The Hardships Of American Society Exposed In Fences, By August Wilson

In the 1950s through the 1960s, the economy was booming, the number of suburban homes was increasing, and the beginning of the civil rights movement would forever alter the course of American history. Fences, written by August Wilson, portrays the hardships that some people had to endure to keep their family together and try to live a better life. Living as an African-American male in America throughout the peaking times of racial discrimination and poverty, Troy Maxson tries to mend certain actions from his past and prevent more mistakes from happening in the future. Although he follows such rules in a fashion that he would have approved of in his day, Troy's methods were not always regarded favorably by the generation to which he was applying

Back in his day, he argued that a white man wouldn’t let a black man go very far in the major leagues. This is why he responded the way that he did when Cory asked him about playing football. “The white man ain’t gonna let you get nowhere with that football noway. You go on and get your book-learning so you can work yourself up in that A&P or learn how to fix cars or build houses or something, get you a trade. That way you have something can’t nobody take away from you,” said Troy (Wilson, pp. 1307). Although he grew up in a different time period, Troy wants to protect Cory from going through the same thing he went through with sports when he was younger. Troy hasn’t registered that the ways of life in the present times are different than the way he was raised. Cory understood that if he wanted to play football, he would have to hide it from Troy. As a father who wants to look out for his son, Troy had taken matters into his own hands and told the coach that Cory couldn’t play on the team. “The notion of following dreams and finding purpose was unfamiliar to Troy’s generation. Hard work and stability was way more valuable and important than finding purpose and joy through activities like sports,” (Phillips, pp. 3). Rose had mixed feelings about

For most of the play, Troy almost always had a bottle of alcohol in his hand, leading the reader to infer that he might have a small drinking problem. It seems as if he drinks to try and escape the life that he has to live every day, or to forget about things that have happened in the past that have led him to be this way. The way that Troy reacts to certain scenarios, like Lyons asking him for ten dollars, is a bit harsh in a way. Maybe this is because of childhood experiences that Troy endured and never coped with. He tells the story about Joe Canewell’s daughter and how he had lost all fear for his father that day. This passage reveals to the reader that Troy had left home when he was fourteen years old and experienced some traumatic events during his childhood. “The gal jumped up and run off… and when my daddy turned to face me, I could see why the devil had never come to get him… ‘cause he was the devil himself,” (Wilson, pp. 1315). Troy doesn’t talk much about his childhood throughout the play, leaving the reader to only guess what it was like for him to grow up as a fourteen year old boy all by