Fences, By August Wilson

730 Words2 Pages

August Wilson’s play, Fences, portrays an African American family as they go through life during a time of racial discrimination and injustice. The father of this family, Troy, who faced the most difficulties throughout his life as he grew up during slavery, acts as the tragic figure Faye describes. Troy’s inability to separate himself from the past despite his reformation results in the destruction of his familial relationships, demonstrating how the tragic cycle of abuse never ends. Troy’s life is no fairytale. His father was a sharecropper on a cotton plantation, entirely dependent on the plantation owner, Mr Lubin. He grew up motherless as Troy’s father was too evil to keep a woman, including Troy’s mother, who abandoned Troy and the rest …show more content…

In a failed robbery attempt, he landed himself in prison for murder for 15 years where he discovered his love for baseball. However, this love soon fizzled out as he wasn’t allowed to play in the major leagues because he’s a black man and when the MLB allowed African Americans to play, Troy was much too old. Troy soon realized the only way to survive is through hard work and self-reliance. He crawled himself out of the hole he dug himself and reestablished himself as a hardworking citizen with a blue collared job and dedicated himself to his family for 18 years, although the devotion was out of his sense of duty and not of genuine care. However, despite his good intentions, Troy’s past began to negatively influence the life of his children’s, especially Cory’s, his second son. Cory was provided the opportunity to go to college by playing football on a team dominated by white kids and get a decent education. However, Troy didn’t believe in Cory’s success in football as he himself couldn’t make it in baseball, despite the growing inclusivity of sports for people of …show more content…

Cory was furious and fought Troy, consequently getting kicked out of the house just as Troy’s father did to Troy. Troy’s dedication to the wellbeing of his family resulted in the neglect of himself, causing him to destroy his 18 year long marriage to Rose. Since childhood, Troy lived to survive and acted out of necessity and duty without ever enjoying himself. He thought he was content serving as Rose’s husband, but it wasn’t enough. He found his fun elsewhere with a younger woman, Alberta, impregnating her, and shattering his relationship with Rose and emotionally pushing her away, just as Troy’s father did to his mother. Like father, like son, neither of the two men could hold onto a woman, including the mothers of their children. As a whole, Fences proves the past will always repeat itself. Despite his good intentions and dedication to the wellbeing of his family, Troy hurt his own son and wife and ruined their familial bond just as his father did to his family. People will behave similarly to how they are brought up as Rose explained to Cory, “Your daddy wanted you to be everything he wasn’t and at the same time he tried to make you into everything he

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