Book Club Guide

Fences

by August Wilson · 1985 · Classics

Key themes

The father who built a fence to protect his family and to keep them out
Race, baseball and the American Dream that was offered and withdrawn
What a man owes his children — and what he takes from them

About this book

Troy Maxson, a former baseball player in 1950s Pittsburgh, has built a fence around his yard and his family as he navigates the limits placed on a Black man by the era he lives in. Wilson's play — one of ten in his Century Cycle covering Black American life across the 20th century — asks what a man is owed, what he takes from his children, and what he cannot admit about himself.

Premiered in 1985, Fences won the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Wilson drew on his own family and the Hill District of Pittsburgh, where most of the Century Cycle is set.

Discussion questions

Troy is both a sympathetic figure and a difficult, damaging one. How does Wilson develop him — and does the play invite sympathy, condemnation, or the more uncomfortable position of understanding?
The fence that Troy builds across the play is explicitly symbolic. What does it represent — and does Wilson allow different readings of what the fence means for different characters?
Cory wants to play football; Troy tells him no. What is Troy's refusal based on — protection, jealousy, genuine experience, or some mixture of all three?
The play is set in 1957, before the Civil Rights Movement. How does Wilson use this specific historical moment — and what does the fence become as a symbol of racial exclusion as well as familial control?
Fences is one of ten plays in Wilson's Century Cycle covering Black American life across the 20th century. What does this context add — and does the play work as a standalone?