Generational Trauma In Fences, By August Wilson

Every family has their hardships and challenges in life, but they are given a choice to overcome them or to pass the trauma to the next generation. Fences, written by August Wilson, portrays the trauma that Troy endured when he was younger and how he transferred those problems to his son Cory, making it a generational trauma. Many different scenarios can cause these issues, and if this trauma is not healed, it can break families apart. The generational trauma that both Troy and Cory had to endure affected their relationship drastically, leading to Cory attempting to end this vicious cycle. Generational trauma is the transference of abusive experiences to the next generation, and this cycle began with Troy’s father. Although, considering that

When he commenced to whupping on me… quite natural I run to get out of the way. Now I thought he was mad ‘cause I ain’t done my work. But I see where he was chasing me off so he could have the gal to himself. When I saw what the matter of it was, I lost all fear of my daddy. Right there is where I became a man…at fourteen years of age. (Wilson, 1.4.712).
This was only one of many awful situations that Troy was put through. His father only saw his children as workers and many nights Troy and his siblings would go to bed hungry (Wilson, 1.4.711). The neglect led to Troy escaping from his home at fourteen, where he ran off to Pittsburg and began stealing food to survive. These events were only the beginning of Troy’s troubles; he also had to deal with the harsh, racist environment that took his dreams away from him. 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…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 them teams the same (Wilson,

While Troy didn’t treat his son exactly how his father treated him, he still disrespected Cory to the point where it was traumatic for him, affecting their relationship. “Chronic deprivation or distortions in the psychological environment may impair the capacity for human relations, thus hampering the ability to form healthy parent-child relationships” (Rowland-Klein, Dunlop). This is also illustrated when Troy gets into a fight with his son, before Cory is forced to leave his