The Theme Of Safety Comes First In August Wilson's Fences

Juliett Searles

Amendola/Hidalgo

English 3, PD 8

04 March 2023

Safety Comes First Rose's story is one of resilience, strength and hope. Rose shows the reader that even when everything seems to be falling apart at the seams in your life, there is always a way to get through it. In the play Fences, by August Wilson, Rose made a difficult decision to stay with her husband Troy after he had an affair resulting in his mistress, Alberta, getting pregnant. Although Troy cheated on Rose, Rose decided to remain legally married to Troy, though she stated that he is now a “womanless man”. It is believed that the primary reasons as to why Rose remained married to Troy is because it would ultimately be the safest and most logical financial and

This meant that she didn't have to go through the stress and hassle of finding a new job if she left him, and she could focus on taking care of their son Cory and Tory’s daughter Raynell. Rose's decision not to leave was undeniably the best financial decision on her part. Throughout many instances in the play, Troy is seen giving Rose a large percentage of his paycheck as well as borrowing his son Lyons money from time to time. Evidence of this in the play is in, Act 1 Scene 1 when Troy states to his son Lyons, “What the hell you looking at me for? I ain’t got no ten dollars. You know what I do with my money.” Troy then turns to Rose and states, “Give him ten dollars if you want him to have it.” Rose then states, “I will. Just as soon as you turn it loose.” In response, Troy states, “There it is. Seventy-six

Ultimately, Rose made the decision to stay with Troy because she knew that she had done nothing wrong and being cheated was not her fault. By staying with Troy, Rose was able to protect her emotional wellbeing. In the play, Rose states that “Why, Troy? After all these years to come dragging this in to me now. It don’t make no sense at your age. I could have expected this ten or fifteen years ago, but not now. . . . I done tried to be everything a wife should be. Everything a wife could be. Been married eighteen years”. This illustrates that Troy cheating on Rose emotionally destroyed her. Rose also states that she denied herself so many opportunities and put her wants, needs, and life goals second in order to make Troy happy. By staying with Troy, Rose wouldn’t throw eighteen years of her life out the window as well as allowing her son Cory to still have a father figure in his