Rebuilding Relationships in Fences Seth Poisson 10th Grade

In the play Fences, by August Wilson, a fence represents protection and incomplete or broken relationships. Through the fence, Wilson is trying to show that even things that were once perfect and have gone awry can still be rebuilt.

One way Wilson uses the fence is to represent protection and love. A fence usually keeps things in that people want and separates it from the things that they don’t want. A fence also is a separation between two or more objects or events. In the beginning of the play, the fence is broken which represents that the family has problems with their relationship to each other. Troy and Cory have different points of view. Cory wants to play football and in order for him to play at his school, he decides to stop working everyday and only work on the weekends. Troy does not agree and says that Cory is “a bigger fool” than he thought and that he needs to get his job back at the A&P (36). If Cory can’t both work and play football, he is told that he will have to quit the football team. Troy said this to Cory because he does not want Cory to become a garbage man like he is or become unemployed. Troy uses the word “fool” because he tried to do the same thing when he was...