Racism and Discrimination in The Play "Fence"

In the 1900s, one of the major issues was racism and discrimination. Black people had to deal with certain problems around this era. This event made some of the black people look at the world with hatred. People didn’t receive equal opportunities. Racism affects all types of people in the world, (Nadel, 2015). Some people even go to the extent of attacking and insulting others due to their race. In the play Fence, the main theme is a conflict the main character Troy has a conflict with his family, the society, and his friend Bono.

Fences are full of real human issues and it shows throughout the book.

The main character, Troy, has been a victim of society for what seems like his life up to now. He is out of the majors because of his race as well as being not elevating at his job. Unfortunately, times have changed but Troy has not. Troy gets into a conflict with his son.

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The disagreement begins when his son goes home on the day that he gets paid and wants to borrow 10 dollars. Before Troy gives his son money, he harasses him about if he is going to pay him back. Also, the disagreement on Troy’s belief is that it reflects his attitude towards black people. Troy in his generation were there too few opportunities. He works hard every day to support his family. Troy believes that the black cannot get something from anything and that life does not owe the black people anything.

Troy likes to protect his possessions against the monster or evil in society.

The fence in which he built long ago, between him and the world surrounding him became a driving force of all the conflicts of the play. He struggles against society in the first place, but this event is not enough to blame only the society in all his life failures; he projects this separation to his family and himself. He is absolutely sure that society and the "white" people stop him from living a normal life. Troy tries to fight this enemy by trying to promote at work and wanted to show that "dark-skinned" people can get something bigger in this life. Fights for the right to become the first "black" truck driver and wins his fight of racial inequality.

His difficult relationship with society show Story in his attitude to his son’s aspirations. Cory wants to play in the college football team and get a scholarship. His father refuses to permit him playing football and ground his argument that he cares about his feelings and doesn’t want his son to have the same experience as he had had in his football career. What’s more, Troy refuses to sign his permission statement as a way to discourage his son from following or pursuing his dream.

As we find out, Troy is from the team and he thinks this happened because of racial discrimination, but as we find out the true reason was his prison sentence. Troy was constantly fighting with society and blaming it off his life misfortunes. Troy is still undergoing hardships, but many have little to do with his race. He becomes delusional and it creates a very insecure attitude. He also the issue of adultery, which alters his relationship with his wife. The family faces the issue of poverty, which also gives Troy the motive to make Corey get a job instead of playing football. All in all, Troy’s conflict with society triggers conflict with his son and his relationship with his wife, and all this is because of his conflict with himself — he didn’t consider himself good enough to get anything good in this world, (Pereira, 2015). Unfortunately, his absence of love for himself showed his arrogant behavior with all the surrounding people who cared about him.

This work has many examples of society’s contemporary views. For starters, Troy faced adversity growing up being a minority, so much so that his raw treatment made him very unforgiving. He believes that the only way for the black man to succeeded is to work hard at a job. Things have changed and we see the theme of ambition vs. reality through the confrontations between Corey and Troy, (McCormick, 2016). Troy sees everything that was wrong with society but can't accept the fact that things have changed since he was young. This event leads to him maintaining the identity of the black man and believes that it is all he can be now. Troy views social expectations as getting a job is the only way for success because whites are dominant. Conclusion

Finally, in the drama Fence by Wilson, there is a conflict between the black family. Troy tries to live his life through his two sons Cory and Lyans. He tries to prevent them from making the same mistakes that he did. For example, he discourages his son Cory from playing football and tells him to get a job instead. Troy has been through a lot in life. He has a strict demeanor because of how society viewed black people. Racism made Troy become bitter towards life since he had lost a lot of opportunities in life due to his skin color. Throughout his life racism was a barrier. All the decisions that he made were on his family and his past experience, (Bogumil, 2019). Some of the decisions that he made including denying Cory's dreams, breaking barriers in his marriage and neglecting his son Lyons. All the decisions that he made fenced his family away from him, which caused a lot of conflicts.