“Play Fences”

There are lot of things in life that are difficult to elaborate within themselves, which is why people frequently 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. Lots of 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?" (Wilson Pg 10)

Troy uses baseball as a metaphor in this paragraph to show that he is not scared of death, and that if it came for him "you can kiss it goodbye." This shows that he is a very courageous man, and that he is unflinching to death.

He also uses baseball as a metaphor with his kids, in a way of warning them. When his son Cory did something wrong he told him,

"I'm gonna tell you what your mistake was see...you swung at the ball and didn't hit it. That's strike one. See, you in the batters box now. You swung and you missed. That's strike one. Don't you strike out!" (Wilson pg 58)

Troy talks this way because it is the only way how, and takes it to the extent of raising his kids with it. This shows that if you do something enough, like play baseball, it becomes a part of your everyday speech and life, like Troy. He does this again later in the book when he tells Cory, "Alright. That's strike two. You stay away from around me, boy. Don't you strike out. You living with a full count. Don't you strike out."( Wilson pg 72) He really came accustomed to using baseball language and therefore started using it for ...