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Soulivan Vongphila
Mrs. Elizabeth DiGennaro
English IV
10 May 2012
August Wilson: Betrayal, Masculinity, and Lost Dreams
The atmosphere of August Wilson's, Fences, included mostly internal conflicts centered
between the two main characters, Troy and Cory. Troy happens to be the father of Cory.
However, he proves his parenting skills are not relevant to his lifestyle. All Cory has are hopes,
big dreams and plans, but Troy manages to take all of that away from him. Troy believes that
Cory will become a man when he experiences all the pain that Troy had to face when his father
was raising him. That tension between man and masculinity continues to grow exponentially
throughout the play. Troy creates problems of his own that he cannot recognize. All of the
actions he takes hurts almost everyone and he is too blind to see it. Through dissatisfaction, Troy
struggles to play his role as a husband to his wife Rose and a father to his son. Through tough
love and the injustice of an African American's lifestyle in the 1950's, August Wilson's, Fences,
suggests that a boy becomes a man when he is able to not only experience, but most importantly,
endure various phases and of abuse and conflict throughout his life. After struggles and the
separation of Cory's home and family, he manages to avoid the same fate of his father Troy and
transform himself into the man his father could never be.
Of major concern, Troy has always held a grudge against sports. Back when he was a
baseball star in the Negro Leagues, he had high hopes of playing professional baseball. There
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was no other plan for Troy other than to accept to live his dream playing for the Major Leagues.
Unfortunately, before the Major Leagues would accept blacks to play, Troy’s athletic ability had
already diminished. Joseph H. Wessling describes by stating “Troy Maxson, who was abandoned
by his mother at age eight, fled a brutal, lustful father at age fourteen, began to steal for a living,
and served fifteen years on a murder charge? One can only hope for some measure of good, and
Troy exceeds a realist's expectations. He holds a steady but disagreeable job as a garbage
collector, supports a wife and son, stays sober six days a week, wins his own private civil-rights
battle to become a driver, and remains faithful to Rose for eighteen years before he falls.”
(Wilson’s Fences) Troy was never a loyal man. Loyalty is very important towards the themes of
Fences. Troy makes a lot of mistakes and is uncertain if it affects his marriage between Rose and
him. One of his first mistakes is continuing to tell her that he is going to a bar called Taylors’s.
Wilson stated as the character Troy, “I’m gonna walk down to Taylors’. Listen to the ball game.
I’ll be back in a bit. I’ll work on it when I get back.” (28). However, instead of arriving at
Taylor’s, he arrives at the woman who he is having an affair with, Rose. Rose has always love
and nurtured Troy through thick and thin with her kindness. Even through the lowest points of
Troy’s life, when there was nothing left to stay for, Rose still stayed true to Troy. However, troy
still seems to follow the direction of endless mistakes. It is ironic how Troy claims to love Rose
but he responded to his friend, Bono, by saying “I’m just being polite.”(Wilson 3) to the woman
he bought a drink for. “One thing that is a bit confusing is the love and praise that Troy speaks in
regard to his wife, Rose. He constantly states that there is no better woman or wife, and that she
is the best thing that happened to him. The confusion sets in for the audience, when Bono, Troy’s
friend, brings up his interest in Alberta in Act 1, Scene 1. Troy does not exactly deny his interest
in Alberta; instead he turns it around by asking Bono questions and thereby changing the subject
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without truly answering the question. This avoidance continues on through the drama until he
has to tell Rose that Alberta is pregnant with his baby.” (Analysis of August Wilson) Not only
did his affair affect his marriage but a whole new level was introduced when Alberta became
pregnant with Troy’s baby. Troy finally had the courage and bravery to tell his wife, Rose, that
“I’m trying to find a way to tell you . . . I’m gonna be a daddy. I’m gonna be somebody’s
daddy.” (Wilson 66) Troy has obviously has done a horrible deeds that helped contributed to the
separation of his family. Later along the plot, the decisions he make with Rose, certainly affect
his relationship with his son Cory. Troy was the tragic hero in this story. In the beginning of the
play his was admired, loved, and even gotten away with sneaking his affair, but eventually his
life spiraled down the drain right in front of his eyes and led to his death.
