This novel contains all the emotions and reactions involved with interracial relationships. It is a realistic depiction of how school integration developed and how some people accepted it and some resisted it as a way of life in the 1970's. "Fences" shows how change is not an easy adjustment for adults. It teaches us a valuable lesson in seeing people for what is on the inside rather than looking at the color of a person's skin and shows us that people cannot be protected from life by the fences they build around themselves. This was an enjoyable and enlightening novel which has a unpredictable ending.