RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN THE 20
THCENTURY UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA SEEN FROM TROY MAXSON’S
CONFLICTS IN AUGUST WILSON’S
FENCES
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
KARINA PRISDIANI Student Number: 074214053
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
i
RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN THE 20
THCENTURY UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA SEEN FROM TROY MAXSON’S
CONFLICTS IN AUGUST WILSON’S
FENCES
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
KARINA PRISDIANI Student Number: 074214053
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma
Nama : Karina Prisdiani
Nomor Mahasiswa : 074214053
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya meberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
“RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN THE 20TH CENTURY UNITED STATES OF AMERICA SEEN FROM TROY MAXSON’S CONFLICTS IN AUGUST WILSON’S FENCES”
beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun meberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta
Pada tanggal : 26 Agustus 2011 Yang menyatakan
vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to thank Allah Subhanahu wata’ala for the blessings, loves, cares and also the spirit and the way shown to me.
I would like to thank my Advisor, Drs. Hirmawan Wijarnaka, M. Hum., for giving me advice, guidance and help in writing this thesis. I express a great gratitude to him for spending many times in reading and correcting my thesis. I also thank to my co-Advisor, Pak Harris for giving me suggestion and also helping me to finish and improve this thesis. Besides, I want to thank him for his guidance given to me during my study here. Without their patience in helping and guiding me, I would not be able to finish this thesis.
My greatest gratitude goes to my parents, Widodo and Nani Hernawati, for the supports and prayers. You are my wonderful parents for me. Thanks to my little sister, Neyna Sezha Pramesthi, for the support to finish the thesis. Also thanks to my beloved mate, Helmy Fahada who has been so patient in supporting and encouraging me during thesis writing. I would like also to thank my best friends, Tina, Cicil, Grace, Mustika, Maria, Novi and Tata for the joy and laughter we have shared together during my study. I love you all.
Last but not least, I would like to thank everyone whose names are not mentioned here, who has helped and supported me during my study and thesis writing.
viii
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI………… vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………... vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ……… viii
CHAPTER II: THEORITICAL REVIEW ……….. 6
A. Review of Related Studies ……….. 6
B. Review of Related Theories ……….... 9
1. Theories on Conflicts ……….... 9
2. Theories on Racial Discrimination ……….... 11
C. Review on the Racial Discrimination in the 20th Century American Society ... 13
1. Troy Maxson’s Conflict with His Employer, Mr. Rand …... 27
2. Troy Maxson’s Conflict with Major Baseball League …... 29
3. Troy Maxson’s Conflict with His Son, Cory ……….. 31
B. Racial Discrimination in 20th Century United States of America Reflected in Troy Maxson’s Conflicts ………..…… 35
1. The Reflection of Black Workers Seen through Troy Maxson’s Conflict with His Employer, Mr. Rand …... 36
2. The Reflection of Negro Baseball Players Seen through Troy Maxson’s Conflict with Major Baseball League ……….... 39
ix
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ………... 45 BIBLIOGRAPHY ………...……. 47 APPENDICES
x ABSTRACT
KARINA PRISDIANI. Racial Discrimination in the 20TH Century United States of America Seen from Troy Maxson’s Conflicts in August Wilson’s
Fences. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata
Dharma University, 2011.
In this thesis, the writer discusses one of August Wilson’s plays entitled
Fences (1957). This play addresses the issue of racism towards the Blacks practiced by the Whites in American society. Fences tells the conflicts of African American man that has to deal with and fights against racism.
There are two objectives of the study. Firstly, the writer focuses on the conflicts that Troy Maxson has to deal with. Secondly, the writer focuses on how Troy Maxson’s conflicts reveal the racial discrimination in the 20th century United States of America. In analyzing the play, the writer applies socio-cultural historical approach. This approach helps the writer to get an understanding on social condition of African American people in the United States of America at that time.
The writer employs library research in this study. It means that all data are taken from written sources. This research uses August Wilson’s Fences that found in W. B. Worthen’s The Harcourt Brace Anthology of Drama, Third Edition as the primary source. The secondary sources are taken from some books that contain of history of Blacks or African American and other information about the play. There are also some sources taken from the internet.
xi ABSTRAK
KARINA PRISDIANI. Racial Discrimination in the 20TH Century United States of America Seen from Troy Maxson’s Conflicts in August Wilson’s
Fences. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata
Dharma, 2011.
Dalam skripsi ini, penulis membahas salah satu karya August Wilson yang berjudul Fences. Drama ini mengangkat topik permasalahan mengenai rasisme terhadap orang-orang berkulit hitam yang dipraktikkan oleh orang-orang berkulit putih di kalangan masyarakat Amerika. Fences membahas konflik-konflik yang harus dihadapi oleh seorang laki-laki berkulit hitam dan berjuang untuk melawan rasisme.
Ada dua pokok bahasan dalam skripsi ini. Pertama, penulis berfokus pada konflik-konflik yang dialami oleh Troy Maxson. Yang kedua, penulis berfokus pada bagaimana konflik-konflik Troy Maxson mengungkap diskriminasi ras di Amerika Serikat pada abad ke 20. Dalam menganalisis drama ini, penulis menggunakan pendekatan sosial, kebudayaan dan sejarah. Pendekatan ini membantu penulis mengetahui kondisi sosial orang-orang berkulit hitam dalam drama ini.
Penulis menggunakan studi pustaka dalam menjawab permasalahan-permasalahan tersebut, yang artinya semua data diambil dari sumber-sumber tertulis. Sebagai sumber utama, penelitian ini menggunakan drama karangan August Wilson yang terdapat di The Harcourt Brace Anthology of Drama, Third Edition oleh W.B. Worthen. Sumber-sumber sekunder diambil dari beberapa buku yang berisi sejarah mengenai orang-orang berkulit hitam atau Afrika Amerika serta informasi lain yang terkait dengan drama ini. Terdapat pula beberapa bahan yang diambil dari internet.
