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Why Do People Build Fences

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In life people build fences for more than one reason; it could be to keep someone or something in, or it could also be to keep them out. Typically it is built to keep out the things that scare or hurt you the most. Throughout the play, Fences, the characters create several fences both literally and figuratively. All of their reasons for doing so are to protect what they have worked hard for their entire life. Both Troy, the main character, and his wife Rose attempt to build fences. Rose is a good wife who always takes care of her family and tries to do what is best for everyone. She is also very unselfish and all of that is tossed in the garbage when she finds out her husband Troy, whom she had been so loyal to for many, many years, had cheated on her. Immediately after she found this out, she slowly began to build her fence. Little did Troy know he had already been building up an …show more content…

Ain’t nobody else got nothing to do with this. This is between you and me. Man to man. You stay on the other side of that fence until you ready for me. Then you come up and knock on the front door. Anytime you want. I’ll be ready for you” (1175) Troy Maxson destroys himself because he traps himself behind fence, after fence, after fence and he pushes people too far away to ever be able to take it all back and restart. His first instinct is to push those closest to him away. Troy is too strong minded for his own good. A person once stated that “The quickest way to self-destruction is to push away the people you love.” This quote describes the dramatic effect that fences had on both Troy and Rose. Fences are generally built to keep something in or to keep something out. Fences clearly shows several examples of literal and figurative fences and how they are built. Reasons a fence is built vary but they all are focused around one main idea. That idea is pushing away the things that hurt you or scare you the

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