Fences

When Rose agrees to become a mother to Raynell, she does so despite her unwillingness to be a wife to Troy any longer because the baby is innocent and “you can’t visit the sins of the father upon the child” (74). This is the first moment in which the Maxson family cycle of inflicting generational trauma is broken. As a girl, however, Raynell does not endure the same burden of expectation as Troy’s sons. Fences is largely about patrilineal influence and the way sons pay for their fathers’ mistakes. Troy grew up abandoned by his mother and under the full control of his abusive father. During Cory’s childhood, Rose’s influence as a mother is overshadowed and overwhelmed by Troy. Raynell’s mother dies in childbirth, leaving her motherless until Rose adopts her. Conversely, Lyons grew up fatherless, without the expectations and discipline Troy exerts on his other son but also with the ability to prioritize his passion.

For Troy Maxson and his father, Troy could only become a man by either usurping his father or leaving home. His father saw that Troy was becoming a threat when he discovered his son having sex at the age of 14. Since there is no room for two men in the house, Troy’s father fights back. He exerts dominance by beating Troy and raping Troy’s girlfriend. Troy fails to dominate his father, so he must move out. At 53, Troy has his own home, and he raises his son to fear him, knowing that one day Cory will try to usurp him, too. Troy holds his son back, refusing to allow Cory to become more successful than he was—particularly in sports, the arena in which Troy was unable to make his fortune. Troy treats his son as an enemy, especially as he notices that Cory is beginning to see himself as a man.

In the epigraph before the play, August Wilson states, “When the sins of our fathers visit us, we do not have to play host. We can banish them with forgiveness. As God, in His Largeness and Laws” (xxi). Cory both resents and emulates his father. He knows that his father doesn’t understand how football could be a different opportunity for him than baseball was for Troy. He doesn’t understand Troy’s resentment and lack of affection toward him, but Cory also keeps practicing swinging the bat, always dissatisfied that he isn’t as talented as his father. Cory badly wants his father’s love and approval. After Rose decides that Troy is no longer her husband, Cory decides that he no longer needs Troy as a father. It is notable that he uses the baseball bat to try to usurp Troy as the man of the house. After Troy’s death, Cory hopes finally to be free of his father, but his mother points out that Cory cannot escape the ways in which he is like his father because he is Troy’s flesh and blood. It becomes Cory’s responsibility to refuse to allow Troy to consume him and to allow his father’s sins and flaws to become his own.