Penulis menemukan tiga konflik yang harus dihadapi oleh Troy Maxson. Konflik-konflik tersebut antara lain, konflik antara Troy dan majikannya, Troy dan major baseball league, dan antara Troy dengan anaknya. Dengan menyajikan konflik antara Troy dan majikannya, dapat dilihat bahwa orang-orang kulit hitam biasanya mendapatkan pekerjaan yang lebih rendah dibandingkan orang-orang kulit putih. Diskriminasi terhadap orang-orang kulit hitam juga dapat dilihat dari keadaan Troy di major baseball league. Hasil dari kekecewaan Troy pada
1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A.Background of the Study
One of the ways for human beings to express their ideas, experiences and thoughts is through literature. Literary works help to connect the readers to the cultural context, to recognize and to learn more about human dreams and struggle in different situations and conditions. In Theory of Literature, Rene Wellek and Austin Warren state that the work of literature represents life as a reality. They also state that literature seems like “a mirror” of our real life because literary works contain the reality of human situations, problems and relationships (1956: 96). Besides, reading a literary work will bring people to an aesthetic experience and give the readers knowledge or new ideas. Many people have said that literature works give an entertainment toward the readers. Literature also conveys important messages of society. When there is a society, then there will be literary works. Literature and society are a unity. The readers’ knowledge about the history and social condition in the time when literary works are written may be enriched by reading literary works. The readers can learn what story happened in the past, what kind of human behavior and values exist in the society. Literary works can play the role as historical document that records social realities, which are artistically portrayed by the author (Wellek and Warren, 1956: 102).
people’s understanding of life. In Courtney’s Teaching Drama, it is stated that “reading a literature piece such as drama does not only give us pleasure but also deepens and broadens our vision and experience of living” (1965: 100). Meanwhile in Perrine’s Literature: Sound and Sense, the aim of writing literature is to be understood and enjoyed. Life will be less tedious by literature and one will feel that time passes quickly. One can broaden and sharpen his awareness of life and its problem (1978: 3).
Sometimes the result of reading a literary work may provoke readers or audiences to be more aware of the situations around them. There are many works of literature which concern the conflicts of human beings such as the conflict that happened in the United States, that was the issue of slavery. “All men are created equal”, was the sentence stated in the Declaration of Independence which was meaningless for the black people who were slaves. This issue had led America to the civil war, the war between North America and South America. The North wanted to abolish slavery, while the South wanted to maintain it. The civil war ended in 1865 and was won by the North. The slavery was abolished but the practice of racial discrimination continued in different forms in the United States of America.
make his family live better, he also wants to help the blacks to have the same opportunities and treatments.
A tragic character helps cover the way for other blacks to have the opportunities under conditions they were never free to experience, but never reap from their own sacrifice and talents themselves (sparknotes.com, 2010).
Troy’s bad experience related to sport affects his son, Cory, because he does not want Cory to have the same experience: always in the backseat while the whites always become the players.
A responsible yet otherwise flawed black garbage collector in pre-Civil Rights America who, in August Wilson's hands, rises to the level of an epic hero. Deemed a generational play, it mirrors the classic struggle of status quo, tradition, and age, versus change, innovation, and youth (greenwood.com, 2010).
Then he builds fences which symbolize his protection over Cory and also all of his family. In Milly S. Barrenger’s Understanding Plays, it is stated that
The fence is tangible (“real” wood for the fence is sawed and hammered), but it is also Wilson’s metaphor for the cultural situation of African-Americans in the late fifties (1994: 545).
Fences, which was written in the year of 1957 but later developed from 1983-1987 in United States, is about the life of an African American family. It is set just before the start of the civil rights movement, in 1957 in Pittsburgh, PA. The play takes place at a time when organized baseball has finally become integrated, but when racial discrimination remains widespread (findarticles.com, 2011). The main issue here is racism and the huge barrier between black and white people and its effect on the Maxson family, especially Troy.
for them. The struggle of Troy Maxson againsts the white and struggles from the conflict that happened at that time can be seen in the play. In the review written by Wade Bradford entitled Character and Setting Analysis, it isstated that
The protagonist, Troy Maxson is a restless trash-collector and former baseball athlete. Though deeply flawed, he represents the struggle for justice and fair treatment during the 1950s. Troy also represents human nature’s reluctance to recognize and accept social change (plays.about.com, 2011).
In the writer’s perspective, this book conveys the real conditions and situations of a society and portrays the live of African American since the author lives in Fences was set, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Fences still deals with Jim Crow Laws practices that was started in 1887, in Florida.
To understand the portrait of the racial discrimination experienced by the black Americans in the twentieth century through literary works, Fences is a good start for research. It is interesting to observe the experience or conflict of the main character in facing the racial discrimination. The play is the representation of the black people at that time who got the racial practices from the white.
B.Problem Formulation
To analyze the topic of this study, the writer has formulated two questions to be examined. They are presented as follows:
1. What conflicts do Troy Maxson deal with in August Wilson’s Fences? 2. How do Troy Maxson’s conflicts reveal the racial discrimination in
C.Objective of the Study
There are two objectives of this thesis. Firstly, the study will observe the main character’s (Troy) conflicts. Secondly, the study tries to explain the racial discrimination in the twentieth century United States of America that can be revealed through the conflicts experienced by Troy Maxson.
D.Definition of Terms
In this study, the writer needs to define two terms in order to avoid misunderstanding on August Wilson’s Fences.
The first term is racial discrimination. Based on Feagin’s Racial and Ethnic Relations, discrimination is “actions carried out by members of dominant groups, which have a differential and harmful impact on members of subordinates groups” (1978: 14-15).
6 CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A.Review of Related Studies
There are some criticisms arise along with the presence of literary work. Agreement, deep examination, judgment and comment are the example forms of criticism. In this thesis, the writer will analyze August Wilson’s play Fences. This part contains the related studies that deal with August Wilson’s Fences because August Wilson and also his work got many critics’ attention. Several criticisms will be presented in order to enrich the writer’s knowledge in understanding the play.
August Wilson records the experience of African-American people in the 20th century in a series of plays that will stand as a landmark in the history of black American culture, of American literature. The review about August Wilson that found in courttheatre.org, entitled Study Guide for Court Theatre’s Production of August Wilson’s Fences by Ben Calvertstates that
In his work, Mr. Wilson depicted the struggles of black Americans with uncommon lyrical richness, theatrical density and emotional heft, in plays that gave vivid voices to people on the frayed margins of life: cabdrivers and maids, garbage men and side men and petty criminals (courttheatre.org, 2010).
Still, in the same source, according to Ben Calvert,
According to Milly S. Barrenger in her book entitled Understanding Plays in Fences, “Wilson uses the well-made play model to examine the inheritance of patriarchy in the father-son conflict between fifty-year-old Troy Maxson and his teenage son, Cory.” The conflict that happens in this African-American family develops to a crisis that hinges on the disclosure of crucial and traumatic incidents in the father’s past and then in the present (1994: 544).
In August Wilson’s “Fences” Character and Setting Analysis, Wade Bradford states that Fences explores the life and relationships of Troy Maxson, an activist-minded trash-collector and former baseball hero. The protagonist represents the struggle for justice and fair treatment during the 1950s (plays.about.com, 2011). There are many conflicts happened in the Troy’s family, between the member of his family either the people around him.
