You've Been Out Riding Fences

In class, we learned that August Wilson, the author of Fences, wrote a different play about African American culture for each decade of the 20th century. Fences is his play about the 1950s, the decade of the “calm before the storm” of the full-blown Civil Rights Movement. The story centers on Troy, a man who was born in the late eighteen hundreds and has seen his fair share of hard times. He is stubborn, has questionable morals (e.g. when he cheats on his wife, Rose, with Alberta), and is extremely resistant to change. To be honest, I found myself strongly disliking Troy as the play progressed. So my question is, why would Wilson choose Troy to be a representation of African American culture in the 1950s? Why, of all the archetypes he could have chosen, would Wilson discuss the life of a bitter man?

I think that part of the answer lies in Troy’s resistance to change. He represents the “in between” generation that came after the Civil War, but before the Civil Rights Movement. Much like today’s adults’ unwillingness to learn how to text message, Troy is unable and reluctant to acknowledge the changing social climate. Troy’s resistance is demonstrated through his dealings with his son, Cory. Cory is growing up in a world that is beginning to desegregate, a world that is just beginning to give opportunities, like football scholarships, to African Americans. Troy is completely against Cory’s accepting the scholarship and refuses to sign the form. Not only is Troy incapable of accepting the fact that times are changing, but he is also bitter that he was not given the same opportunities as Cory is receiving (although his won’t admit it).

Rose is the voice of reason in the play. She points out to Troy that times are changing, that Cory’s scholarship is legitimate, that Troy should allow Cory to play. She represents the realist, the older person who can see that, as Bob Dylan would say, “the times they are a’changing.” Furthermore, Troy’s downfall ultimately occurs when he turns his back on Rose (by sleeping with Alberta), demonstrating the stabilizing force she provides.

But enough about the story itself. Let’s talk about Sandy Koufax. He was mentioned in the play and his name struck a chord in my memory because I have always heard that he was my dad’s hero growing up. As a little baseball-playing Jewish boy, my dad was kind of obsessed with Koufax (even though he was quite young when Koufax retired in 1966). My dad grew up on stories of the Brooklyn-born Jewish pitcher who was named World Series MVP in 1963 when the Dodger’s beat the Yankees in only four games. Sandy Koufax, the sixth pitcher of the modern era to throw a perfect game, was the inspiration for my dad, a little boy in Woodland Hills, California, to throw his first baseball. So what does this have to do with Fences? Admittedly, not much. But I think it goes to demonstrate the importance of baseball in Troy’s life. I personally am not an avid baseball fan so I had problems relating to that part of the story. But after talking to Daddy Motzkin about it, I was able to appreciate Troy’s obsession with baseball, and thus the story itself, a little more.