Segregation in America, Research Paper Example

In his play entitled ‘fences’ August Wilson has successfully employed the metaphor to bring out the essence of differences or boundaries as highlighted in the play, the fence is used to depict the disparity between the African American and the whites. It elicits the element of segregation between the African Americans and the whites in the United States of America; the element of segregation is embedded on the aspect of racial discrimination between the two races of black and white in America (Gantt, 25). The main actor in the play who is Troy Maxon is used to show these disparities between these two groups of people in the very society. History also has that the discrimination between the blacks and whites started earlier before the days of First World War. The whites perceived the blacks as an inferior race that does not deserve an equal share of the resources in America. The black were racially abused and segregated.

Troy Maxon regards himself as a failure and thus decides to leave his family for the reasons that he is not ready to accept his failure. This instance brings out the first instance of the fence based on the individual grounds; Troy is not ready to accept the success of his son Cory who has successfully managed to make it in football winning a scholarship to join a college. The play brings out the plight of African Americans and the problems they go through, for instance when Troy leaves his home in such of a better life and gets a job as a trash collector the issue that haunts him is why the Black are never allowed to drive the trash trucks, his fellow employees live with fear and thought he could be sacked for raising such a question. His movement to search for the job also reflects what occurs in the story of the great movement whereby the blacks migrated to the towns in North America in search of good life only to realize that the issue of racial discrimination and segration is still very high in the Northern cities.

The fence also depicts the element of segregation after the African Americans have migrated to the Northern cities such as New York as they are not allowed to vote until an amendment in the law pushed buy the civil rights movement to grant all Americans the right to vote. Prior to this the African Americans did not only lose the right to vote but also they were exposed to the rule of separate but equal social amenities such as transport facilities, schools and public hospitals.

as the character Troy moves into the city such of job leaving his family behind thus drawing another fence between him and his family, this picture depicts the migration of the African American from the other to the Northern cities leaving behind their fellows with the whites to be racially abused by the white citizens (Burbank, 117). The blacks who migrate to the North in search of job opportunities and better living conditions also surfer racial discrimination from the whites who perceive them as people who have come up to take up their jobs.

The fence is used to show the difference between the African Americans and the whites in the cases scenario of the Negro League where Troy is able to reflect on how he used to be a good baseball player and played for his team until the reached the age of forty. However, he cannot get an opportunity to play in the professional leagues managed and mainly dominated by the whites. This aspect elicits the level of segregation of the blacks even on the arenas such as sports.

Despite Cory being a good football player, his father, Troy does not want him to join the college football team for fears of racial discrimination. Troy goes to the extent of telling the coach that he would not allow his son to join the football team on grounds of discrimination. Even though, he envies his son success in football, Troy also draws another fence that clearly depicts the issue of segregation that occurs between the African Americans and the whites that emanates from the element of racial discrimination between the two races (Grossman, p 289). This issue sparks a strong argument between Troy and his son Cory, and the result is that the son decides to leave his fathers house in such of peace mind and good living conditions. This incidence creates the fence between Troy and his son and thus a manifest of individual social segregation. The relationship between Troy and his second son Lysons , who tries to venture into music but with no success improves, because he seems to consider Lysons a fellow failure like him, he has no envy or jealousy for Lysons as he compares his efforts to succeed and play for the professional league to Lysons’ effort to succeed in the field of music. This thus shows how fences occurred even within families and the poor relationsips in the family setting (Hahn, 46). The element of segregation therefore penetrated to the exetent of showing the differences between the families as shown in the case of Troy’s family.

The fence therefore highlights the differences between the African Americans and the whites in America. The fence is drawn in work places, in sports for instance the case of professional baseball league where Troy is not allowed to participate. The fence is also depicted by the movement of people for instance the migration of a majority of the blacks to the Northern cities in search of better jobs and good working conditions only to find that even in the Northern the fence still exists as the whites in the Northern cities perceive them has people who have come to grab their jobs. The fence as used in the segregation which emanates from the element of racial segregation between African Americans and the white majority in America. The play is thus used metaphorically to express the various dimensions of discriminations in America that brings segregation.

Works cited

Gantt, Patricia M. “Putting Black Culture on Stage: August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle.” College Literature 36.2 (2009): 1-25. ProjectMuse. 11 May 2009

Burbank, Sergei. “The Shattered Mirror: What August Wilson Means and Willed to Mean.” College Literature 36.2 (2009): 117-29. ProjectMuse. 11 May 2009

Grossman, James R. Land of Hope: Chicago, Black Southerners, and the Great Migration. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.

Hahn, Steven. A Nation Under Our Feet. The Belknap Press of Harvard University. p. 46, 2003.