Introduction
The play, Fences by August Wilson, highlights the plight of the Black American community in the late 20th Century (Koprince, 2006). The storyline of this play follows the life of an African American family in a small neighborhood of Pittsburg City and their experiences in mainstream white society. In this regard, the family consists of Troy Maxson, Cory, Rose, and Gabe. The theme of conflict drives the plot of Fences and contributes to the meaning of the work. While there are several sources of disputes in this literary work, Troy, who is also the protagonist character, seems to be the center of conflicts. In Fences, Troy versus family disputes drives the play's major themes because husband-wife and father-son conflicting familial relationships reflect the challenges of African Americans in the 20th Century.
Troy Versus Family Conflicts
The Conflict Creates a Plot
Opposing views between Troy and his family shape the whole story as it gives the play a three-tier plot. Precisely, father-son (Troy and Cory) and husband-wife (Troy and Rose) conflicts create a rising action, climax, and falling action. These three parts of a plot are essential in the play as it motivates the characters to affect the story. Disputes between Troy and his wife, Rose, marks the start of rising action. This aspect is apparent in a scene where Rose reprimanded Troy after revealing that he had a romantic affair with Alberta. Troy was not willing to let Rose go, and that is why he grabbed her hand viciously. Tensions arose when Cory attacked his father (Troy) from behind. Troy-Rose conflicts are the climax of the play. It happened in a scene where Rose tells his husband that “Alberta died having his baby” (Wilson, 1985, #2, #2, #4).
The fight between Troy and Cory in act two, scene four, creates a falling action. The audience understands that Cory was angry with Troy's behavior of betraying Gabe and Rose. In the end, Troy won the fight and kicked his son out of their family house. Together, these illustrations show how Wilson used Troy-family conflicts to advance the play's plot.
Troy-Family Conflicts Advances the Major Themes
The primary goal of Fences as one of the plays in the “Pittsburg Cycle" is to shed light on African Americans' encounters in the decade that it represents (Abdelsamie & Abdallah, 2015). Wilson's major concern is to raise the community's awareness of the problems facing the Black American community in the United States. According to Abdelsamie and Abdallah (2015), Fences represents African Americans searching for authentic identity and self-realization in a land with limited opportunities for Black Americans.
Wilson used the tension between Troy and his family members to highlight African Americans' problems in a racist society. In this play, conflicting familial relations emerge because Troy wants everyone to see things through his lens. For example, he did not wish Cory to join a professional football team while in school because he believed there were no opportunities for Black Americans in a racist society. Troy said, "the white man ain't gonna let you get nowhere with that football” (Wilson, 1985, #1, #3, #4). Here, Troy believed that he would have saved his son from humiliation by denying him to join a professional football team.
Troy-Cory tensions convey a message of immense racial discrimination that limited the prosperity of the Black American community. Jose and Raj (2014) argued that Troy-Cory conflicts or father-son dispute could be interpreted as an indirect training meant to prepare Cory for the reality of racism that he would encounter in adulthood. These tensions escalated when Cory could not convince his father that the whites would allow him to play. Troy insisted that an African American has to be “twice as good before he get on the team” (Wilson, 1985, #1, #3, #5). In a broad sense, Troy-family conflicts shed light on racial inequality and injustice that the Black Americans faced in the mid-20th Century. This familial dispute is essential because it allowed the playwright to cover the plight of African Americans.
Troy-Family Conflicts Relates to the Title of the Play
Disputes between Troy and his family are symbolic of the title of the play. The hedge-building activity is both a representative and a literal device, representing relationships that break and unite Troy's family. The fence project appears only finished in the last scene of the drama when the family reunites, following Troy's death. Troy's lack of commitment to building a backyard fence represents a failure to solve familial conflicts. Precisely, the neglected fence is parallel to Troy's lack of commitment to lead his family and stabilize his marriage. Troy blamed Cory for not being at home to help build the fence. Troy reiterated that his father did nothing "but go down to Taylors" (Wilson, 1985, #1, #3, #5). Here, Cory refers to how Troy spends most of his time with Alberta, who later caused husband-wife conflicts.
Lives at Troy's family changed around erecting a backyard fence and husband-wife, son-father disputes. As such, the dramatic actions surrounding the building of a fence did not influence the name of the pay. Instead, its wholeness means the strength of Troy's family, the forces that tore, and reunited the family after the demise of Troy. Other forms of conflict in this play do not show how the backyard fence at Troy’s home sum up the whole story.
Conclusion
Wilson used Troy versus family conflicts to drive key elements of the story. Familial conflicts create a three-tier plot that moves the action forward. The playwright also used this dispute to highlight racial injustice and inequalities that limited opportunities among African Americans in the country. In this work, Troy-family conflicts are unique because they shape the play's title and events that reunite the family in the last scene.
