We Are Family

August Wilson provides us with a new outlook on what it means to be a family. The family unit is portrayed as very internally disconnected, meaning that Troy works hard at his job trying to provide for Rose and Cory, but at the same time he doesn’t show any true love to them. Troy sabotages Corey’s chances of going to college and playing football and he cheats on Rose with Alberta because as he says it, “he can’t be himself around Rose. When he is at the house with Rose, all he thinks about is their financial situation. When he is with Alberta, he can forget about all that and really laugh and have a good time.” The reasons for Troy’s harsh actions can be traced back to his childhood. It is interesting in “Fences” that Troy fixates on his past and how horrible and restraining it was, especially with putting emphasis on how bad of a father he had. By the end of the story however, I found that even though Troy talks about his father in such a hateful way, he shares many characteristics with him that he was probably not aware of.

Troy and his father took very similar approaches to the way they headed their families. Both of them wanted to be in control of the household, and once someone challenged that authority, they would have to leave. Troy’s mother left in his family, quickly followed by Troy, himself, just a couple years later, and then in Troy’s family, Cory leaves. I thought that in both families, the sons, Cory and Troy, were both held back because of their fathers. Troy, while recounting his story of his father, says that before he ran away, he never saw anything outside of the cotton farm. His father never gave him any affection and in turn, Troy formed this thought in his head that being a good father means putting food on the table, and a roof over their heads. This idea detaches him from his son Cory, which in the long run makes him throw away Cory’s opportunity for a real future, leaving Cory mad at him until his [Troy’s] funeral.

It is interesting that Troy pulls away so much from his family when Rose and Cory work so hard to become closer to him. Rose wants Troy to build the fence to keep Troy close to her. Cory keeps wanting to hear just one praise from his father or just one ‘I love you’ but Troy just always wants to forget the present and move on to the future. He never seems to be happy where he is. He isn’t happy with Rose and starts seeing Alberta. In the beginning of the story, he is talking with Bono about how tired he is of picking up garbage. Then, when he finally gets the promotion he wants, he starts talking about how boring it is and wanting to retire. Rather than being greedy and always wanting more, he needs to stop and look around to see that he is surrounded by people that love him. Rose and Cory both know what it means to be a family and in the end they stick together. Rose raises Raynell and Cory finally decides to forgive his father and attend his funeral. Wilson shows us that no matter what happens, if you stick together with your family, everything will turn out okay. (571)