It explores pride, disappointment, fatherhood and the barriers that racism puts in a person's way.
Fences by August Wilson is a play set for IGCSE and International GCSE Literature (Cambridge International 0475). The board decides the set texts and the years they are examined, and your school confirms them. Our teachers teach whichever text your child sits.
What it is
Troy Maxson is a former baseball player whose best years came before Black players could join the major leagues. He now collects rubbish for a living and lives with his wife Rose and their teenage son Cory. Troy is building a fence around the yard, a task Rose has asked for, and it runs through the play.
Cory hopes to play college football, but Troy refuses to let him, fearing the rejection he once faced. Troy's older son Lyons, a musician, and his brother Gabriel, injured in the war, also depend on him in different ways.
When Troy's affair with another woman comes to light, his marriage and his bond with Cory break down. The final scene, set years later on the day of Troy's funeral, shows how his family carries what he left behind.
Themes and ideas to track
Fathers and sons
Troy repeats parts of his own harsh upbringing with Cory, even while believing he is protecting him. The play asks what a father passes on, both good and bad.
Racism and lost opportunity
Troy's bitterness grows from a talent the world would not reward. Wilson shows how injustice in one generation shapes choices in the next.
Fences, barriers and protection
The fence can keep people in, keep danger out, or hold a family together. Characters see it differently, and that difference reveals what each one wants.
Responsibility and betrayal
Troy talks often about duty and providing for his family. His affair tests that idea and forces Rose to decide what she owes to herself.
How the writer builds it
Wilson writes in rich, natural speech, and Troy's long stories show how he turns his life into legend. Baseball images and talk of death return again and again, linking Troy's past to his fears. The single yard setting keeps the drama close and makes the fence a constant presence on stage.
Gabriel's strange, gentle behaviour adds a spiritual note that matters in the final moments. Look at how the mood of a scene shifts when a story ends and an argument begins.
How to write about it in the exam
Treat Troy as a complex figure rather than simply a good or bad man. Choose short moments of dialogue and explain how Wilson shapes our sympathy through them.
Connect what characters say about the fence or baseball to the play's bigger ideas. Keep references brief and focus on the effect on an audience rather than retelling events.
Studying Fences? The paid trial lesson can start with a key moment from the text.
An exam-style question to practise
How does Wilson present the relationship between Troy and Cory?
Plan three points before you write, with a short quotation for each. Then check your plan against the mark scheme section below.
More question angles
- Explore the ways Wilson presents Rose in the play.
- How does Wilson use the fence to develop ideas in the play?
- Discuss how Wilson creates a powerful ending to the play.
How this maps to the mark scheme
Examiners mark Literature answers against assessment objectives. These are the skills the paper rewards. For Cambridge International 0475, the objectives are summarised on our qualification page.
- AO1: Show detailed knowledge of the content of literary texts in the three main forms (drama, poetry and prose), supported by reference to the text.
- AO2: Understand the meanings of literary texts and their contexts, and explore texts beyond surface meanings to show deeper awareness of ideas and attitudes.
- AO3: Recognise and appreciate ways in which writers use language, structure and form to create and shape meanings and effects.
- AO4: Communicate a sensitive and informed personal response to literary texts.
- The four assessment objectives carry equal weight, about 25% each.
For Fences, build your argument around “Fathers and sons” and “Racism and lost opportunity”. Support each point with a short quotation. Then analyse the writer's method, using the section above.
Keep context about August Wilson brief and tied to the words on the page.
Read the text alongside these notes. This page is our own analysis and original teaching material. We quote at most a short attributed phrase where a point needs it, so keep your copy of the play open as you read.
Where to go next
Plan your essay with our guide to planning a literature essay, then see a worked answer in our literature essay structure model response. Browse more set-text notes or read about Literature in English tuition.
When you have written an answer on Fences, a paid one-hour trial lesson lets the teacher who would continue mark it with you.