Ahmed Chowdhury
Mrs. Albertson
English IV Honors
19 November 2012

The Cycle of Black Manhood Troy Maxson, the protagonist of the play in Fences, a man of color that works for the sanitation department of Pittsburgh. Through Troy's attempts of parenting Cory so he could become a man. As August Wilson point of view reflects the main key factor in achieving manhood portrays respect as the ultimate goal. Most of August Wilson’s plays are based heavily on the decades of African-American culture and lifestyle, and in Fences it is based on the post-world war II era of the 1940’s and 1950’s of the black American ideal life. As for Troy Manhood to him is walking out on his father and taking responsibility for his own family but he becomes the greatest liability to himself. Troy’s idea of manhood is based on the examples of his father. As Troy follows the same footsteps as his father like the disloyalty of his own family can be seen as he lost all there respect; his father betrayed him and now he did the same thing to Cory. Ultimately this becomes like father like son. Troy goes on such a downward spiral that he abandons his own wife for another women and then refuses to repent the sins he has committed. He also abandons his son but the worst thing of all is that is signed his own brother to a mental hospital without reading what he signed. This just shows troy is just like his own father. Troy’s father, a failed sharecropper. Troy said that his father was evil and that women never stayed with him a very long time, so Troy grew up without a mother. When Troy was in his teens he was with a girl and his father found him with that girl. So his father beat Troy severely and Troy thinking that it was for his own disobedience but his father was more despicable by rapping the girl. At that moment Troy was afraid of his father. Troy believed that in order to become a man. He had to walk out on the man he lived under the same roof with. So he left his home and become homeless and broke. From that moment Troy thought he achieved by separating himself from his father because of conflict and abuse. However Troy respected his father for taking responsibility for his children and as Troy says that he stayed with his children, not abandon them like other black fathers at that time. Troy is the breadwinner for his family. Since he thinks he the breadwinner of the family he thinks he has a sense of responsibility. A lot of August Wilson’s that have conflict including Fences, shows that characters are at the odds with the way they see there past and what they what to do with there future. For Troy and Cory there own identity is the creation of their own role model is the creature of duality. Responsible and loyal, the other side, hurtful, selfish and abusive, proves a difficult model with which to mold their own identity as grown men with a more promising future than the father who threatens their livelihood. So Cory end up what his father did in the past by leaving home in a similar conflict with Troy and that Troy had with his father. To Troy and Cory, becoming a man comes to mean leaving the man that raised you because of a violent conflict. This painful process of becoming a Blackman. Lyons and Cory were differently raised, but there development into men does not fall too far from the tree of their father's experience. Troy’s two sons. Lyons his first is from his first marriage. However, that marriage had fell apart and Troy was in jail so he was not around