According to Linda Sullivan Baity in her review, Wilson Play Like Listening to the Blues in South Coast Repertory: Playgoer’s Guide to Fences,
Troy Maxson has spent his entire life trapped behind fences he cannot scale. He is a man at once proud and humiliated, hopeful and disillusioned passionate and yet powerless to surmount the obstacles of racial prejudice, prison bars, family obligations and self-imposed emotional walls that block his way at every turn (scr.org, 2010).
examples of the effects on Wilson's conflict that the inequality has on them such as Troy's frustration with the discrimination he endures when he recounts a conversation he has with his boss concerning the issue.
This middle-aged African-American garbage collector and legendary ex-player in the Negro baseball league is the beating heart of August Wilson’s master work, Fences (scr.org, 2010).
As the drama’s compelling central character, Troy Maxson (a character loosely based on the playwright’s own stepfather) also embodies the inequalities and injustices confronting black American throughout the painful course of modern history (scr.org, 2010).
This quotation implies the experience of the black American in 1950’s which portrayed by the conflict felt by the character of Troy Maxson. Troy’s character, who is the main character in this play, reveals the situation and condition that is faced by black people and also the treatment of the whites to the black.
In the thesis written by Christina Lina Yuliati entitled The Effect of Troy’s Unpleasant Experiences in His Past Present Life in August Wilson’s
Fences, it says that
Troy’s unpleasant experiences in his past and present life are: the broken relation between him and his father, the murder that put him in the penitentiary, his unfulfilled dream to become a professional baseball player, his incapability in buying his own house, his unsuccessfulness in fighting the same position in the society, and his powerlessness as a father toward his elder son (1999: 62).
The thesis entitled August Wilson’s Fences: The African-American Women’s Pursuit of Dreams Seen From the Perspective of Rose Maxson by Nandy Intan Kurnia shows about Wilson’s perspective toward the African American women in pursuit their dreams, in this case is Rose Maxson. It states that
However, the situation gradually changes when women have enabled themselves to be independent, like the one done by Rose Maxson. She starts her journey as an independent woman when decided to leave her husband, Troy, as a “womanless man” and beginning to set her new goals, which are to be a religious person and a good mother for her children. She shows that she has the freedom enables her to reach her dreams (staff.uny.ac.id, 2011).
These reviews will help the writer in collecting the information about the issues that appears in the play and the conflict inside the play. In answering the questions in problem formulation and analyzing the conflict in Fences and the main topic of this thesis the writer is supported and helped by these reviews to reveal the racial discrimination in Fences.
In this thesis, the writer wants to analyze August Wilson’s Fences which focuses on the racial prejudice toward the black people in the 20th century United States of America. This topic will be revealed through the conflicts of the major character which have not been analyzed yet.
B.Review of Related Theories 1. Theories of Conflict
works, the conflict is between opposing desires or values in a character’s in a character’s of own mind (1981: 128).
In Stantons’s Introduction to Fiction, there are two kinds of conflict, internal and external conflict (1965: 16):
1. Internal Conflict
This kind of conflict is identified by term Man vs. Himself. It takes place inside the protagonist, meaning that he or she arguing with him or herself. He spends the entire story arguing with himself about what to do before something finally happens that forces him to make decision.
2. External Conflict
This conflict is happens when the protagonist has trouble and conflicts against the other characters. The protagonist is opposed by another character. Frequently he fights with a single person or more than one. In Handbook of Literature, Harmon and Holman state that conflict is “the struggle that grows out of the interplay of the two opposing forces. Conflict provides interest, suspense and tension.” They also state that the struggles occur may be the struggles against nature, against another person, against society, and struggle for mastery by two elements (1986: 107).
Conflict has important role in literary work because it always deals with the plot. It appears from central character’s action deals with other forces. Central character has a responsibility to solve the conflicts. Conflicts end when central character succeeds or fails in overcoming the other forces. Sometimes the protagonist gives up when the struggle is too difficult or worthless. As stated in A Second Book of Plays,
mind of protagonist. The term external conflict refers to a struggle between the protagonist and outside force (Redman, 1964: 363).
2. Theory on Racial Discrimination
Racial discrimination is a different treatment based on physical and social condition. The theory found in The New Encyclopedia Britannica states that
Racial is the idea that there is a casual link between inherited physical traits and certain traits of personality, intellect, or culture and combined with it. The notion that some races are inherently superior to others under the racism, a race is defined socially but based on physical characteristics. Such physical characteristics have no inherent significance, but only such significance as is socially attributed to them in a given society (1983: 360).
In International Encyclopedia of Ethics, Joan Ferrante’s Sociology: A Global Perspective (1992), discrimination is “the unequal treatment, whether intentional or unintentional, of individuals or groups on the basis of group membership that is unrelated to merit, ability, or past performance” (1995: 232).
There are two types of discrimination. They are legal discrimination and institutional discrimination. Legal discrimination is “unequal treatment that is sustained by law”. Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton’s Black Power in
International Encyclopedia of Ethics, say that:
Institutional discrimination is a subtle form of unequal treatment based on race that is entrenched in social custom (that is, social institutions). Institutional discrimination may include segregated housing patterns, redlining by financial institutions, and the practice of minority group members being forced continually into low-paying jobs. (1995: 232). Then, Roth’s International Encyclopedia of Ethics states that:
According to Farley in his book Sociology in International Encyclopedia of Ethics, he states that “a minority group is any group in a disadvantaged or subordinate position (in this sense, a minority may actually constitute a numerical majority: for example, blacks in South Africa)” (1995: 232).
In United States of America, there is such a caste-like system towards the Blacks practiced by the Whites and the Blacks treat like the second class citizen. “African Americans have operated in a caste-like racial structure in the United States that has relegated them to inferior status, relative powerlessness, material deprivation, and socio-psychic resentment” (1995: 233).
Discrimination is used as mechanisms of a racial category for life, “Segregation and discrimination have been used as mechanisms for maintaining the sociopolitical structure (status quo)” (1995: 233). This structure makes the African Americans fell like ‘restricted’ from their life:
Within this structure, African Americans are members of a racial category for life; they are generally consigned to marry within their group; they are often avoided, both as ritual and as custom; and they experience limited opportunities (1995: 233).
It can be said that discrimination continues to be embedded in social, political, and economic fabric of the United States.
different in physical or social condition. “Members of groups are denied opportunities or rewards for reasons unrelated to their capabilities, industry, and general merit: they are judged solely on their membership of an identifiable group, which is erroneously thought to have a racial basis” (2004: 345).
