Fences Baseball As Symbolism in Essay

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His famed position was that of the lone man, dependent entirely upon his own strength, speed, and skill, in direct competition with the physical prowess of his opponents and with no assistance from his teammates. His mental confrontation with Death, whom he sees variously as a martial force and as a competitor on the field, demonstrate the perspective that Troy has on life and the world, and they also indicate how he treats his family. He sees himself as the person in charge, and has no real concept of the team that exists around him -- the support he is given by his wife especially, and the true nature of his brother's and his sons' dependence on him. As Cory's final "strike-out" in the next-to-last scene of the play shows, people must behave according to Troy's will in Troy's world, just as he was able to control his own movements on the baseball diamond.

Symbolic Interpretation

The several instances of baseball reminiscing and figurative incorporation detailed above -- the opening scene of exposition and a clarified stance on the subject of sports, the ongoing perspective of singularity exemplified in Troy's face-off with Death, and the lack of teamwork evidenced in both his baseball career and his home life -- all have significant symbolic meanings for Troy's character and for the play as a whole. Some of these have already been touched on above, but more detail is necessary to arrive at a true understanding of this play.

Baseball means many things to Troy Maxson, but most essentially it provided a system of clear rules in which he could excel and could, in fact, be better than -- and thus in some ways in charge of -- everyone else. This is complicated by the fact that the world of professional major league baseball was closed to troy because of his color; his area of true excellence and success was ultimately closed off to him simply because of the color of his skin and the facts of his birth.

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This puts Troy in a very conflicted state, where he feels he ought to have mastery and control and so tries to exert it, but is ultimately impotent to affect real control because of the limitations that still exist in his mind. Baseball's symbolic impact in this play is almost that of the forbidden fruit that is no longer forbidden -- if Troy were only willing to reach out and grasp it (or let his son do the same with football, with this change in sports signaling other change in the world), the conflict in the play could be resolved.

Conclusion

Troy is ultimately rejected, from the household generally and then explicitly and entirely by his son. The old limitations and the already-beaten mentality that Troy carried from his experiences in baseball were cast out in favor of a new mood where success and achievement were attainable. Baseball had opened up too late for Troy, and Troy was too late in opening up to the changing world to enjoy any of it. The final scene takes place on the day of his funeral; Death has quietly won in the years that passed, and Troy was never able to bring himself to enjoy the fruit that progress had provided.

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