Social Responsibility In Fences By August Wilson

Since childhood people have been taught they have control of their future, but sometimes their futures are already laid out for them. Not by choice, but simply by social construct. Just imagine someone telling you what you can or cannot do simply based on something you have no control over? Or do you actually have control over your destiny? August Wilson answers the question for us in the play Fences written in 1985. August Wilson was born into the poor Bedford area of Pittsburgh PA in 1945, growing up through the 1950’s as an African American wasn’t an easy life. Blacks of the time often had opportunities taken away from them like playing in major league sports teams and limited education, also suffering through his parent’s divorce and a

switch of schooling several times due to tormenting by other students helped shape his personal experience with creating characters like Troy Maxson in the play Fences that somewhat resemble himself. Fences is essentially about the main character Troy Maxon and his family. Troy is the breadwinner of the family, he believes in supporting and caring for his wife Rose and providing for children Corey and Lyons. His occupation is a garbage man, although he feels that because he is black he has limited job opportunities and is stuck working a 9-5 job only living for Fridays. He simply just hands his checks over to Rose to cover the cost of the house and bills and feels very burdened by his responsibilities and feels stuck in a rut. He cheats and fathers a child to another woman named Alberta as an escape from his life and his responsibilities. Troy is leading a monotonous life ending tragically with no real accomplishments to look back on. In reality social constructs do of course cause tragic endings in peoples lives, but yet too a person’s fate falls on their own actions.

Some can argue, Troy’s early life was the product of the social construct limiting opportunities for blacks. Troy was growing up during an era of very prevalent racism and injustice for African Americans. For example, “The Descendants of African slaves were offered no such welcome or participation. They came from places called the Carolinas and the Virginias, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. They came strong, eager, searching. The city rejected them, and they fled and settled among the riverbanks and under bridges in shallow, ramshackle houses made of sticks and tar-paper.” (Wilson xvii) Troy ran away from an abusive father at age 14 and walked 200 miles to Mobile Alabama. There, he searched desperately for a job yet he got rejected from every employer because all the jobs went to the whites. Eventually he resorted to crime to feed himself.

One day, during a robbery for food he was shot, so he stabbed his attacker but also landed himself in prison for 15 years. After he was released from prison Troy chased his dream of playing in the MLB. Unfortunately, black players weren’t introduced until 1947 when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, and by this point Troy was too old for the major leagues. “Nevertheless, the Negro leagues was not a source of viable income for its players; Troy could not have bought his home without the additional money from Gabriel’s disability checks.” Troy has a family to care for, playing in the Negro leagues wouldn’t cover the cost of raising his children and supporting Rose Maxon, his wife. Even without a family, the income of a Negro league player doesn’t support the average person, and black players of the current era 1957 were underpaid compared to white players. According to Troy he “observes that he ‘saw Josh Gibson’s daughter yesterday she was walking around with raggedy shoes on her feet.’” This idea is important because he later compares Gibson’s daughter to the child of a white baseball player who is rich. The idea proves how black players make significantly less money than white players, not basing it off of talent but simply race.

Meanwhile, Rose is not contributing to the family’s finances. “In the 1950’s women were restrained by traditional roles of and the division of private and public spheres. Men functioned in the public sphere; they left home to go to jobs. In contrast, women primarily functioned in the private sphere of home and domestic chores.” If Rose did want to work, it would be extremely difficult to find a job due to her being an African American and a woman. It would be socially unacceptable for her to leave the house to earn money instead of staying inside and doing household chores. The Maxson family would get furthered ridiculed against for this.” Integration means nothing to him because it came too late to benefit his life.” This creates a solid argument because all the opportunities weren’t there when he could take advantage of them.

In the 1950’s schools were still segregated by race. African American schools are commonly poorer than their white counterpart schools. The main reason for this wasn’t discrimination but simply “because schools are funded by a complicated system of bonds supported by taxes, black schools (in neighborhoods that collected lower taxes) received less money and thus had similar resources with which to pay salaries, maintain buildings, or buy new equipment.” (Gatens 189) So, in Troy’s situation, he was born into a poorer neighborhood thus attending a poorer school. Obviously, Troy cannot help where he lives as a child and the education he receives, but it not simply because of the color of his skin, or of social constructs. Another factor, in shaping Troy’s life is that Troy did not finish an education or high school at all, he ran away from an abusive father at age 14.

Limiting social constructs have been problematic in the development of Troy’s life, although a lot of his misfortunes can be connected to mistakes he made in his early life.

As stated earlier, Troy ran away from his abusive father at age 14 and then walked 200 miles to Mobile, Alabama. There he tried to find a job with no luck. Partly of course to the fact that back in the time racism was more prevalent in limited job opportunities for the blacks. Although, race was not the only factor in Troy’s unsuccessful job hunt. Troy was at the young age of 14, oftentimes job opportunities are saved for the adults and more experienced and since Troy was only 14 with no prior experience it makes him a bad candidate for getting hired. Another factor includes how scarce jobs were in the first place and his lack of education. As a result of not finding a job, Troy turns to

crime.

Troy had a good solid reason to run away from home, but would he have been better off if he hadn’t? This was his first mistake. His father provided him with the food he couldn’t provide for himself. He ended up robbing and eventually stabbing a man to get food, landing him in jail for 15 years. If he had simply stayed with his dad he could’ve went off on his own when he was older, more experienced, and more qualified for jobs. Troy had spent 15 years of his life confined in jail which is why, “In a real sense, Troy has become blind to the changes of the past 10 years” this is most likely the reason why “He has come to believe that a black man’s only choice is between jail, where he spent some youthful years, and a steady job; he cannot see that there might be other possibilities in the 1950’s roads that were that open 30 years earlier.” He wasn’t around to see the times change, he wasn’t around to be the change and change his life for the better. He was in jail simply because of his own actions and no one else’s. Most of the early misfortunes of his life could’ve been prevented.

This all ties into Troy’s complaint to the union of the garbage disposal company he works for. Troy’s position is riding the back of the truck collecting trash bins with his friend Bono. Troy feels as though the union thinks “only white fellows got sense enough to drive a truck” but what Troy fails to see is how all the white people driving the trucks have driver’s licenses and he doesn’t have the proper requirements for the job. Since he ran away from home at age 14 clearly, he wasn’t old enough to get a driver’s license and learn how to drive a car. Again, this is a case mostly about being qualified for the job and Troy was not, although he blames the issue on the union workers being racist. In the end, they give Troy the truck driving job, further proving racism wasn’t a factor in the placing of his position.

Many blacks of the 1900’s claim the sports industry is unfair and there is no future for them in it.

This was Troy’s main argument. Jackie Robinson became a sensation in 1947 being the first black player in the major leagues. But, to the knowledge of readers, Troy was 43 in 1947, making him too old for the major leagues. Troy is unable to accept the changes and progression of the past 10 years. Yet back in Troy’s young years “he was excluded because at the time, black players were still not accepted.” And yes, that was not his fault. But, “it is easier for Troy to blame a system that discriminates against black players than to admit that he lacked the talent or the youth to play major league baseball.” He is constantly claiming how much talent he has in the book but if he was so talented than why isn’t he in the major leagues now? Clearly if he was more talented he could be in. He could be just like “that Puerto Rican boy Clemente. Don’t even half play him. That boy could be something if they give him a chance. Play him one day and sit him on the bench the next” until Corey intervenes and says “He gets a lot of chances to play, they got some white guys on the team that don’t play every day. You can’t play everyone at the same time.” Further proving the system is about talent and less and less about race as time goes

on.