own childhood.…

    • 999 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    In fences, there’s the strength in that his choice for setting was simplistic yet powerful. It’s all recorded in one scene: the yard of the main character. This gives the play a powerful aspect as it allows the audience to concentrate on the sentimental issues in the relationship of a father and his son. The nature of the setting allows the audience to appreciate and relate the emotional experience of the main character Troy. The play is very educational as the playwright informs the audience at the onset of the play about the experience of African Americans at that time. He says that they sold the work of their hands, they did people’s laundry and cleaned homes, and they were quietly desperate and outwardly proud. He continues to say that the African-Americans sometimes stole asnd that they too chased a…

    • 982 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Troy Maxson's Downfall

    • 1142 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Fences is a "tragedy of the common man” who challenges the affront to his dignity. Troy Maxson’s downfall was caused by his response to the challenge that racism posed to his personal dignity. Although Troy was able to knock a baseball out of the park like it was nothing, he constantly "missed the mark" in his personal life. Troy had a tragic flaw, which was that he did whatever he thought was right without thinking of the consequences. In an attempt to respond to the indignities he suffers, he distorts history, denies facts, and lies. The circumstances that shaped Troy to the character he is, led to the development of a begrudging mentality. As Troy did not amount to much, he did not want others to surpass him and diminish his self-reputation. In addition, although prison has a negative connotation, it was a positive turning point for Troy. Also, it can be inferred Troy suffered from athazagoraphobia. Racism played a key role in Troy’s refusal to accept his circumstances.…

    • 1142 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Family and Troy

    • 1057 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In Fences, by August Wilson, a father's struggle to maintain a prosperous relationship with his family and friends is influenced by the conflicts and hardships that he has endured throughout his life. Troy Maxson, the protagonist of the play, changes from a responsible character who is loyal to his family and friends, to a character that makes wrong decisions, which eventually lead to the break up between he and those who love him. The numerous obstacles Troy has faced in his life have shown to have a psychological impact on the way he carries out some of his unjust decisions. Events that have motivated his actions throughout the play are his difficult childhood, unfulfilled baseball career, as well as a life of crime followed by time spent in jail.…

    • 1057 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Mark Twain once said, "The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time." A.E. Houseman, in the tragic poem “'To an Athlete Dying Young," examines the themes of youth and premature death. The poem addresses a young runner who epitomized glory by winning a race and earning the heart of his townsmen. The triumph of the youth's winning of a race is matched by the ironic triumph of his death. The usage of metaphoric language, imagery, sophisticated literature, and rhyming couplets created a complex poem that obtains these subjective themes. The effectiveness of the poem contributes to the overall purpose Housman was trying to propose, for the speaker of the poem examines how the individual in…

    • 1234 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fences Paper

    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Fences is the second major play written by August Wilson which was premiered in 1983. The set of the play was in 1950’s in Pittsburg and was a part of series of play wrote by Wilson. The play won the highly respected Pulitzer Prize for drama in the year 1987. There are many issues which were prevalent in the society during the time of the play which are encompassed and incorporated in the play. The reasons of the play winning the Pulitzer Prize for drama are discussed in the following parts of the paper.…

    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fences and Neighbors

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages

    One of the best things about owning your own house is the privacy it affords. You will be able to have control over your own home and more privacy than living in a apartment. The best thing you can do to ensure complete privacy is building or acquiring a house with a fence. Not only will you have more privacy with a fence but it will also help with the relationship between you and your neighbors.…

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Soccer Fence: A Story of Friendship by Phil Bildner. The story is narrated by a little boy named Hector. Hector is a dark skin boy who loves soccer so much. He used to play soccer in his town, Johannesburg. Hector was suffering from apartheid as he wanted to play soccer with other white young boys, but they ignored him. Hector felt sad and looked at them through the fence of the playground. He dreamed to play soccer in a big field. After few years in April 27, 1994, for the first time, all people were allowed to vote in South Africa. They were celebrating of liberty and apartheid had fall apart and Nelson Mandela was elected as a president of South Africa. As Nelson loved sports, he thought that sports were a good approach of desegregation…

    • 166 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Carpe Diem

    • 698 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Bierce implements this theme by presenting Peyton as the sort of man who should have, by all means, survived the dispute; Bierce describes him as a wealthy civilian, someone whose eyes “were large and dark grey and had a kindly expression which one would hardly have expected in someone whose neck was in hemp” (399-400). Following the themes of the tragic genre, Peyton owes his fate largely to his own glorification of the battle against the Union, as well as his hubris in attempting to contribute to the war effort; in one paragraph, Bierce describes Peyton as feeling “chafed under the inglorious restraint, longing for the release of his energies, the larger life of a soldier, the opportunity for distraction” (401). Through Bierce’s portrayal of Peyton as a relatively average man, the restlessness and patriotism that leads Peyton to his demise seem not like a unique characteristic, but rather the sentiments of non-enlisted men on the whole. With this description, Bierce portrays a harsh reality of war: death was not reserved solely for the deserving and the dastardly, but something that reached across all social stations and every brand of demeanor. Furthering this message is the ultimate failure of Peyton’s escape - though the story walks the reader through an elaborate and daring attempt at survival, in actuality the journey is merely a delusion crafted in Peyton’s last seconds of life. With his failure, Peyton’s tale cements the theme of war’s devastation, and of the overwhelming futility in attempting to avoid the desolation inherent…

    • 698 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays