Report on August Wilson's Fences

Essay by elcherotherHigh School, 12th gradeA+, December 2003

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Fences

There are many things in life that are hard to explain within themselves, which is why people often use metaphors to expand on their speech. Whether it is a poet comparing their love to a rose or a woman comparing a man to a dog, almost everyone uses metaphors in their everyday language. Many good examples of metaphors in everyday writing are found in August Wilson's play, Fences. In this play there are also many ways that the characters use "fences" as both figurative and literal terms. All these forms of writing really expand on the story and help people to understand the characters much better.

In the play Fences the biggest thing that is used as a metaphor, mostly by the main character Troy, who used to play for the Negro Leagues. Troy is a man that has been in trouble in the past and gone to jail, but is a simple character that is relatively old fashioned.

He uses baseball to relate to a lot of things because he is certain about his knowledge of the sport, and therefore feels confident about what he says. The first time he used baseball as a metaphor he was talking about death, and used it to better explain himself.

"Death ain't nothing. I done seen him. Done wrastled with him. You can't tell me nothing about death. Death ain't nothing but a fastball on the outside corner. And you know what I'll do to that! Lookee here, Bono...am I lying? You get one of them fastballs, about waist high, over the outside corner of the plate where you can get the meat of the bat on it...and good god! You can kiss it goodbye. Now, am I lying?" (Pg 10)

Troy uses baseball as a metaphor in this...