Movie Fences

The Themes of Racial Discrimination and Family Problems

The themes of racial discrimination and family problems are intertwined in the film Fences. The film depicts the period in the 1950s when Americans were having problems on a social, economic, and governmental level as a result of their race. It depicts the struggles of African Americans who had endured prejudice from generation to generation. The narrative demonstrates how man has suffered as a result of the system and hardship. Additionally, it sheds light on how they interact with the members of their own households. “Fences” is all about clinging to relationships, holding your loved ones together, or detaching from them when hopelessness takes over the peace of mind (Scott).

The Setting and Characters

The film has been shot in Pittsburgh during the year 1950’s, although the exact year has not been stated. The story is about a man Troy (Denzel Washington) who is a trash collector and is a black American. He has a middle-aged man and has seen problems in his families along with the racial discrimination. This discrimination has chased him for years. This is the reason which had made him bitter and negative to think about other people. To his much sufferance, he thinks that things would not change, and his son Cory would be targeted of the same thing. Troy always complains of not getting hired as a driver. He is always inquisitive to his friend Bono (Stephen Henderson), that what lacks in him to be made the driver. Troy’s wife Rose (Viola Davis) is a flat character in the story. She is the one who is of the view that family is the prime responsibility. Despite all the issues and problems, she remains calm and tries to hold onto his husband Troy, and their son Cory. Troy also has another son who is old enough to be one some kind of a job.

Conflicting Views on Life Choices

However, he always visits his father on the paydays to get some money. Troy always tries to convince him that, he should be involved in some kind of the service to earn the livelihood. Lyon has his own views stating that he wants to have his own identity as a musician. Cory on the other side be willing to join the baseball team at the school. Troy always tells him not join, as he is a son of a black, and belonging to such family, he will not be promoted up to the Leagues. Troy thinks that there is no point in joining the football team. In contrast to that Rose, Cory’s mother had different views on it. She states that Cory must join the team, Troy is not giving him the permission is just his own guilt of not going into the football team. Rose is always telling Troy that he should allow his son to join in the football team. Troy tells Rose that he had been discriminated and was not let to join the football team. He states that this discrimination hurts a lot, and he does not want his son to suffer from what he himself has already gone through. However, Rose negates Troy by saying that his reason not getting into the team was his age factor.

Strained Family Relations and Betrayal

The movie also reveals the factors of love and care that especially put the women in different controversial consequences. The very reason of such type arises in the movie when Rose is informed by his husband, that he has an affair with someone else, and he is again going to be a father. This produces an emotional disturbance in a family life, which Rose had protected and fenced from eighteen years. Her gestures show that how moved she was when knowing about Troy betraying him. Cory on the other side also gets angry and also gets physical with his father. This makes the family relations strain a lot. Troy had been gone through such family disturbances when he was the age of Cory. This bitterness had followed him the whole life and along with the societal disturbances, Troy had been struggling a lot with family relations. In order to keep himself calm, he also drank a lot (Parkhe and Biswas 2015, pp. 3373- 3379). Troy used to call to death in the different parts of the movie. He says that it is the death that has fenced him from not getting into the heaven which his brother, Gabe always talked about. Gabe was mentally retarded, however, being in the army had brought a lot for Troy and his family.

Misunderstandings and Betrayal Continued

The film also portrays some kind of confusing elements between the relations that become the base of misunderstanding. It is after the revealing of Troy’s affair that the signing of Gabe’s papers of admission into a mental asylum comes in front of everyone. Rose accuses Troy of not signing the papers for his son and letting his brother got to the hospital. She had complained that Troy has done that without letting her know. When Rose had been insisting on for many years to get him admitted, Troy had never listened to her. On the other side Troy tells her that he could not read and write, he thought that the papers were for his release from the jail. Troy had signed the paper to allow his brother to be in the mental hospital was not done deliberately. Rose was much upset about the affair of his husband, and the child to come. She had been living with her siblings who were half of her age.

