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The Significance Of Family In August Wilson's Fences

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Have you ever thought about the significance of family and its impact on your life? The importance of family is a major theme in August Wilson’s Fences. Although the way you live your life is your choice, love, family, and relationships can impact your life and the many decisions you make. In Fences, this theme is demonstrated through the characterization of Troy and the Maxson family’s interactions with each other.
Troy, the main character in Fences, strongly impacts his family members, especially his wife Rose. Troy saw himself as more important than everyone else in his family and impacted their life. Troy consistently cheated on Rose, even when she knew. Because Troy made the money in his house, he believed he had a more substantial role in the family. Rose tells us, while talking to their son, Cory, “I married your daddy and settled down to cooking his supper and keeping clean sheets on the bed. When your daddy walked through the house he was so big he filled it up. That was my first mistake. Not to make him leave some room for me.” (Citation 1180, 187-191). …show more content…

Cory never felt respected by Troy, which is shown at the beginning of Fences, when he asks Troy “How come you ain’t never liked me?” (Citation 1166, 200). Troy responds by saying “Liked you? Who the hell say I got to like you? What law is there say I got to like you?” (Citation 1166, 201-202). Again, this shows us that Troy does not think family has significance in his life and, instead of liking him, only feels responsible for him, shown through his condescending words towards Cory. In addition to this, Troy does not allow Cory to play football, which causes Cory to show deep resentment towards his father. In the end, we see that Troy does this to protect Cory from the same discrimination he faced while playing baseball. This shows us that despite their differences, Troy still loves his son, relating to how family can impact someone’s

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August Wilson’s play Fences was written in 1983. Fences is the sixth play in Wilson’s Pittsburgh cycle. Pittsburgh is important because it represents a better life for blacks; it provides them with jobs and helped them to escape the poverty and racism of the south after the civil war. It represents promises and promises that were broken. I feel like Fences represents the struggles Troy and his family faced because of their complexion and their constant disappointments as black people.

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It additionallyconveys the emotional barrier that Troy puts between them. Furthermore, Troy ruins his marriageby cheating on his wife, Rose, by having an affair with another woman named Alberta. Howeverunlike Rose, who strives to build a fence around her family, Troy attempts to evade capture in thefence. He doesn't have the capacity to understand that Rose wants to keep the family close becausehe never truly had a close family. As a result, Troy ends up driving everybody away just like hisfather.

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From the readers point of view, it is obvious that Rose is too good for Troy, but Rose constantly is faithful to Troy. This shows a special aspect of marriage and the relationship between Troy and Rose. It shows the level of commitment it takes to be in a marriage, but it also show the lack of commitment and gratitude that could be in a marriage. Troy ends up cheating on Rose, because he began to take what he had for granted.

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Fences by August Wilson is a play set in 1950s Pittsburgh which chronicles the life of an African American family. Language is a crucial component of the play, revealing the characters, conflicts, and meaning of the story. In Fences, Troy is a strong character who uses his language to assert his dominance, especially over his son, Cory. Troy treats Cory with a harsh exterior, which masks his deep hopes for a better future for his son.

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