Essay: Fences by August Wilson

Being discriminated against your race can be upsetting. Something that you can’t control and you were born with, makes you different from other people and can give you less opportunities. Racism could also make a person angry, and for certain people, the anger could become their personality. Especially in the 1950s, where it was common for black people to be treated worse and segregated from white people.
Fences by August Wilson explores the way African Americans lived in the late 1950s. The author also uses the theme of race relations and the segregation of black and white people at this time. An important character that Wilson shows the theme from is Troy Maxson. He is the main character and Wilson shows the way African Americans were living mainly through Troy. This was shown in his work, lifestyle, and his thoughts on certain events. Troy’s experiences with racism often made him angry and bitter with affected his life and his relationships.
August Wilson often used examples from Troy’s life to express his big idea of race relations. A very important example of this was when Troy almost lost his job after questioning why African Americans were doing all the labor while white men got to drive the trucks. He spoke to his boss about his issue with the racism in his workplace, and Troy’s family and friends got concerned that he would get fired after Mr. Rand, his boss, told Troy to take his complaint to the Union. Troy wasn’t necessarily worried about being fired, as seen on pages 2 and 3, “I ain’t worried about them firing me. They gonna fire me cause I asked a question? That’s all I did. I went to Mr. Rand and asked him, Why? Why you got the white men driving and the colored lifting?’ Told him, ‘what’s the matter, don’t I count? You think only white fellow got sense enough to drive a truck. How that ain’t no paper job! Hell, anybody can drive a truck. How come you got all be whites driving and the colored lifting? He told me ‘take it to the union.’ Well hell, that’s what I done! Now they wanna come up with this pack of lies.” (Wilson). He is angry that because of his race, he didn’t have the same job as white folks and talks to Mr. Rand, even though he could’ve lost his job. He knows the risks, but he became so bitter from racism that he didn’t care anymore. Wilson used repetition in this quote to show how angry Troy was about this, even though it wasn’t that big of a deal and he wasn’t worried about losing his job. Wilson purposely had Troy repeat the question of why white men were driving and colored folks lifting. This was used most likely to add emphasis and show more expression in the specific quote. This wasn’t the only time Wilson used an example from Troy’s life and his general thoughts to show racism. Another time Wilson used an example of when Troy was angry because of racism in his life was when Troy and Rose were discussing the lotto and the Pope, who bought a restaurant after winning big. The Pope would give white men better meals and colored men barely the same portion as the white man. He gets angry in the discussion and starts saying rude things about Pope, which August Wilson shows in this quote, “A Negro go in there and can’t get no kind of service. I seen a white fellow come in there and order a bowl of stew. Pope picked all the meat out the pot for him. Man ain’t had nothing but a bowl of meat! Negro come behind him and ain’t got nothing but the potatoes and carrots” (23). Troy tells Rose about a specific event where he saw the Pope giving the white man better and meatier food than the colored man, even though they ordered the same thing. The huge thing that angered Troy is that Pope is an African American, yet he is racist in his restaurant, and gives white men better meals. But, this anger and bitterness also affected other parts of his life.
Troy’s relationships were also greatly affected by his anger and bitterness. An important time where this happened was the falling out between Troy and his son Cory, mostly because of his anger towards racism. Troy used to have a passion for baseball, but didn’t go far with his career because he believes that it’s because of his dark skin tone. Rose did disagree with him on this and said it was because he was old when he started playing. But, since Troy never got far in baseball, it made him bitter about Cory wanting to go pro in football. This made Cory upset often, and he distanced himself from the family in anger about his father saying that he shouldn’t play football, and that Troy wasn’t going to sign a paper from a college football recruiter. Later it is revealed that Troy actually made sure that Cory couldn’t play football anymore, which was extremely upsetting for Cory as it was his passion, on page 57, Cory shows his emotion about what happened with Troy and his coach, “Papa done went up to the school and told Coach Zellman I can’t play football no more. …Told him to tell the recruiter not to come….Just cause you didn’t have a chance! You just scared I’m gonna be better than you, that’s all.” (Wilson). This made Troy angry also because Cory was supposed to get his job at A&P back, but instead Cory was mainly worried about his football career and that is was down the drain. It is evident that Wilson used tone and mood in this quote by Cory. He raises his voice, which would indicate anger, but there’s an underlying feeling of sadness in his words, as his future was slipping from his hands. This huge disagreement didn’t only ruin their relationship at the time, Cory and Troy stopped talking completely, and actually end up having a physical fight after Cory graduated high school. This fight pushed Troy over the edge and kicked him out of the house, Wilson mentioned this on pages 88 and 89, “(Cory and Troy struggle over the bat. The struggle is fierce and fully engages. Troy ultimately is the stronger, and takes the bat from Cory and stands over him ready to swing. He stops himself.) Go on and get away from around my house…. Cory: Tell Mama I’ll be back for my things. Troy: They’ll be on the other side of this fence.” (Wilson). They never spoke after that and Cory didn’t come back until Troy’s funeral, where he is revealed to be in the army and didn’t want to go to Troy’s actual funeral. If Troy wasn’t so bitter and angry about sports, because of his bad experience with baseball, they wouldn’t of had such a bad relationship, and Cory would’ve pursued his true dream of football.
Troy could’ve had a normal relationship with his family and been a better person in general, but the racism he faced growing up, and currently happening made Troy a different person. This is important because he lost very important relationships, and risked his job, at the hand of his change after being discriminated against. Cory especially, they would’ve had a fine relationship if it wasn’t for Troys previous anger about being benched in baseball. Only a strong and already hardened person would be able to handle the amount of racism and discrimination African Americans faced in the 1950s. Sadly, most people weren’t able to handle it, and either changed and became worse because of it, or just dealt with the obdurate pain and let white people walk all over them.
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