“When the sins of our fathers visit us, we do not have to play host. We can banish them with forgiveness as God in his Largeness and Laws.” This quote, by August Wilson, explains how one can either repeat, or expel the sins of the people that came before us. In the play “Fences”, also written by August Wilson, one can observe how two of the main characters deal with the sins of their fathers. These two characters are Troy and his son Cory. Troy plays host to the sins of his fathers, while Cory banishes them.
Cory, unlike Troy, expels the sins of his fathers. During the play, Cory is crossed with the great opportunity to play football for college. Although his dad’s dream of becoming a baseball player were crushed, Cory doesn’t let it interfere with him following his dream of becoming a professional football player. He also doesn’t let the color of his skin discourage him or hold him back. Even with all the obstacles Cory is faced with, he still believes he can make it far with football and college. We can see this when he tells his father” I get good grades, Pop, That’s why the recruiter wants to talk with you. You got to keep up your grades to get recruited. This way I’ll be going to college. I’ll get a chance.” Cory chose to banish the sins of his fathers.
There are many ways in which Troy played host to the sins of his fathers. In Act once Scene four of the play, the author gives light to the sins of Troy’s father. “He aint cared nothing bout no kids. A kid to him was nothing. All he wanted was for you to learn how to walk so he could start you working” Troy explains. This description of his father gives some sort of justification to Troy’s actions during the play. Troy ironically repeats the sins of his own father,whom he despises, by treating his sons the same way his father treated his children.
127 our experts are availableright now
On page 37, Troy’s son, Cory asks him, “How come you aint never liked me?” Troy responds harshly saying, “Liked you? Who the hell say I got to like you?…I asked you a question…what law is there say I got to like you?” This one conversation between father and son shows how Troy, like his father, seems like he doesn’t care about his kids. Troy is the same way with his son Lyons, whom comes to visit Troy weekly to borrow money. On page 14, after Lyons asks for ten dollars, Troy rudely answers, “I’ll be damned! I’ll die and go to hell before I give you ten dollars!” He treats his sons as if they were strangers.
Troy also lets his past interfere with his son Cory’s future. Troy wanted to become a professional baseball player but because he was too old at the time, it wasn’t possible for him to realize his dream. This in turn makes him bitter and is why he dislikes the idea of Cory doing College Football, because he thinks it won’t get his son anywhere. He rather have his son work a trade. On page 36, Cory tells Troy about his getting recruited by a college football team. Troy shows how unsupportive he is when he responds saying, “You a bigger fool than I thought… to let somebody take away your job so you can play some football…what kind of foolishness is that to let somebody take away your job?” As you can see by these many examples, instead of banishing the sins of his father, Troy played host to them.
As humans, we are prone to make mistakes as we are not perfect. We are all sinners. But even though we have our flaws, we have the ability to either learn from other people’s mistakes, or repeat them. Cory, intelligently chooses to learn from his father’s mistakes while Troy as we observed, chooses the latter. Which one will you choose?
