In August Wilson's Fences, how have circumstances helped to make Troy the man he is? How might his life have been different had he turned...

The whole point of August Wilson's play Fencesis that circumstances beyond his main character's control have conspired to destroy whatever chances that character may have had to enjoy life and live prosperously. Troy Maxson is a garbageman, a profession historically if unfairly associated with poverty and ignorance. He is also a middle-aged African American whose prospects as a professional athlete—specifically, as a baseball player—were dashed by virtue of his ethnicity. Wilson's play begins in...

The whole point of August Wilson's play Fences is that circumstances beyond his main character's control have conspired to destroy whatever chances that character may have had to enjoy life and live prosperously. Troy Maxson is a garbageman, a profession historically if unfairly associated with poverty and ignorance. He is also a middle-aged African American whose prospects as a professional athlete—specifically, as a baseball player—were dashed by virtue of his ethnicity. Wilson's play begins in 1957, ten years after Major League Baseball became an integrated sport. Troy is 53 years old. His best years are behind him and he knows it. Forced by virtue of the institutionalized segregation that kept African Americans out of many professions and that condemned them to an inferior socioeconomic status, Troy, as with many other African American ballplayers, had to be content throughout his peak physical years playing in the Negro Leagues for much less money and much less fame. Early in Fences, Troy and his far more pragmatic wife Rose argue about what could have been had racism not proven such an overwhelming obstacle to success. Ten years before the play opens, Jackie Robinson has broken the color barrier as the first African American to sign with a major league team. Responding to Rose's pride over the symbolism of Robinson's accomplishment, Troy states the following:

"I done seen a hundred niggers play baseball better than Jackie Robinson. Hell, I know some teams Jackie Robinson couldn’t even make! What you talking about Jackie Robinson. Jackie Robinson wasn’t nobody. I’m talking about if you could play ball then they ought to have let you play. Don’t care what color you were. Come telling me I come along too early. If you could play . . . then they ought to have let you play."

Fences is driven by Troy's sense of disappointment in having been unable to realize his potential as a baseball player solely on account of the color of his skin. What makes the play such a tragedy, however, is how Troy's inability to make it to the major leagues has left him eternally bitter, and it is this bitterness and resentment of those who are now able to prosper, like Jackie Robinson, that drives him to sabotage the prospects of his son Cory.

Had Troy been born ten years later, he might have benefited from Branch Rickey's liberal attitudes towards race. Rickey was the real-life owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers who took a chance and signed the African American Robinson, thereby integrating what was known as "America's pastime." Any period of time subsequent to 1947 would have been preferential for an African American ballplayer aspiring to join the big leagues. While segregation continued into the 1950s, and while the civil rights movement would have to continue its struggle throughout the 1960s, black athletes were finally being celebrated in professional sports. Troy Maxson would have been a successful athlete, and his life and that of his family would have been very different.

Had Troy been white, then Wilson's story would have been entirely different. Troy would not have confronted racial barriers and his talent and hard-work would have been amply rewarded.