C.Review on the Racial Discrimination in the 20th Century American Society The story of African Americans dealing with racism during the 1950's and 60's is not a story unheard by anyone. It is a common story that we hear early in life. It is a real life event that many African Americans have to deal with for many years. This is no way for anyone to live, and African Americans know it is time for them to be treated like human beings. Many of them try to struggle in their condition to oppose the racial discrimination.
racial problems which began with slavery and were fostered by the discrimination and segregation continue to south of the United States of America. They passed the anti-African American legislation.
In 1887 in Florida, there was a rule called Jim Crow Laws. It was included the laws for the discrimination to the African Americans with the using of facilities such as the segregation in seating in trains, restaurants, hotels, theaters and public toilets, and concerning to the public schools’ attendance. Then in the 1890s, a fully segregated society happened in the South. The black Americans got a ‘separate but equal’ treatment but the fact they treated with inferior private and public facilities. The White’s points of view toward the Blacks are found in Eric Hass’s book entitled Socialism: World Without Race-Prejudice for Online Edition. The Blacks got racial treatments from the Whites such as:
The Negro is unemployed – therefore he is indolent.
The Negro is forced to arduous, menial jobs – therefore, he hasn’t the capacity to perform operations requiring intelligence and skill.
The Negro is compelled to live in black ghettos – therefore he brings down poverty values.
The Negro’s life is shortened by malnutrition and extreme poverty – therefore he succumbs more readily to disease and is dangerous to be around.
And so on (slp.org, 2011).
whites and the blacks to be served in the same room. The use of the toilets has the same law with the other public facilities (sju.edu, 2011).
In Florida, the marriages between a white person and an Afro American, or between a white person and a person of Afro American descent to the fourth generation inclusive, are prohibited. For education, the schools for the whites and also the blacks must be separated. In Georgia, there are colored barbers shall not serve as a barber to white girls. For amateur Negro baseball team, they shall not play baseball in any vacant lot or baseball diamond within two blocks of playground to the white race (sju.edu, 2011).
The prisons for the white convicts shall be separated for sleeping and eating from the Negro convicts in Mississippi. For the militia in North Carolina, organization of Negro troops shall not be permitted where white troops are available. Still in the North Carolina, there shall be a separated place for the colored people who may come to the library to read books that has been maintained by the state librarian (sju.edu, 2011).
The action above led the member of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Montgomery, Alabama and also a seamstress, Rosa Parks did not want to give up her seat on the city bus to a white man. She challenged Jim Crow Laws and she was arrested. Then it turned to pastor at Montgomery’s Dexter Street Baptist Church, Martin Luther King. Jr. He suggested that Montgomery’s bus system was boycotted until it was integrated. The black community walked to work and formed carpools. It made the bus company bankrupt and the loss of business in downtown stores. But in November 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation was illegal.
Then, sports in America also have institutional racism and individual racism as the fundamental component, like what stated in encyclopedia.jrank.org, “The playing fields of America were slowly integrated in the twentieth century, and in the twenty-first century the struggle has shifted to equity in off-the-field opportunities” (encyclopedia.jrank.org, 2011).
As America embraced formal legal segregation toward the end of the century, the eviction of African Americans from many professional sports was already underway. African Americans were involved in all of the major popular sports of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, ranging from horse racing, baseball, and bicycling to boxing and football. Black athletes were systematically removed from all professional sports with the creation of formal color barriers by the early twentieth century. Professional football was one of the last sports to force black athletes out of its ranks by the 1930s, but one of the first to reintegrate beginning in 1946. (encyclopedia.jrank.org, 2011)
Before black athletes reintegrate in 1946, Matthew Eisenberg, in his book entitled The Baseball’s Negro Leagues that found in tcr.org, states that “Black men were unfairly prohibited from playing in baseball’s major leagues until 1947” (tcr.org, 2011). From 1898 to 1947, racism became the fundamental component in baseball. It excluded black players from white teams and leagues. They were forced to play in inferior ballparks, under inferior conditions, because of their skin colors.
From 1871 to 1947, African American baseball players were locked in and forced to play only in teams which made for "negroes". As the all white baseball teams increased and had more teams, right beside them were the increasing numbers of all black teams.
2011). The article found in findarticles.com by Rust’s Art Rust’s Illustrated History of the Black Athlete and Holway’s Voices from the Great Black Baseball Leagues also states the experience that felt by Buck Leonard, the first baseman. He states that “this itinerant life was not an easy one.” Although the basemen can join the team, but they still get unequal treatment from their league:
Some seasons we would play 210 ball games. You're riding every day, playing in different towns. No air conditioning. Meals were bad. When I first started playing, we were getting 60 cents a day on which to eat (Rust 33).
Sometimes we'd stay in hotels that had so many bedbugs you had to put a newspaper down between the mattress and the sheets (Holway 259) (findarticles.com, 2011).
The colored ballplayers had to deal with racism in the United State of America. They were unable to eat in restaurants for the whites only and to stay at hotels that catered to white., In Craft’s The Negro Leagues: 40 Years of Black Professional Baseball in Words and Pictures through findarticles.com, George Giles who is the first baseman for the St. Louis Stars, says that, "The racism we faced while I was in the Negro Leagues was one of the things that eventually pushed me out of baseball.... I was treated like a second-class citizen in my own country by people who knew they hated me before I could even say 'Hello'" (Craft 44). Ironically, most players found greater freedom and respect when they traveled outside the borders of the United States, "the so-called land of the free" (Craft 69) (findarticles.com, 2011).
drivers, and truck drivers. After the 1950s, the Census begins to show African Americans employed in manufacturing, and as clerks, bookkeepers, cab and bus drivers, mechanics, policemen, managers, foremen, salesmen, accountants, auditors, and nurses. There were still African Americans employed in service occupations, but the numbers were decreasing as more and more African Americans were able to find work in places that had previously been denied to them (berkshistory.org, 2011).
The significance of the play being set in 1957 is that it deals with the class and race issues of this time period. At this time African Americans were only recently allowed to play in mixed sports leagues; before this, there were separate leagues for blacks and whites.
D.Theoretical Framework
The aim of this study is to find the racial discrimination in 20th century the United States through the conflict of the major character, Troy Maxson in August Wilson’s Fences. In this analysis, the writer provides some theories in order to find the answer of the questions stated in the problem formulation. There are theories of conflicts, theories on racial discrimination and some historical background reviews. All the theories mentioned in the Review of Related Theories are able to answer the problems in problem formulation because they are related to each other.
question in problem formulation because the writer will be able to get a clear description about the conflict of Troy Maxson that found in the play.
21 CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
A.Object of the Study
In this study, the writer wants to analyze one of August Wilson’s play entitled Fences. Since the setting of the play is in 1957, in the dirt-yard and porch of the Maxson family's house in Pittsburgh, PA which also became Wilson’s hometown, it is important to know the condition of society in Pittsburgh. By reading the play, the reader can learn about the racism in United States of America felt by African-American people.
Fences was Wilson's second play to go to Broadway and won him the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play was written in 1957, later, 1965, which was developed from 1983–1987 in United States. It was published in June 1986 with Penguin Books USA as the publisher.
Fences was presented as a stage at The Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center’s 1983 National Playwrights Conference. It was opened on April 30, 1985, at the Yale Repertory Theatre in a production directed by Lloyd Richards. In the following year, the Richards-helmed Broadway premiere won every accolade, including the Tony Award for Best Play, the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, the John Gassner Outer Critics’ Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. (scr.org, 2010)
tries to join a major league. Since his failed struggle as a black baseball player, he does not allow his son, Cory to join the football league in his college. He does not want his son experience what he has. What he does is for protecting his son and he does not let his son to be disappointed like he was. Troy also struggles for his job. He complains to his employers protesting about the limitation of black workers as lifters not drivers on the trash trucks. He wants justice and same treatment for his race till he becomes the first African American truck driver in his term. Although he has self-imposed emotional, he has a wife who cares of him, named Rose. But he betrays his wife with having affair with another woman. Rose, who is a loving and caring woman, still forgive him and she takes care Troy’s child when the child’s mother, Alberta died.
B.Approach of the Study
The writer uses the socio-cultural historical approach in analyzing this study because the writer wants to analyze the play that is related to the history of the black Americans in twentieth century in the United States. According to Mary Rohrberger and Samuel H. Woods,
Critics whose major interest is the socio-cultural historical approach insist that the only way to locate the real work is in reference to the civilization that produced it. They define civilization as the attitudes and actions of a specific group of people and point out that literature takes these attitudes and actions as its subject matter (1971: 9).
This traditional approach to literature usually takes as its basis some aspects of the socio-cultural historical frame of reference, combining it with an interest in biographical as well as knowledge of an interest in literary history (Rohrberger and Woods, 1971: 9).
This approach obviously explains that to more understand of the literary work, the reader needs to know about what happens in the time of the literary work and also the biography of the author.
Then, the historical critic examines not only the work itself but also the work in relation to others by the same author or works of similar kind of subject matter by different authors in the same period or in different periods (Rohrbrger and Woods, 1971: 9).
According to William Harmon and Hugh Holman, in their book, A Handbook to Literature, “historical criticism is criticism that approaches work in terms of the social, cultural, and historical context in which it was produced” (2009: 245).
C.Method of the Study
In conducting the study, the method used was library research method. It means that all the data were taken from any written sources such as books on literature, criticism and also encyclopedia to collect the information in the process of analyzing and answering the problems.
Supporting this study, the writer used two kinds of sources. There were primary source and secondary sources. The primary source was the play itself,
Fences that is written by August Wilson. The play was found in the W. B. Worthen’s The Harcourt Brace Anthology of Drama, Third Edition.
Meanwhile, the secondary sources were taken from some books, such as
Glossary of Literary Terms (1991), Reading and Writing about Literature (1971),
Understanding Plays, Second Edition (1994), and also from the websites such as www.sparknotes.com, www.courttheatre.org, www.findarticles.com, and plays.about.com.
play itself and other references, such as information related to the studies, theories of conflict, theory on racial discrimination, some reviews of historical background, and socio-cultural historical approach.
26 CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
The writer divides this chapter into two parts. Each part answers each question that is stated in the problem formulation in Chapter I. The first part discusses the conflicts experienced by Troy Maxson, and this part will be the base to answer the second problem, that is how Troy Maxson’s conflicts reveal the racial discrimination in the 20th century United States of America.
A.Troy Maxson’s Conflicts in August Wilson’s Fences
In August Wilson’s Fences, the author presents Troy Maxson as the main character of the play. Troy Maxson is described as a middle-aged African-American man whose job is a garbage man.
Troy is fifty-three years old, a large man with thick, heavy hands…. The men carry lunch buckets and wear or carry burlap aprons and are dressed in clothes suitable to their jobs as garbage collectors. (Act I, Scene I, p. 1036)
He lives with his wife, Rose, and two sons, Lyons, his son by a previous marriage and Cory, and he takes care of his care-free brother, Gabriel. His dream was once to be able to become a baseball player for the major baseball league but because of the racial discrimination that he faced, he never achieved that dream, and he doesn’t want the same thing to happen to his younger son, Cory.
conflict itself, the writer finds out that there are three conflicts that Troy Maxson has to face or against the circumstances standing between him and a goal that he has set by himself by observing the play.
1. Troy Maxson’s Conflict with His Employer, Mr. Rand
Troy was a former baseball player. He practiced to play baseball for fifteen years in the penitentiary. But his dream could not come true. He could not be the member of the major baseball league. Because of losing his dream to develop his career in baseball, Troy tried to find out another job to make a living, that was as a garbage collector. It is stated in the beginning of the play, “the men carry lunch buckets and wear or carry burlap aprons and are dressed in clothes suitable to their jobs as garbage collectors.” (Act I, Scene I, p. 1036)
Although the salary as a garbage man is not satisfying, Troy tries to do his best to be a good worker. In the place where he works, only the white can drive a truck, and the black lifts the garbage. He wants the white people to consider the existence of the black people by allowing them to drive the truck.
The first conflict can be seen in act one, scene one, when Troy Maxson and his friend, Bono, engage in a conversation. They talk about the nigger who comes and talks to Bono, saying that Troy will get them fired.
The quotation above shows the conflict of Troy Maxson with Mr. Rand, his employer. Based on Stanton’s Introduction to Fiction, this kind of conflict is called external conflict. “It happens when the protagonist has trouble and conflicts against the other characters. The protagonist is opposed by another character. Frequently he fights with a single person or more than one” (1965: 16).
In the above dialogue, Troy Maxson has a trouble with other characters, Mr. Rand. He is opposed by Mr. Rand and Troy fights against him. He demands the same position as White in the society. He asks his right to be a truck driver because only the white fellows can be appropriate to drive a truck while the blacks only lift the garbage.
