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Fences Gender Roles

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Gender roles are defined as “the role or behavior learned by a person as appropriate to their gender, determined by the prevailing cultural norms,” (Oxford Dictionary). Over time, gender roles have drastically changed in the United States and many other places. In recent history, men and women had completely different expectations and standards to which they were held. Men were considered to be superior to women in many ways. During this time a patriarchal lifestyle was common. Men had the ultimate say in every situation, had all of the power, and were often very controlling, since they were considered the “head of the household.” Women were treated as objects with very limited and specific roles such as cooking, cleaning, as well as taking …show more content…

This means that certain people were not permitted to have specific jobs or go to certain places because of their socioeconomic status. Most people in the 1950’s did not have high paying jobs or a good education. For example, Troy Maxson, in August Wilson’s play Fences, is an African American man who works for the sanitation department as a garbage man. Troy was previously a baseball star in the Negro Leagues. He learned how to play baseball in jail, which is where he met Jim Bono. Mr. Bono is also a garbage man who has been friends with Troy for more than thirty …show more content…

Bono asks Troy about a girl named Alberta. Bono accuses Troy of eyeing her and buying her multiple drinks, but Troy claims he eyes all the women and that buying drinks for someone does not mean anything. Rose Maxson, who is Troy’s wife of eighteen years, comes out onto the porch where the men are sitting. Rose is ten years younger than Troy. She does all of the common chores such as cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children. She is a prime example of a typical housewife in the 1950’s. Rose is very devoted to Troy and loves her family very much even though Troy does not appreciate her like he should. Troy exemplifies his male dominance by the way he talks and treats Rose. Troy calls Rose “woman” when he wants her attention throughout the play. He does this in front of others and treats her like his

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Troy says to Rose that he is going to keep seeing the girl he has cheated on her with, Alberta. He then tells her, “It's just... [Alberta] 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" (Wilson, 1986, p. 68).

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Women were treated a lot differently than men were. Men controlled everything that went on. They made all of the decisions, and women did not have a say over

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Men believed that women served only one purpose which was to take care of the household. Being a wife and a mother was considered

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She did everything in every single way to become what her husband needed, she was loyal to Troy and stayed with him for eighteen years. Eighteen years of making sacrifices, sacrificing herself into making her surrounding better for her family and her husband. She really would try to be everything what her husband needed, as she put it, “I done tried to be everything a wife should be. Everything a wife could be.” She was expected to take care of her family, she minitrated the finances in the house, she was suppose to help her husband out that was her job not another woman's job, Rose is Troy’s wife.

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Troy expects his family to thank him for everything that he provides for them and does not like the idea of a woman being thanked instead of him. As a man, Troy owns everything in the house including the money that Rose possesses. This connects to the theme of traditional

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They were also expected to be the providers and protectors for their families and typically to have control of the sexual behavior of their wives and daughters. In contrast, women were expected to be passive and submissive in relationships. They were primarily responsible for maintaining the purity and honor of their family. There was an emphasis

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Were not for her strong nature, Rose would have left her husband and look for a different man who can  take care of her. Rose is the reason for her family’s unity. The fact that Rose manages to get her son to  forgive his dad. Rose is the strongest character, she was able to survive in a male dominated

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Gender role refers to those behaviors and attitudes that are considered to belong to one sex. Gender role is based on femininity and masculinity that differentiate women and men by giving men some roles and women which results to gender inequality. There some work in society that is regarded to belong to women such as cooking, taking care of children and other less important roles while men are given roles that makes them superior than women. Most of the gender roles associated with women makes them inferior and creates a room to be oppressed. Gender roles are constructed by society and attributed to women or men.

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Gender is something that is brought to the attention of people well before people are even brought into the world. Take for instance, when a woman finds out that she is pregnant and is about to have a child. The first question that that women is asked is “What are you having?” In doing this we are automatically emphasizing the importance of being able to identify whether or not to buy “boy” things or “girl” things. As a society we deem it important for each sex to practice a set of “norms” of how to behave via that sex.

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Women had to adhere to strict rules surrounding their actions, such as acting with obedience and silence. Due to men’s restrictions, women lacked freedom in their lives and commonly occupied domestic roles. Though not placed into their own social class, women’s husbands and fathers considered them their property, and women occupied the same social status as their male protectors. Men expected their wives to oversee their households and perform work that required little thought, such as luxury textile creation and household management. Women’s talents often remained unnoticed, as no one saw them beyond their gender commonly classified as weak.

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Troy cheats on his extremely faithful wife with a younger woman and has a baby with her. Wilson seems to set the scene with Rose, Troy’s wife. Even through trials and tribulation with Troy, Rose stays with him. Wilson sets up Rose as almost the model wife of the time period. She is faithful, always has dinner ready, and is available for Troy’s nighttime pleasures when ever he pleases.

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Fences is a play written by the playwright August Wilson, who dedicated himself to writing plays capturing what it was like to be an African American in the United States during every decade of the 20th century. Fences was a play that was specifically written to provide an outlook into the lives of African Americans in America during the 1950s, during the process of demarginalization. Each character of the novel provides a unique perspective to capture different aspects of the “African American Experience” during this time period. In Fences, it was very important to August Wilson to truly capture “The African American Experience” and he was able to do so through the portrayal of the Maxson family, with his representation of African Americans during the 1950s in Fences, and with the multiple perspectives of African Americans captured

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Although gender roles have changed over time, where males and females have become more equivalent , a certain level of behaviors and tasks which are acceptable for men and women still exist today. Alternatively of women and men steadily playing the gender roles they always play, they should change it around and try to do something divergent when being defined in a category of gender roles. However, women are becoming equal to men in our generation. For instance , would be men can take supervision of the children when the women go to work. Women are more maverick that they don’t need to depend on a man.

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In August Wilson’s playwright Fences, the narrator portrays racism in a social system, in the workplace, and in sports, which ultimately affects Troy’s aspirations. Troy Maxson is constantly facing the racism that is engraved into the rules of racial hierarchy –– fair and unfair, spoken and unspoken. Troy suffers many years of racism when he plays in the Negro major Baseball League; therefore he decides to protect Cory from ever experiencing those blockades in his drive for success. In the end, although Troy is always driving to obtain agency, Troy always succumbs to the rules of racism because those racist ideologies are too hard to overcome. Throughout the play, Troy is perpetually confronting the racist social system that displays unspoken

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