¶ … Fences" August Wilson Breaking Out: Autonomous Independence in Fences

One of the principle characters of August Wilson's play entitled Fences is Cory Maxson, whose role as the son of the play's protagonist, Troy Maxson (Gilmour 2010), is fairly integral to the thematic issues that the author chooses to demonstrate within this dramatic work. As one of Troy's several sons, Cory represents the distinct ideology that is fairly endemic to all parents -- that of their offspring having a better life than they had. However, there are a number of similarities between Cory and Troy that seemingly suggest that Cory may be fated to incur a fate that is painfully similar to that of his father -- a fact that Troy is dutifully cognizant of and tries his hardest to prevent. Wilson imbues both of these characters with a powerful sense of responsibility and self-identity that revolves about their conception of asserting their manhood through an autonomous independence. Cory eventually comes to personify this autonomous independence, and in doing so unwittingly leads himself into a position that could not be more similar to that of his father.

The similarities between Cory and Troy go beyond mere genetics and have to do with a commonality of circumstances that virtually no one can deny. They were both proficient at athletics at a young age (Troy played baseball professionally while teenage Cory is a football star) and both had difficult relationships...

Additionally, they both had physical conflicts with their fathers that resulted in both of them leaving home to assert their independence, which Cory does by eventually joining the Marines. His need to leave his father to become autonomous as his own man is alluded to in the following quotation.
Cory: The whole time I was growing up…living in this house…Papa was like a shadow that followed you everywhere. It weighed on you and sunk you're your flesh. Everywhere I looked, Troy Maxson was staring back at me…hiding under the bed…in the closet. I'm just saying I've got to find a way to get rid of that shadow, Mama (Wilson 1986).

This quotation, which Cory delivers shortly after telling his mother that he does not want to attend his father's funeral, indicates how much Cory believes his father to be a negative presence in his life. It also demonstrates how one of the defining traits of Cory's characterization is his desire to remove himself from the "shadow" of his father, so that he can assert his own independence. Cory believes that by physically distancing himself from his father, which he did by joining the army and is attempting to do by telling his mother he does not want to attend his funeral, that he can figuratively distance himself from his father's mediocrity. The irony, of course,…