August Wilson

When I first saw that we were reading the play “Fences”, I thought I had read it before. I soon realized that I had read this in an English class I took last year. I really enjoyed reading this play because I feel like it shows the struggles that many black people had to face in those days. I felt really bed for Troy because he wanted to do something so bad that would change things for the black people. He worked as a garbage collector, but he wanted to do so much more. He wanted to drive the truck instead of just stand on it and get the trash. Troy once had a dream of becoming a great baseball player, but he was quickly turned down. He blames the color of his skin for this. He is so bitter that things did not work out for him when he wanted to play sports that he ruins any chance his son, Cory, may have at playing football and going to college. I felt really bad for Rose throughout the entire play. It seemed to me like Troy was always rude to her and she just put up with it like it was nothing. It turns out she did this because she loved Troy and could look past his flaws. Rose was also always stuck in the middle of any argument that went on around the house. Anything from Lyons, Troy’s son from a previous relationship, wanting money to Cory wanting to play football, Rose was stuck in the middle. I felt the worst for Rose when Troy admitted to her that he had cheated and was having a baby with another woman. How Rose could look past this and let troy continue to live with her and then let him bring the baby into the house is beyond me. She had to have been an extraordinarily strong woman to allow this. I felt like Troy felt guilty about his brother and using his money to buy a house. His brother was disabled and had no way of really knowing what was going on. I feel that Troy took advantage of him and I think that he felt the same way, otherwise he would not have reacted the way he did when Cory brought it up during their last fight. I was shocked to read that Cory did not come back for seven years. I was even more shocked to read that he was not going to his father’s funeral. I understand that there was no way he could have respected the man that ruined his and his mother’s lives, but he still should have been willing to go to the funeral. The last part of this play has always confused me. I never fully understood if Gabriel was imagining things or if all of this was actually happening. Either way, this probably would have been a magnificent moment to see!