Rose’s Strength and Troy’s Demise

She did not want her son to live in such a condition which she had passed through. This notion of a woman tells that how different roles a female gender plays in the family to fence her relation altogether at one time. She insists that she is the one who had given up her whole life for her family and child’s integrity. During the movie, the family and their friends are busy in building the fence around the house. It is the main prop in the film which talks about the god’s fence around them as a mother, and wife always believes in that. It is to fence the relations that should not be a parted. After few months, Troy comes into the house with his daughter and tells Rose with a heavy heart that he has lost his girlfriend. The death once more has won over him. Rose not willing to accept the child, at last, takes hold of her. She states that she would not punish her because she is not responsible for the betrayal that Troy has done with her.

Life’s Struggles and Lessons Learned

The separation between the couple makes Rose much stronger. Despite being emotionally disturbed, she holds on to herself and makes her house run without Troy’s pay. Troy in the meanwhile been hired as a driver, which makes him astonished as he is always of the view that, blacks do not have any rights, and the things will not go in the right direction for him, and his family. The film depicts that whenever Troy has an upper hand on his son or some other person, it makes him feel more relaxed and happy. In the end of the movie when Troy tells his son to leave his house, the way he sings a song to invite the death again shows the energy that he gets after letting his son out of the house fence. Tory dies of a heart attack, although he always talked to confronting death. One cannot confront a reality which is bitter and has to come. The real face of the world is bitter and has certain consequences. However, the film depicts the struggle through thick and thin with gaining and losing on different phases of life.

The Conclusion and Final Scenes

Gabe arrives from the mental hospital at the end and wishes that the gates of heaven be opened up for his brother. Cory has been selected in the Leagues after seven years, he is back home and not willing to attend his father’s funeral. Rose tells him that it would not be wise of him to do this. Cory considered his father as a shadow, who has always chased him rather protecting him from the negative things as a father does. Rose in reply to his views said that Troy was not a shadow, it was a shadow that had been growing inside him. She also talks about Troy on his funeral the loving days that had spent together. She talks about Raynell, Troy’s daughter being a part of her life. She promises to take good care of her. Despite being hurtful and sad Rose is depicted very strong and composed in this scene of the film.

The Realities of Life and Relationships

The film is a very interesting and a close to reality depicted drama film. It portrays that how the people in a culture, which has been striving through hard times for most of the times has to carry on with different relations. It teaches and provides with a lesson that the change has to come, and also the person despite how strong has to face harsh realities. One cannot confine the other person forever, the bitter experiences in one’s life always chase him, and he can be detached from the loved one. The factors of loyalty and the notion of the love at times have to suffer, and the story goes on. The life is not a bed of roses, the thorns that prick reminds us of the bitter, the other side of the life (Bergesen 585-596).

Rose’s Question: “What About My Life?”

The dialogues of the film beautifully, painfully and honestly answer the question, “what about my life?”. Rose role in the story is all about her relative resistance and the struggle of hers to solve the problems that have been created by his own husband. She copes with his brother and the elder son. She tries to smooth over the relationships whom she encounters in the film. This very pertinent question about life by Rose comes at the climax of the film. This comes in the midst of the confrontation that she has with her husband Troy. The remarkable feature of the movie is the thorough explanation of this very question and the struggle of a family, and each relation through their lives. The answer is presented in a very honest, painful and rather a beautiful manner to get the viewer involved in the real depiction of the story through thick and thin lines. The struggle of the relationship in such cultural clash within the society makes life harder and strangled. The way the character in the film had played their own particular roles is quite commendable. It makes the audience feel the real pain, joy and wonder about the problems at that time during the year 1950. The feeling of deprivation and a sense of being inferior is the key notion behind each of the character’s talking part in the film.

Works Cited

Bergesen, Albert. “How to Sociologically Read a Movie”. The Sociological Quarterly 57.4 (2016): 585-596. Web.

Scott, A.O. “Review: Beneath the Bombbast, ’Fences’ Has an Aching Poetry”. NYTimes, 2016. Web. 7 May 2017.

Parkhe, Viraj, and Bhaskar Biswas. “Sentiment Analysis of Movie Reviews: Finding Most Important Movie Aspects Using Driving Factors”. Soft Computing 20.9 (2015): 3373- 3379. Web.