In August Wilson’s play “Fences,” the author establishes a dynamic relationship between two brothers that struggled with one another due to one being mentally disabled due to a World War II battle injury. In this dramatic play, Troy, who is described as a bitter and selfish man, has a challenging time for loving, respecting, taking care and accepting his disabled brother, Gabriel. This inspired me to write about my life dealing with a severely autistic brother. I know how laborious it can be for Troy to look after his brother. It takes a lot of hard work, but the most important part is to have patience and to fully understand a brother with a severe disability. I had to learn to be patient to overcome my brother’s disability and to love, respect, and accept him for who he is regardless of how it affects me. In this paper, I will explore the ways in which Troy interacts with Gabriel, comparing them with how I interact with my brother, Bryan, and discuss how the people in America perceive and treat individuals with disabilities.
The relationship between Troy and Gabriel is strained at best. Although, Troy struggles to provide his brother Gabriel with tenderness, dignity, and acknowledgement, he doesn’t know how to express his true feelings and emotions about his disabled brother. For a good and positive relationship between brothers to exist, there has to be good communication, and appreciation for each other. However, Troy doesn't seem to accept his brother and his disability. The way Troy interacts with Gabriel is very frustrating and painful to write about. The first reason why Troy does not demonstrate enough compassion to his brother is because he feels guilty about how he is taking his brother’s monthly check from the government for his own personal uses. In the book to support this notion, Troy states “If my brother didn’t have that metal plate on his head, I wouldn’t have a pot to piss in or window to throw it out of ”(1070). Troy used that money so that he could purchase his own house and so that he could support his own family. What about his disabled brother, does Troy even concern under what condition his brother is in? All the years that Troy received the support check intended for his brother, Troy should’ve done something beneficial for him. Troy should've used the money to place Gabriel in a rehabilitation center that would provide treatment to Gabriel and improve his mental conditions. It infuriates me that Troy did that to his own brother who needs a great deal of support since he is disabled and can’t manage their own life. This clearly explains how Troy appears to be a heartless person to his brother. Troy just doesn’t seem to have any feelings towards his brother and his disability. During a scene in the book, Gabriel is approaching to Troy’s house, Rose who is Troy’s wife is affected by the Gabriel situation. Rose convinces Troy to do something about his brother and asked Troy if he can put Gabriel in a hospital where he can receive treatment for his disability. Troy’s immediate reaction was “ What do you want me to do about it, Rose? I done everything I can for the man. I can’t make him get well, ain’t no sense for him to be in a hospital” (1070). Troy doesn't recognize the conditions his brother is in, he is an ambitious person, and selfish who profited from his brother when he should’ve supported his brother with tenderness, dignity, and acknowledgement. In this scene Gabriel was living in an apartment away from Troy. Troy only cared about the money from Gabriel. Later in the story, Rose thought Troy signed some papers, allowing Gabriel to receive half of the money and other half to the hospital (1097). Troy denies in the book that he signed papers concerning the money. From the book, quote”I told you ain't signed nothing, woman! The only thing I signed was the release form. I aint signed nothing about sending Gabe away” (1097).
Eventually in the mid 60’s, Troy dies of a heart attack and Gabriel escapes from the hospital to go to his brother’s funeral. He explains to Rose, “It’s time to tell St. Peter to open the gates. Troy, you ready” (1111)? Gabriel has been waiting for a long time for this moments when he sees Troy enter heaven. This is an emotional scene because it shows that Gabriel truly loves his brother and it seems to me that Gabriel forgive his brother, regardless of the mistakes his brother made. At the end brothers have to accept and forgive each other because thats what brother have to do, they have to accept their mistakes. As for me, I had a tough time with brother, however, I realized that by not loving or accepting my own brother, I knew that regardless of his disability, I have to accept him and respect my brother’s disability. It has changed my personality because I’ve become more responsible, become a better man, become patient, and have showed my mother that I could be a more than a good brother. My brother, Bryan is my salvation because I proved myself and to everyone that having a disabled brother is greater than having a brother without a disability. I truly believed my brother is a gift from God and I see my own brother as an angel.
Although Troy and I had some similarities and difficulties in looking after our disabled brothers, I feel I show more compassion and respect for brother than Troy did for his. Since I was a young, I had to look after my brother Bryan. He has a very severe case of autism and probably will never be self-reliant. When my brother was born on Valentine’s Day of the year 2003, we were so glad to see his little arms and a beautiful face. However, when my brother, Bryan was about two years of age, my parents and I noticed that my brother wasn’t smiling as much, didn’t interact with others, no words came out of his mouth, and had an inflexible behavior; we didn’t know what was happening to him. My parents and I got frightened so my parents decided to take my brother to see a doctor, my parents were so worried that something really bad was happening. When my brother was diagnosed with autism, we were totally confused. We didn’t know that this shocking news was going to changed our lives forever; we didn’t even know what autism was.
To support a disabled brother, my family and I had to look for therapies as soon as possible so that it could help my brother. As my brother Bryan started to grow up with this illness, his autism was getting worse each day. From four through six years of age, he experienced bad behavior when we went to public places such as hitting, screaming, throwing himself on the floor. He would cry out loud each time my family and I went to a grocery store, mall, park, restaurants, and many places. People would always stare at us like “what’s wrong with that kid or why is he acting like that.” Most the time we were embarrassed and sometimes people got frightened. My family decided to stop taking my brother to public places because every time we would be embarrassed. As growing up, my family and I suffered from high stress, my parents’ marriage was unhealthy, and at one point my parents got a divorce because of my brother. It really affected my family because my mom had to work so she could feed us and now it was my job to take care of my brother. It did affect me too, because instead of going out with my friends, I stayed to take care of him. It was so frustrating because I couldn’t spend my free time, no one was willing to take care of my brother. To support an autistic child is 60,000 dollars a year and my mother didn’t have that kind of money. (Medicine Net) My father didn’t want to support my brother financially because he basically ran away. So my mother got my brother some support from the government. She was very lucky because my mother didn’t know what to do my brother. She was going to take my brother’s life away, but she realized that wasn’t the best decision. My mother earned some therapies for my brother at age six. Bryan started taking behavioral, speech, and motor sensory therapies. Such studies have demonstrated that many children with autism experienced significant improvements in learning, reasoning, communication, behavior and adaptability when they participate in high-quality programs. (Southwest Autism Research & Resource Center) My brother was able to get a check from the government every month to help my brother to pay for the therapies, to pay for his food, clothes, and even help us to pay the rent. Thanks to the therapies and medication, Bryan was communicating more, he was interacting with other people, and he wasn’t so aggressive. My brother has taken therapies and medications for about six years now and has improved a lot. Although it is very frustrating for me, people still do not understand what it is like to have a disabled person in the family.
In America, disabled people and families with a disabled member, are often discriminated because society see them as stupid who can't learn anything or of how differently people behave. Many people will say horrible things to an autistic child because most people think they are stupid or something. About 60% of autistic children are discriminated and most autistic children suffer from it. (Autism Speaks) Autistic children have feelings too, they are smart, however they are very delayed in their learning. That doesn’t mean they are stupid. One time my friends told me that my brother was mentally sick, but in an offensive way. I was so frustrating when one my friends told me that I felt punching him. Not only did my friend was discriminating him, other people as well. When we go into public places, people will say something and you know it hurts my feelings when people say horrible things to my brother. To me, the remarks seemed strikingly rude and offensive. Yet seemingly respectable people uttered the words in earnest. Some of them might have been intended as mean but my sense was, most people said what they said with a straight face, meaning well. Why did they do it? I cannot imagine any answer but ignorance. Clearly, there is a lot of ignorance out there. Judging from the comments, many recipients of the ignorance are parents and young people with autism. Sometimes I think to myself what if those people who told me horrible things, turn out to have an autistic child. Well, obviously they would suffer the consequences as well.
Although, Troy was so heartless to his brother, I learned that being so selfish and hateful towards a disabled brother is not how you should treat a disabled brother. It’s frustrating to me personally because there are parents and brothers or sisters who have a disabled children and treat them with injustice. Also people should be educated to end discrimination towards disabled children and adults. There are many people who don’t know about children with disabilities. It infuriates me that America isn’t doing something. As families, we should do something about it, to tell society that many children are being born with disabilities and how they are unique, intelligent, and tell them about how it is living with a disabled child. By reading “Fences,” It gave me more motivation to make my brother proud and support him so that one day he could move forward in life and live a healthy life. This reflects the difference between Troy and myself where he had a miserable life with his brother because he wouldn't accept his brothers disability, I in turn, although frustrating at times, feel rewarded due to the fact I have been involved with brother. As for me, I love my brother to death, I accept him for who he is, not because he's disabled. Although he’s my little brother I have to be an example to him and treat him with love because to me he’s like an angel who deserves to be loved. If God sent him with his disability is because He did it for a reason. He wants me to be mature and to be responsible, and to take care of him because he can’t take care of himself. I really believe this because one time my mom told me this and she is very appreciative that I’m always there to help her and I truly believe in those words.