Fences Baseball Analysis

Improved Essays
How does baseball pitch in to the play Fences? Baseball is a very common past time in America. Many races and ages play this sport in the major league, but it has not always been this way. Troy got to play baseball, but he never got to go to the major league. At the time Jackie Robinson had become the first African American player in the major league, Troy was already in his 40’s. Throughout Fences, Troy makes baseball references mainly by symbolism. The author shows Troy using baseball terms and comparing them to his relationships and everyday life. The author, August Wilson, uses baseball to shows Troy’s conflicts, struggles, and triumphs. Wilson uses baseball to show these things, because baseball is something that is important to Troy. Troy relates a majority of his relationships and problems to baseball throughout the …show more content…
In the play, Troy says “When I found you and Cory and a halfway decent job..I was safe..I wasn 't going back to the penitentiary. I wasn 't gonna lay in the streets with a bottle of wine. I was safe. I had a family." (1870) This part of the play, Troy is saying that he finally has his family and is safe with them. He sees that he truly values his family, and that they life of jail and theft are over with. Troy is “safe” from all of the things that once made him feel “out”. A bat is obviously one of the most important parts of baseball. Troy’s bat or him swinging is mentioned in the play. His bat, symbolizes his struggles and hardships that he has experienced. Swinging his bat was the last thing that he did, Rose says “He was out here swinging a bat. I was just ready to go back in the house. He swung that bat and then just fell over.” (1882) Troy died doing something he loved to do, something that he knew he could always rely on. Although he never made it to the major league, baseball was still in his vocabulary daily. It was always something that he turned

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    The movie 42 is a biographical sports film about the rise of Jackie Robinson into Major League Baseball in 1947. The movie focuses in on Jackie’s journey in baseball by describing his experiences through playing in the Kansas City Monarchs, then the Montreal Royals, and ultimately the Brooklyn Dodgers. The movie thoroughly shows Jackie’s battle with racism throughout his baseball career, as he was the first African-American player to break the baseball color barrier. Per the movie, Jackie Robinson went through a lot of hate and agony from baseball players and fans, specifically white people. 42 did a great job of describing one, Jackie’s journey in baseball, and two, the racial segregation in America at that time.…

    • 1632 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Baseball History Essay

    • 1002 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Baseball has to be one of America’s best pastimes. There are only a hand full of sports that have originated in America, and with that said, baseball has to be one of the most beloved sports we have in today’s time. Baseball has affected young men, men of color, even women and along the way started some club and team rivals. There has been such a love for the sport since it came about. This sport really gives room for competition, family oriented events, and everything in between.…

    • 1002 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Blues In the play Fences written by August Wilson, there are many different genres of music such as Gospel and the Blues. The Blues genre originated within the African American community. It is a type of music that expresses overwhelming feelings such as the depressions experienced or the exhilarations of daily life. The lyrical verses of the Blues are a way of expression to the African American people and people of other ethnicities who enjoy partaking in creating its soulful vibes.…

    • 1297 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The movement that was chosen for the movement analysis paper is baseball swing movement from the initial setup to the follow through after contact with the ball. There will be Four phases that tie in the entire movement analysis. Those 4 phases include the loading phase, timing phase, the launching phase, and the follow through after the swing (Van Such, 2016). Each batter has their own unique stance based on how they plant their feet and hold the bat.…

    • 1535 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the game of baseball, catching a ball is an everyday thing and is no big deal to most players, but for others, it creates themselves a legacy. The Right Fielder’s love for the game of baseball is expressed by how he always wanted to play and did not care as much about the position he was playing. Though he wanted to play the game and leave his legacy by doing so, his team never believed in his game. In the story Death of the Right Fielder, by Stuart Dybek, the symbol of the ball found in the mitt of the Right Fielder shows that one must do what they love in order to leave a legacy.…

    • 1415 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There is no question that in American society baseball is America’s pastime. Although, most American’s would argue that football has taken over as the most popular sport in America. But for those who truly admire the game, like me, would absolutely disagree. Watching two rival teams duel it out from the first pitch to the last, or a pitcher going for a no-hitter, nothing is more exciting. '' Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball,'' Jacques Barzun, the social commentator, wrote more than a quarter of a century ago.…