All of the mistakes and decisions that Troy decided to make in his past, each and every
one funneled into Cory’s life. Cory is a bright kid and has a lot going for him. Recently, Cory has
been recruited by a North Carolina coach to play college football. Cory’s ambition and strong
desire pushes him to do anything it takes to make it to the top. However, Troy crushes his son’s
dreams by not agreeing to sign the papers to allow Cory to play with North Carolina. Troy
refused to sign the papers for a reason though. He believes the same thing that happened to
baseball and himself will happen to his Cory and football. Consequently, Troy’s best excuse to
not allow Cory to play is the fact that he too will be disappointed when his desire and love for the
game is the strongest. Storm stated that “Unfortunately, this defeat in career also defeated Troy
mentally. From that time on he saw his family and his life as failure he wanted to escape from
them, but also felt a responsibility to them. This feeling of failure continues into the relationship
that Troy has with his son, Cory. Cory is an excellent football player, and yet, Troy refuses to
acknowledge his son’s ability even when he is recruited by a college. Troy cannot and will not
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let Cory succeed where he failed and refuses to let Cory go to college on a football scholarship
(Gantt, 10). But this is not the only time that Troy shows resentment of his son. In Act 1, Scene
3, Cory asks Troy “How come you ain’t never liked me? (Wilson, 504). Troy is angry at this
question and tells Cory that “…it’s my duty to take care of you. I owe a responsibility to you!”
(Wilson, 505). However, even before this it is obvious that Troy sees Cory as nothing but an
irritation that continues until the final scene, when Cory arrives for Troy’s funeral. Only then is
the animosity put to rest on both sides. ( "Analysis of August Wilson.”) Alchura stated that
“Wilson shows us more of the result of Troy's life of hardships, especially in dealing with
prejudice, when his wife Rose tells him about their son Cory and how he {Cory} was asked to
join a college football team. Troy's response possessed years of resentment and bitterness as he
pointed out his perception of Cory's situation. He told Rose that "The white man aint' gonna let
him get nowhere with that football" (Fences 915). Here, Wilson is relating the emotional turmoil
that many African Americans felt at the time due to years of oppression.” (Alchura, Jakarta "Play
reviews: Fences by August Wilson (historical criticism perspective)") Troy also does not take
Cory’s future into consideration. He believes that chores should come first before Cory’s football
practice. Rose eventually gets fed up and asks Troy “Why don’t you let the boy go ahead and
play football, Troy? Ain’t no harm in that. He’s just trying to be like you with sports.” (Wilson
39). Troy responds with “I don’t want him to be like me! I want him to move far away from my
life as he can get. You the only decent thing that ever happened 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 no sports. Not after what they did to me in the sports.” (Wilson 39). Cory seems to
put football as his number one priority. Cory had a supermarket job at A&P but quitted until
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football season was over. When Troy found out, he was furious and demanded Cory to get his
job back. Arguments and fights between father and son was also a major role in this story. Due to
Cory not be able to get his supermarket job back at A&P and also keep up with his chores, Troy
thought he had no choice but to go up to Cory’s football coach and tell him Cory can no longer
be a part of the team this season. This is the part of the story where Troy’s authority and pride
starts to destroy him and his family. Later in Act 2, Scene 1, Troy confesses to Rose about the
child he is expecting. During that argument, Rose calls Troy selfish for being greedy even with a
woman that has been loyal with him for just about eight-teen years. Cory becomes upset and
angered about the remarks she made and grabs her arm violently. Cory hears the shrieks and
comes rushing into the house to help his mother, grabs Troy, and punches him in the chest. Troy
is stunned by the blow he just received and tells Cory “ Alright. That’s strike two. You stay
away from around me, boy. Don’t you strike out. You living with a full count. Don’t you strike
out.”
Still, Troy’s father and son relationship just burrows deeper and deeper into the ground.
