Fences August Wilson Discrimination Essay

876 Words2 Pages

In the play Fences, August Wilson, the American playwright, aims to foretell the discrimination towards Black people in America, by defining duty in the eyes of Troy, the protagonist, and depicting broken relationships through manhood and responsibilities, for the audience to gain an understanding of the struggles through racial oppression in the 1950s-1960s in Pittsburgh, PA. As Wilson sets Fences amid the horrors of the Civil Rights era, it creates a sense of distress imagery towards the African American community of later generations. In Act One, Scene 3, it becomes clear how Troy’s attitude toward his sons came to be. Troy used to be into sports as Cory, his son, is now. Unfortunately, playing sports didn’t get him anywhere due to discrimination …show more content…

Troy may feel ashamed, not of Cory, but of himself. If Cory were to become someone, like a star football player, that begins to storm upon Troy, allowing him to feel hidden and jealous, especially if Cory was given this gift by God, and not his dad, his father. In a heated argument, Cory realizes that his father has always held him back, in fear that he “was gonna be better than” him (757). Consequently, his relationship with his son began to become broken, by the fear of discrimination in Troy's mind. The fear of not having the American Dream stirs Troy and grows him weary and lacks love from a young age through his father. He too had a broken relationship with his father, who was a sharecropper, and took Troy’s girlfriend and raped her. He became who he is now, separating himself from the brutal memories of abuse and wishing Lyons would become financially stable with his career and Cory to work a real job and allow his responsibility to grow and provide for his family as his dad once did. The symbol of fences allows the readers to understand the barriers and the need to stay close and safe as Rose sings “Jesus, be a fence all around me every day/ Jesus, I want you to protect

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