    • 1015 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This conflict that Troy faces prevents him from becoming a Major League baseball player because an African American man such as himself is not welcomed amongst the all white teams, despite his great skill. Troy must hit “the curve ball on the inside corner” (Wilson 960), meaning that he has only one opportunity to make something of himself and that single opportunity is hard to get. Such a ball is difficult to hit so he must bunt or else he will not get anything. He has to settle for marrying Rose and being a garbage man for the remainder of his life, for that is the farthest he can advance given the circumstances. Troy’s skin tone does not allow him to advance any further in a society that plainly favors white Americans; he is excluded from ever being able to reach his full potential and possibly achieve all of his…

    • 1377 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Fences Based during a time of segregation and prejudice, Fences is a story that realistic for its era and reflects on the rejection people felt during this time. A black man during pre-Civil Rights time, Troy is determined to become the first black trash man (Wilson, 10). Adamant that racism will never end, Troy tries to shield his son Cory from the realities he faced within sports. Cory, on the other hand, is a part of the future that believes the world is becoming more accepting of race and asserts that he will be able to become a professional in football.…

    • 1201 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Fences Gender Quotes

    • 979 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The play begins to shows how Troy in many ways repeats the mistakes of his own father while learning to raise Cory. By the end of the play, we're left with the hope that Cory will be able to break this cycle. “Fences” also questions what it exactly is to be a man. The origins of Troy’s hardness are found in his personal life history. His early model of manhood was his father which lead to troy being on his own at fourteen, Troy had to harden himself against a world at best indifferent, at worst hostile, to his desires.…

    • 979 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Never in baseball has a number been more cherished and respected than the number 42. Today it has become a national icon – a symbol of the past and a treasured reminder for the future. Jackie Robinson changed the game of baseball forever, becoming the first African-American to enter the major leagues with the help of Branch Rickey, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers. The movie 42: The Jackie Robinson Story richly displays the career, involving the highs and lows, of Jackie Robinson, and his emergence as one of the influential and trailblazing baseball players of all time.…

    • 1529 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The old-fashioned film projector creates vintage look of the City of Los Angeles in the 1950s in the theatre. Scrolls is uncovered across the back wall of the stage, depicting Chavez Ravine, a hillside community of Mexican Americans in L.A. In the stressful atmosphere, a women is wiped out of her home, and the Chaves Ravine is bulldozed. Suddenly, the theatre is lighten up, and filled with big yelling out of a baseball game. We are still in the place, where used to be Chavez Ravine, but now is Dodger Stadium.…

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The color barrier in the Major League Baseball (MLB), at the time officially known as the white man 's game, was changed in 1947 when Jack (Jackie) Roosevelt Robinson would sign with the Dodgers. He would become the first person to ever do so. Many people would not describe him only as an athlete, but a social activist and a hero. In the book Opening Day author, Jonathan Eig describes Jackie’s life prior to signing with the Dodgers, through his early career in 1947. Also, throughout the book, stories of other baseball players in the time period are used, as well as, Americans who were greatly influenced by Jackie 's ambition to end segregation in professional sports.…

    • 1403 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Some people’s life revolve around the beautiful American pastime called baseball. People play baseball, coach baseball, watch baseball, and sometimes they even make references to baseball through metaphors. Back in the 1950’s, racial tensions between blacks and whites were high. Baseball legend, Jackie Robison, had recently become the first African American to break the color barrier in the Major Leagues, yet many people still failed to see black athletes as equals to white athletes, regardless if they were more talented. In the play.…

    • 1435 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Theme Of Racism In Fences

    • 1198 Words
    • 5 Pages

    and other people build fences to keep people in. Rose wants to hold on to you all. She loves you." (2.1.30-2.1.32) Throughout most of the play Troy neglected to complete the fence, which showed his neglect towards his family.…

    • 1198 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Theme Of Death In Fences

    • 1253 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Death is a complex and often agonizing phenomenon which many writers incorporate into their literature in order to unfold a personal understanding of death or to demonstrate the various roles which death can play. Writers typically use death as a motif to reinforce a theme hidden in the core of a story or an overarching truth pointing to the moral of the story. In August Wilsons’ Fences, the motif of death arguably acts as a character in the play. Death is repeatedly personified and metaphorically compared to baseball. The frequent presence of death as a character in the play reinforces the theme that death is an inevitable force.…

    • 1253 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays