Themes From the Famous "Fences"

The Role of Black Woman
“Fences” was set in 1957. The 1950’s was a time when divorce and the disobedient woman was slowly becoming an accepted status for black woman. In Fences, Rose takes on the typical role of a black woman in the time period, but with a little added spice. Rose has settled with Troy even though there more out there for her. She was ready to settle down and have a family and that’s why she decides to marry Troy. Troy was not the best, but he was hers. She feels it is her fault that she chose; Troy. This is evident when Rose says, “That was my first mistake. Not to make him leave some room for me…It was my choice. It was my life and I didn’t have to live that way. But that’s what life offered me in the way of being a woman and I took it. I grabbed hold of it with both hands.” Troy cheats on her and gets another woman pregnant. Rose stays with him, because deep down she knew he was not perfect. This was pointed out in Act 2; Sc. 2 when she says, “I planted myself inside you and waited to bloom. And it didn’t take me no eighteen years to find out the soil was hard and rocky and it wasn’t never gonna bloom. But I held on to you, Troy. I held you tighter.” Rose gives everything to Troy even tough she realizes that he takes from her. As a black woman she feels she owes it to him. Therefore she even decides to raise Raynell. Raynell may not be her daughter, but Rose feels a duty to her. Raynell didn’t ask to be placed on this earth, and no one should punish her for it. Rose plays the role of a black woman by sticking to her family even when it seems like she is the only one trying. Rose realizes she is the glue of the family and without her the family does nothing but fall apart. Like the modern woman, Rose speaks up, but unlike the woman Rose stays put. Rose keeps quiet about being abused and cheated on, because she loves her family often more than herself. Rose chose Troy and she forces herself to deal with her decision. During the time of “Fences”, women were still second-rate and didn’t questioned things. Rose represented those women, but she showed how those women could be strong. She showed how they made mountains out of molehills. She showed how her strength was the wood that kept the family burning. August Wilson broke down major stereotypes and judgment of the role of Black Woman through the character Rose. He showed that there was a reason woman like Rose stuck with their family when the going got tough. That reason was love. Black women truly loved their families. The problem was that they loved too much.

Distinguishing the Past from the Present
Troy and Cory represent two different generation of black man. Troy remembers a time when black men were thought of as nothing. Troy lived when being in the army, marines, navy, and getting a trade was considered successful. Cory understands that about Troy, but Cory see black men playing in white sports leagues, going to college, and even receiving money to pay for college. Cory understands that this new success is not easy to obtain, but he is sure he can achieve it. Troy doesn’t want Cory to try even tough he notices himself that the world around him is changing. He figures if he could not be an exception to the change no son or seed of his can. Troy focuses on his past experiences when trying to get into baseball. “I don’t want him to be like! I want him to move as far away from my life as he can get. You the only decent thing that ever happen to me. I wish him that. But I don’t wish him a thing else from my life. I decided seventeen years ago that boy wasn’t getting involved in sports. Not after what they did to me in the sports.”(Act 1; Scene 3 Troy to Rose) His stubbornness makes him fail to realize that Cory may have the chance he never had. Too often do parent try to live their own dreams and realities through their children. Through their children’s eyes they see out of their own. They see their own past struggles, hardships, obstacle, dreams, and triumphs. These parents expect their children to face their realties and achieve their goals better than they have their selves. This is why Troy encourages Cory to get a trade something that would be a better reality for Troy but not Cory. Troy says: “...get you a trade. That way you have something can't nobody take away from you. You go on and learn how to put your hands to so good use. Besides hauling people's garbage.” Troy reflects on his own life while telling his son his words of wisdom. Cory wants his father to signs his papers to give him the chance to go college and play football. Tory refuses to sign. Rose is aware of the present, but staying in the place of a woman she does not dare disobey her husband. Rose tries her best to encourage Tory to sign the papers but Troy refuses. Rose knew that Troy was wrong, but held her actions and try only to change Troy’s mind with her words. Rose tries to persuade him in their conversations. She talks about that fact Cory only does what he does to impress him. Troy doesn’t want Cory to beg and look for his attention. Troy responded that Cory does not need to go begging for attention. Troy feels that Cory has to make his own way in life without expecting anyone to care for him. “Like you?...It’s my job. It’s my responsibility! You understand that? A man got take care of his family … Don’t you try and go through life worrying about if somebody like you or not.”(Act 1; Scene 3; Troy to Cory) Troy one again is forcing his past on Cory. Troy is use to a father that only took care of his children’s physical needs and not their emotional needs. As result, Troy was force to find acceptance and emotional strength within him self. He now expects Cory to do the same because his past; he believes is Cory’s present.

The Self-Pity of Black Man
A common trait of the black man is to feel sorry himself, and to expect others to feel sorry for them. These men have struggled in their lives, and feel that they have the right to release their pain on others. They hurt others and expect them to be understanding. In Fences, Troy upsets Rose, Gabriel, and Cory many times thought out the play. He cheats on Rose and expects her to understand him. “She gives me a different idea… a different understanding about myself. I can step out of this house and get away from the pressures and problems…be a different man.”(Act 2;Scene 1; Tory to Rose). Troy insults his marriage by suggesting that keeps him boxed in and he can’t stay tied down not even with Rose. This explains his resistance to build the fence. Troy already feels encaged in his relationship with his family. A fence would only represent a tangible cage for him. Troy believes that Rose should pity him, because she married him knowing he had rough edges. Troy takes everything from Rose. He does not take physical things, but the emotions that make her care, love, respect, and be in love with him. He took so much that towards the end of the play she has nothing left to give. This philosophy is expressed in her monologue to Troy “You always talking about what you give…and what you don’t have to give. But you take too. You take…and don’t even know nobody’s giving!”(Scene 1; Act 2). The pitiful black man responded in angry, he grabs her and demands an explanation for Rose’s accusation. He forgets the fact that he cheated on her. He was sorry and she was supposed to except his apology and his new child as her own; while Troy never listens to her. Rose takes this, because as his “woman”; she has to. Troy internally knows he does not deserve her, but he pities himself so much he has convinced himself that he does. His inability to be genuinely sorry and to accept his own faults is the major character trait that August Wilson wrote in the character of Troy. Troy passes his self-pity on to his son, Cory. Cory is unable to forgive his father at the end of the play, because Cory let Troy get to him. All the problems in his adult life Cory blames on the relationship with his father. Cory pities himself and stores so much pity in his heart he has no room to love father for what he was to him. Cory and Troy understand their issues with self-pity and lack of appreciation at different points in the play. Troy finds it when brings home his illegitimate child, Raynell. In Act 2; Scene 3 Troy sings, “Please, Mr. Engineer let a man ride the line. Please, Mr. Engineer let a man ride the line. I ain’t got no ticket please let me ride the blinds”. This song that may seem to be sung like a lullaby to Raynell, but I actually a plea for Rose to forgive him and let him back home and into her life. This song is sung when Troy identifies and acknowledges his own faults and the pain his has caused his family. Cory identifies with his self-pity when he makes the decision to attend his father’s funeral after the conversation he had with Rose in the final scene, “You can’t be nothing but who you are, Cory. That shadow wasn’t nothing but you growing into yourself. You either got to grow into it or cut it down to fit you. That’s all you got to measure yourself against that world out there.”(Scene 5, Act 2). Rose’s word help Cory realizes that he was not living in his father shadow he was actually building a shadow of self-pity out the image of his father. If Cory ever wanted to solve the issues within him that stir from the relationship with his father, he would have to forgive himself and his father. The death of Troy triggers the end of the black man’s self-pity.