Race

Most of Fences is set in the 1950s. There had been some progress made on race relations by this time, such as the integration of pro sports teams. However, on the whole, America had a long way to go. Slavery has been gone from America for over seventy years, but its shadow still presses down on the country. All characters in the play are African Americans, and they must deal with racism every day. The South is still officially segregated and much of the North is unofficially. Bear in mind that the play takes place before the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Fences shows what it was like in the decade before the movement to cause such radical change in America. Some of the characters seem to sense that progress is in the air, while others are still trapped in America’s troubled past.

Dissatisfaction

Dissatisfaction causes lots of trouble in Fences. The play’s protagonist, Troy Maxson, is dissatisfied with his life. He’s unhappy that his pro baseball dreams were stopped by racial discrimination. He feels trapped and unfulfilled in his job as a garbage collector. His son constantly disappoints him by not seeing the value of work. And even though he loves his wife, Troy finds a new love in another woman’s arms. Fences explores how dissatisfaction can lead to behavior that destroys a person’s life and the lives of those around them.