After Cory comes home to find his father on the porch, they cross paths and step over each other.
Troy believes that Cory is acting arrogant and grown because he thinks he is a man now. Cory no
longer wants Troy to be in his life anymore. After a long heated argument about respect, Troy
kicks Cory out to live on the streets and demands that he never comes back. Troy tells Cory
“Nigger! That’s what you are. Just another nigger on the street to me!” (Wilson 87) “Get your
black ass out of my yard!” (Wilson 87) These two then gets into a physical altercation and Cory
picks up a bat. Troy responds by saying “You’re gonna have to kill me! You wanna draw that bat
on me. You’re gonna have to kill me. Come on! Come on!” (Wilson 88) Cory leaves than tells
his father “Tell Mama I’ll be back for my things.” (Wilson 89) Later, Troy dies from a massive
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heart attack from swinging the baseball bat. Cory returns home from the marines the same day of
Troy’s funeral. Lyons also came to the funeral. The only person that refuses to attend the funeral
is his youngest son, Cory. Cory still has a strong passionate dislike to his father and wants to do
anything it takes to rebel against him. Cory says “I can’t drag Papa with me everywhere I go.
I’ve got to say no to him. On time in my life I’ve got to say no.” (Wilson 96) Although Rose
explains to Cory that not going to this funeral will not make Cory any more of a man, Cory
responds “The whole time I was growing up . . . living in his house . . . Papa was like a shadow
that followed you everywhere. It weighed you on you and sunk into your flesh. It would wrap
around you and lay there until you couldn’t tell which one was you anymore.” (Wilson 96-97)
Joseph H. Wessling says “It is Troy's capacity for gratitude and forgiveness that his son Cory
must internalize on the morning of Troy's funeral. After a seven-year absence, the young man
has returned in his marine uniform, proudly wearing his corporal's stripes. There is an aura of
maturity about him but also a lingering bitterness - he refuses to attend his father's funeral. Troy's
mother, Rose, articulates the deep truth that Cory does not want to face.” (Wilson’s Fences)
Above all, the atmosphere of August Wilson's, Fences, did indeed include mostly internal
conflicts centered between the two main characters, Troy and Cory. Troy crushes his son’s
dreams but Cory was smart enough to rebound and avoid his father’s fate. Troy was indeed the
tragic hero simply by revolving all his decisions around his past of baseball. Storm stated that
“Throughout the work, Troy constantly used the game of baseball as a metaphor to life. This is
the metaphor that is used, because he was a failure in the desegregated professional league and
he was a failure in life. The baseball references just reinforce the lack of success and create even
more animosity toward the family and friends in his life. Rose reminded him of his failure,
because she was there when it occurred. He was able to forget about his failure when he was
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with Alberta, because she was new and had no knowledge of his true failure in life. The symbol
of the fence and the metaphors of baseball used throughout this drama, connect everything back
to the sense that Troy Maxon was unhappy with his life, and felt as if he were a failure. The
failure was taken out on those he felt a responsibility to, such as Rose, and Cory. He felt no real
responsibility to Lyons, hence their relationship was better. Troy was jealous of Cory and
reminded of his failures by Rose. Wilson used the fence and baseball to tell this story. It was not
just a story of a life perceived as a failure, but a look into the mind and thoughts of an African
American man of the 1950s.” (Storm "Analysis of August Wilson.") Troy never had the chance
to fix the mistakes he has done to break his family apart. He fought for masculinity against his
own son and betrayed his own family. After struggles and the separation of Cory's home and
family, he manages to avoid the same fate of his father Troy and transform himself into the man
his father could never be.
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Works Cited
Alchura, Jakarta. "Play reviews: Fences by August Wilson (Historical Criticism Perspective)
." Helium. N.p., 2009. Web. 28 Feb 2012.
Storm, Chanin. "Analysis of August Wilson." HubPages. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Feb 2012.
Wessling, Joseph H. "Wilson's Fences." DISCovering Authors. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Gale Student
Resources In Context. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.
Wilson, August. Fences. New York: Penguin Group, 1986. Print.