This conflict can also be concluded from the conversation between Troy and Bono. Troy says that, “Brownie don’t understand nothing. All I want them to do is change the job description. Give everybody a chance to drive the truck.” (Act I, Scene I, p. 1037)
But his struggle to get a proper job as a truck driver is not in vain. Troy Maxson finally can be what he wants, a truck driver which only white people’s job. It is stated on the conversation between Troy and Rose,
TROY. Look here, Rose… Mr. Rand called me into his office today when I got back from talking to them people down there… it come from up top… he called me in and told me they was making a driver. (Act I, Scene 4, p. 1047)
Troy’s success as a truck driver can also be found in Bono’s dialogue in praising Troy’s achievement,
It can be seen in the Bono’s dialogue that Troy is the first colored driver at that time. After struggling to his employer, Mr. Rand, Troy earns a promotion allowing him to drive the garbage truck. The main character, Troy Maxson, succeeds in overcoming the other forces. He fights against his employer concerning a promotion which is not an easy task to do.
2. Troy Maxson’s Conflict with Major Baseball League
In the past, Troy Maxson was a former baseball player in Negro baseball league. Before he was able to play baseball, he learned to play baseball in the penitentiary. He had to stay in penitentiary for 15 years because he killed a man accidentally.
TROY. … Went to rob this fellow… pulled out my knife… and he pulled out a gun. Shot me in the chest. It felt just like somebody had taken a hot branding iron and laid it on me. When he shot me I jumped at him with my knife. They told me I killed him and they put me in the penitentiary and locked me up for fifteen years. (Act I, Scene 4, p. 1049)
Troy had enough time to think that he had done was wrong. He regretted it but it was too late and it was impossible to him to turn back the time. And he made a promise that he would never rob anymore. For that reason, Troy learned how to play baseball. He knew that he had to have a skill to have a better life than he had before. Penitentiary was the place where he learned baseball. He said, “That’s where I learned how to play baseball.” (Act I, Scene I, p. 1049)
BONO. … Ain’t but two men ever played baseball as good as you. That’s Babe Ruth and Josh Gibson. Them’s the only two men ever hit more home runs than you. (Act I, Scene I, p. 1038)
Troy knows he can play basketball well. He is proud of his ability of playing baseball because he is able to play baseball better than others.
TROY. Selkirk! That’s it! Man batting .269, understand? .269. What kind of sense that make? I was hitting .432 with thirty-seven home runs! (Act I, Scene I, p. 1038)
Troy realizes his skill in playing baseball and he wants to make it as his career. He wants to be a professional baseball player. But Troy is very upset to find out that he cannot make his dream as a professional baseball player come true. He is powerless to fight against the condition he faced. He thinks that baseball team does not accept him as the part of the team because he is a black man. He cannot accept the rejection. Troy thinks that it is not fair to refuse someone just because of his race. He has to face the reality that he cannot join the major baseball league.
TROY. .. I’m talking about if you could play ball then they ought to have to let you play. Don’t care what color you were. Come telling me. I come along too early. If you could play… then they ought to have let you play. (Act I, Scene I, p. 1038)
Troy’s ability in baseball league diminishes because African Americans were not given much chance to play in Troy’s day, so he was not able to make a living out of playing baseball. He thinks what he did for fifteen years in the penitentiary is useless.
TROY. If they got a white fellow sitting on the bench… you can bet your last dollar he can’t play! The colored guy got to be twice as good before he get on the team. That’s why I don’t want you to get all tied up in them sports. Man on the team and what it get him? They got colored on the team and don’t use them. Same as not having them. All the teams the same. (Act I, Scene 3, p. 1044)
Susan Koprince in her article Baseball as history and myth in August Wilson's: Fences, says that Rose and Bono claim that times have changed since Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball. And now many colored players are involved in professional sport. Bono’s opinion, Troy just come too early (findarticles.com). And Troy argues,
TROY. There ought not never have been no time called too early! ... I done seen a hundred niggers play baseball better than Jackie Robinson. Hell, I know some teams Jackie Robinson couldn't even make! What you talking about Jackie Robinson. Jackie Robinson wasn't nobody. I'm talking about if you could play ball then they ought to have let you play. Don't care what color you were. Come telling me I come along too early. If you could play ... then they ought to have let you play. (Act I, Scene I, p. 1038)
3. Troy Maxson’s Conflict with His Son, Cory
It has been explained before in the second problem formulation that Troy was not able to be a baseball player in his time. But this unpleasant experience makes Troy have a big disappointment which he has buried from time to time and then it ends to his son, Cory, who is recruited by a college football team. It can be seen in Rose’s dialogue. She says, “Cory done went and got recruited by a college football team.” (Act I, Scene I, p. 1038)
disappointment in baseball. What Troy does is to protect Cory. And the unpleasant experience leads Troy to protect Cory.
Troy’s bitterness of the denial in playing baseball to major league baseball is still felt by him. Cory is the new generation that is more optimistic than his father to get a better life. He is eager to attend college on a football scholarship team that is recruited by his coach, Coach Zellman, “Yeah. Coach Zellman say the recruiter gonna be coming by to talk to you. Get you to sign the permission papers.” (Act 1, Scene 3, p. 1044)
Cory likes to play football very much. It is shown in the dialogue between Cory and Troy. In the dialogue is seen that Cory prefers practicing football to doing his chores.
TROY. You just now coming in here from leaving this morning? CORY. Yeah, I had to go to football practice.
TROY. Yeah, what? CORY. Yessir.
TROY. I ain’t but two seconds off you noway. The garbage sitting in there overflowing… you ain’t done none of your chores… and you come in here talking about “Yeah.”
CORY. I was just getting ready to do my chores now, Pop…
TROY. Your first chore is to help me with this fence on Saturday. Everything else come after that. Now get that saw and cut them boards. (Act I, Scene 3, p. 1043)
Cory spends his time to play football and he is eager to be a football player. What Cory needs to be the part of the football team was Troy’s signature in the recruitment form. But Troy refuses it. He believes that Cory will have the same experience, an unpleasant treatment, as what he had in the past.
ROSE. Why don’t you let the boy go ahead and play football, Troy? Ain’t no harm in that. He’s just trying to be like you with the sports. TROY. I don’t want him to be like me! I want him to move as far away
wasn’t getting involved in no sports. Not after what they did to me in the sports. (Act I, Scene 3, p. 1045)
They argue about a college football team that recruits Cory to be a football player. Troy does not want Cory experiences the unpleasant experience felt by Troy, so he says that “I don’t want him to be like me!” (Act I, Scene I, p. 1045). Troy obviously rejects that and asks Cory to work at the A&P although Cory tells Troy that he will work in weekend.
