In the play "Fences" by August Wilson, there are numerous symbols including baseball, Gabriel's trumpet, Raynell's garden, and countless others. One of the key textual symbols in the play is the fence that Troy and his son, Cory, build. The fence serves as a structural device due to the fact that the character's lives transform about the course of constructing the fence. The title "Fences" represents the metaphorical barriers or fences that the main characters are erecting around themselves in order to keep people in or to prevent people from intruding. "Fences" may appear to be a straightforward title, but after reading the play it becomes discernible that it's a complex symbol which summarizes the entire play. Wilson utilizes the physical fence as a means to illustrate and elaborate its many symbolic meanings.
The symbol of the fence most obviously portrays that Troy puts up a fence in his life to keep people out. He persistently criticizes and neglects his two sons, which thus draws them away from him. Troy pushes Lyons away by refusing to hear him play his "Chinese music" (1:2:48). He also scars his relationship with his other son, Cory, by preventing him from playing football and rejecting his only chance to get recruited by a college football team. Also, Troy states that Cory's things will "be on the other side of that fence"