Troy’s experience that he had in the past has pressed him. In the past, he tried to join the major baseball league from Negro baseball league but he was not accepted to be the part of the baseball team because he was a black. And up to now he still thinks that the football team will do the same to Cory, the racial discrimination practice. Troy still has a conservative mind like what stated in Troy and Cory’s dialogue,
TROY. I ain’t thinking about the Pirates. Got an all-white team. Got that boy… that Puerto Rican boy… Clemente. Don’t even half-play him. That boy could be something if they give him a chance. Play him one day and sit him on the bench the next
CORY. He gets a lot of chances to play.
TROY. I’m talking about playing regular. Playing everyday so you can get your timing. That’s what I’m talking about.
disappointment that haunted Troy all these years makes Troy try to get Cory off from sport, especially football.
TROY. I got a good sense, woman. I got a good sense enough to let my boy get hurt over playing no sports. You been a mothering that boy too much. Worried about if people like him. (Act I, Scene 3, p. 1045) Troy’s rejection of Cory when Cory is recruited by a football team is seen in Troy’s dialogue,
TROY. I told that boy about that football stuff. The white man ain’t gonna let him nowhere with that football. I told him when he first come to me with it. Now you come telling me he done went and got more tied up in it. He ought to go and get recruited in how to fix cars or something where he can make a living. (Act I, Scene I, p. 1038) TROY. I thought we had an understanding about this football stuff? You
suppose to keep up with your chores and hold that job down at the A&P. Ain’t been around here all day on a Saturday. Ain’t none of your chores done… and now you telling me you done quit your job …I don’t care where he coming from. The white man ain’t gonna let you get nowhere with that football noway. You go on and get your book-learning so you can work yourself up in that A&P or learn how to fix cars or build houses or something,… Besides hauling people’s garbage. (Act I, Scene 3, p. 1044-1045)
The dialogue above shows that it is better for Cory to work in A&P to make a living and earn money than to be a football player. Troy does not want to see Cory hurt by the fact that Cory cannot be a football player because he is a black. He thinks that he is responsible to take care of his family.
Finally, what Cory dreams of is failed because of Troy’s denial. Troy tells Cory’s coach in football that Cory cannot play football and join to football team.
CORY. Papa done went up to the school and told Coach Zellman I can’t play football no more. Wouldn’t even let me play the game. Told him to tell the recruiter not to come. (Act I, Scene 4, p. 1050)
B.Racial Discrimination in 20th Century United States of America Reflected in Troy Maxson’s Conflicts
Before the racism against black people happened, the black people had been known as the slaves. Slavery was the main cause of the civil war that happened between North and South America. The North wanted to abolish slavery but the South still supported slavery. Although slavery was abolished, then the black became citizens and they were given the right to vote, the segregation and racism against the black people still happened in the twentieth century. In Florida, there was a law that discriminated against the Afro-American people segregated seating in public accommodation such as train and bus named Jim Crow Laws. It required the different use of the public and also private facilities. For examples, it was illegal to eat in the same room in the restaurants or lunch counters in the restaurant, used the public toilets in the bus station, and used of the separate entrances for white and colored patients and visitors in hospital (sju.edu, 2011).
Drama, “the descendants of African slaves were offered no such welcome or participation” (2000, 1036).
The following discussion is about the racial discrimination experienced by black people which is revealed in the main character’s conflicts. The writer tries to examine the essence of the conflicts and then to relate them to the racial discrimination that happened in the American Society in the twentieth century.
1. The Reflection of Black Workers Seen through Troy Maxson’s Conflict with His Employer, Mr. Rand
The conflict that happens between Troy and Mr. Rand is basically the conflict felt by African American in the twentieth century. Troy’s conflict reflects the racial discrimination that is addressed to the black people. In this case, Troy, at first, was a garbage collector. It is supposed to be the proper job for the black people like Troy. However, Troy tries to struggle to get more than that, that is to get equality. He struggles for justice in job description for his race, “All I want them to do is change the job description. Give everybody a chance to drive the truck.” (Act I, Scene I, p. 1037)
The quotation above shows that Troy, as a black American, struggles to get a proper job like the white. He thinks that it is not only for himself, but also for his race. Here, the conflict that he faces is related to racial discrimination. In Thomas N. Maloney’s article entitled African American in the Twentieth Century, here is the job condition for the black Americans.
industry, the Ford Motor Company hired a tremendous number of black workers, while other auto makers in Detroit typically excluded these workers. Because their alternatives were limited, black workers could be worked very intensely and could also be used in particularly unpleasant and dangerous settings, such as the killing and cutting areas of meat packing plants, foundry departments in auto plants, and blast furnaces in steel plants (eh.net/encyclopedia, 2011).
The quotation explains limited job for black workers. They are usually set in unskilled laborer positions. Only a few firms hire black workers. Usually black workers are set in dangerous settings in auto plants, such as working in foundry departments.
In W. B Worthen’s The Harcourt Brace Anthology of Drama that contains August Wilson’s Fences, the setting of place in Pittsburgh,
The descendants of African slaves were offered no such welcome or participation. They came from places called the Carolinas and the Virginias, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. They came strong, eager, searching. The city rejected them and they fled and settled along the riverbanks and under bridges in shallow, ramshackle houses made of sticks and tar-paper. They collected rags and wood. They sold the use of their muscles and their bodies. They cleaned houses and washed clothes, they shined shoes, and in quiet desperation and vengeful pride, they stole, and lived in pursuit of their own dream. That they could breathe free, finally, and stand to meet life with the force of dignity and whatever eloquence the heart could call upon (Worthen, 2000: 1036).
The quotation above reflects the life of African American in America. They used their muscles and bodies to their employers. They were just like second class citizen in the city because as they were rejected by the society, made houses from sticks and tar-paper under the bridge. Many of them worked as housekeepers, and any unskilled job to fulfill their daily needs.
was limited and they got lower and inferior job than the white. It was because the whites thought that African Americans were less-educated, low-earning workers, so that they are placed into the lower job even they had to work very intensely and concentrated in the unskilled laborer positions.
Troy feels the inferior facilities and quality which are different from the White. He is only placed in an unskilled laborer position by his employer because collecting garbage is an unskilled job. It is different with driving the truck which needs driving skill. But Troy does not want to be a garbage collector in his whole life. He asks Mr. Rand to get a promotion job. He wants Troy’s struggle for justice, rights and opportunity got a result. Finally, he gets a promotion to get a higher job from his employer, Mr. Rand. He is the first truck driver in that time, 1957. In United States of America, the black American started to get the same job with the white in around 1940s-1950s.
The 1940s and 1950s show more African Americans employed as practical nurses, elevator operators, industry foremen, gas station and parking lot attendants, salespersons, social workers, cab drivers, and truck drivers (berkhistory.org, 2011).
Negro got in 1952. It was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The own policy of transport segregation was continued by states in the Deep South. It is involved the white people sitting in the front and for the black people who sat nearest to the front had to relinquish their seats to any whites standing (spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk, 2011). It can be seen that Troy Maxson and Rosa Sparks struggle for the justice of their race. Both of them tried to break the law that made them as the second class citizens.
2. The Reflection of Negro Baseball Players Seen through Troy’s Conflict with Major Baseball League
Troy’s unpleasant experience after he got an unequal treatment from major baseball league is also the racial practice by the white Americans. He wants to be a professional baseball player because he is confidently capable in doing that. But it is diminished because of his race. The African Americans were not given much chance to play in sports arena.
TROY. If they got a white fellow sitting on the bench… you can bet your last dollar he can’t play! The colored guy got to be twice as good before he get on the team. That’s why I don’t want you to get all tied up in them sports. Man on the team and what it get him? They got colored on the team and don’t use them. Same as not having them. All the teams the same. (Act I, Scene 3, p. 1044)
too old to play when he was over forty. It is shown in Rose’s dialogue, “How’s was you gonna play ball when you were over forty? Sometimes I can’t get no sense of you” (Act I, Scene 3, p. 1045). But Troy argues, “What do you mean too old? Don’t come telling me I was too old. I just wasn’t the right color. Hell, I’m fifty-three years old and can do better that Selkirk’s” (Act I, Scene 3, p. 1045). Troy feels that he is still young and he can still do the best, “Hell, I can hit forty-three home runs right now!” “I hit seven home runs off of Satchel Paige. You can’t get no better than that!” (Act I, Scene 3, p. 1044)
Troy Maxson, who had played in the Negro Leagues, found the change to integrated leagues had come too late; he is now too old to play professional ball. Still, in the same source, findarticles.com by Susan Koprince, racist society has crushed Troy’s dream to play in major leagues, but in his own imagination he is still at bat and young. He is not Troy Maxon, a garbage collector, but Troy Maxon, a “power hitter and hero” (findarticles.com).
pay a heavy price. They, who were able to cross that line, actually became the prime symbol of their race in that individual sport. While demonstrating their skills in the sports arena, they were, at times, teased, harassed, and belittled (liu.edu, 2011).
The year in which Fences was set, in 1957, black athletes had become an integrated part of professional and college sports, at least on the surface. The all-white teams of the World War II-and previous-years began to include blacks in 1947 when Jackie Robinson became the first black professional baseball since the color line was drawn in the 1890s.
In Fences Wilson taps into a history of black baseball that began in America in the decades following the Civil War and continued in various forms until 1947, when Jackie Robinson finally crossed baseball's color line (findarticles.com, 2011).
3. The Reflection of Negro Football Player Seen through Troy’s Conflict with His Son, Cory
Troy’s conflict between Cory is caused by Troy’s disappointment and desire to protect Cory. Cory wants to be one of football players in his college. He gets a recruitment football player from his football coach. But Troy argues that to be a black athlete, Cory has to be twice as talented to make the team and that "the white man ain't gonna let you get nowhere with that football noway." (Act I, Scene 3, p. 1044)
Even Troy instructs Cory to concern with his job at the A & P or to learn how to fix cars, a trade like carpentry: "That way you have something can't nobody take away from you" (Act I, Scene 3, p. 1045).
The conflict between two different generations is based on the two different perceptions. Troy, who is an actual person, has increased tensions in the racially charged environment of the 1930 and 1940s. As what stated in Act I, scene 4, page 1049, Troy practiced baseball in the penitentiary for fifteen years, “That’s where I learned how to play baseball… Fifteen years was a long time for her to wait” (In Worthen). Cory, who believes in the promise of the American dream, for black athletes in the 1950s, feels that Troy is too selfish in holding him back from success (findarticles.com, 2011). He says, “Just cause you didn’t have a chance! You just scared I’m gonna be better than you, that’s all.” (Act I, Scene 4, p. 1050)
Wouldn’t even let me play the game. Told him to tell the recruiter not to come” (Act I, Scene 4, p. 1050). Because of Troy’s statement, Cory cannot continue his hobby and dream as a football player.
Since 1880s, many colleges in the Northeast had African American students and they also played on the football teams. Based on the article found in liu.edu entitled The African-Americans in the Sports Arena, the first African American who played in 1889 in football team as center position was William Henry Lewis, from Berkeley, Virginia and became the captain in 1890s. The other was William Tecumseh Sherman Jackson who played in the half back position from Alexandria, Virginia. Both of them played in the same squad, Amherst.
In 1892, at the University of Chicago, came Amos Alonzo Stagg, coach of the football team. Stagg, from his experiences as a coach, wrote, along with H.C. Williams, a book entitled, A Scientific and Practical Treatise on American Football for Schools and Colleges (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1893). This solitary source became the guide for many developing football teams at all black colleges in the South during the late 1800's. The Morrill Act of 1890 came along and helped land-grant colleges and universities to grow in numbers. Along with these country-wide large universities came the growth of sports which included larger sports arenas for grand football games. Many of African Americans
African Americans were playing football in the eastern colleges by the end of the 1890's (liu.edu, 2011).
Rose’s dialogue also shows that time has changed, “They got lots of colored boys playing ball right now. Baseball and football.” (Act I, Scene 1, p. 1038)
45 CHAPTER V CONCLUSION
In this thesis, the writer focuses on the racial discrimination happened in the twentieth century United States of America seen through the conflict of the main character, Troy Maxson. There are three main conflicts which represent racial discrimination. The first conflict is the conflict between Troy Maxson and his employer, Mr. Rand. The second is Troy Maxson’s conflict with major baseball league. And the third is the conflict between Troy Maxson and his son, Cory.
Troy is an ex-baseball player. His dream to be a professional baseball player in major baseball league diminishes because of his race. The Whites do not give him a chance to play in major league. And what he has done in the penitentiary for fifteen years is useless because he cannot be what he wants to be, as a professional baseball player. However, the color baseball athletes integrated to major league since 1947 and the color barrier was broken by Jackie Robinson. Since then on many colored players were involved into the game. Although many black American integrated in the team, they got unequal treatment, such as the meals they got was bad, there was no air conditioning in their room.
47
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