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A tragic hero is a honorable or admirable character who carries heroic qualities. Unfortunately this character is destined to a horrible fate. The play Fences is written by August Wilson. The story takes place in Pittsburgh and the main character is Troy Maxson. Troy is a sanitation worker who once dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player but was denied the chance because the major league did not allow blacks at the time. Troy is generally a stubborn character as shown throughout the play. However, many would believe that Troy is favorable. Even though Troy is a harsh character who has hurt the people who love him the most he is considered to be a tragic hero because he had to fight against forces that were much greater than him. …show more content…
When Troy is just fourteen he runs away from home. Troy does so because of the relationship he shares with his father. Many could infer that this relationship is much like the one between Troy and his son, Cory. However this is not the case, Troy was actually said to be in a abusive relationship with his father. When his father catches him with Canewells daughter he immediately begins lashing Troy with his belt. Troy starts to run away. But, When Troy understands what his Father is really trying to do he is alarmed and begins to turn back and confront him. This is shown when Troy begins talking to Lyons stating, “When I see the matter of it was, I lost all fear of my daddy. Right there is where I become a man… at fourteen years of age. Now it was my turn to run him off” (52). Unfortunately the outcome makes Troy the man he is in the story. Because Troy fights his father he has no other choice but to leave his home. As stated in the text, “Both my eyes were swollen shut. I layed there and cried. I don't know what I was gonna do. The only thing I knew was the time had come for me to leave my daddy’s house” (52). Troys fight against his father makes him admirable because it shows his past experiences and how he has progressed as a …show more content…
Before Troy became a father and had a loving wife he had a dream of becoming a professional baseball player. Unfortunately he was denied the chance because they didn't permit blacks to play professionally. This of course has prolonging effect on Troy's life. So much so that he refuses to believe Cory when he explains that they are allowing blacks to play. For instance, “If they got a white fellow sitting on the bench.. You can bet your last dollar he can't play! The colorderd guy got to be twice as good before he can get on the team (34).” It is showed how Troy’s love for baseball and how he was affected by being denied influenced him emotionally. It is also showed when he gets into an argument with Rose and begins using baseball as an example of his
Troy was met with many hardships in his life that left him feeling like he needed to protect himself from the things that have hurt him and could hurt him. The fence that Rose told Troy to build symbolized the barrier that he puts up to protect himself from the things that have hurt him and could hurt him in the future. Troy uses the fence to symbolize the emotional separation and neglect he has towards his family; Rose and Cory in particular. The main reason why the fence took the whole play to complete is because Troy neglected it and spent his time with his mistress which symbolized his neglect towards his family. Cory brings this to attention when he tells Troy that he "don't never do nothing, but go down to Taylors'", which is obviously his mistress’s home (Henderson). This was Troy’s f...
The play wants the readers to judge Troy, as a bad husband, a bad brother, a bad father and a bad man. I feel this way, too. He cheated on Rose. Then he left her with the child he had with his mistress. He didn’t care at all about Gabriel. He stole money from him and he sent him to an institution. Troy never cared for Cory. He wouldn’t let him play football, the only thing Cory wanted to do. All of these examples show that Troy is an uncaring husband, a bad brother, a poor father and a generally an uncaring
Throughout the play, pieces of Troy’s background are exposed to the reader. It quickly becomes clear that he was a talented baseball player who could have played professionally if not for the color of his skin. Instead of going on to a successful baseball career, Troy was forced to move on with his life and settle down as a garbage man. Although this is not what he truly wants in his life, it provides stability for him and his family. Similarly to his father, Troy’s son, Cory, is a talented football player who is being scouted for college. However, instead of encouraging him, Troy constantly scolds him, telling him he has to find a ‘real job;’ Troy even tells the scout to leave. This is ultimately because of his jealousy towards Cory’s success in sports, and the fact that Cory possesses the life Troy dreamed of. Many feuds and disagreements are born between the father and son because of their different views.
...eless, he essentially lived his life in a constant low point. Troy’s anger is undoubtedly misguided, but entirely permissible considering his hardships. The story of Troy Maxon begs the question: is it ever justifiable to pass judgment on someone without understanding his or her life story? After analyzing Troy’s struggle and resulting attitude, it seems that passing judgment is exceptionally risky. Without recognizing the early hardships of Troy’s life, it is easy to dismiss him and his cynical outlook. What can be learned from his story is evident. Never judge someone for his or her seemingly unwarranted attitude because there is a good chance it is completely defensible.
His father could have treated his children better, Troy, “Sometimes I wish I hadn’t known my daddy. He ain’t cared nothing about no kids. A kid to him wasn’t nothing. All he wanted was for you to learn how to walk so he could start you to working. When it come time for eating. . . he ate first.” (Wilson Pg. 1213). Troy grew up with an abusive father, it made him have no feelings towards his own kids and it plays a huge role in why he acts the way he does. Joe Canewell’s daughter and Troy were about the same age when they were enjoying themselves. His father caught him a whupped him like a slave. That’s when Troy tries to fight his father because his father tries to mess with the young girl. He woke up battered and broken from being unconscious and that when left
When Cory comes home after he finds out that troy told the coach to kick Cory off the football team he is furious. In his rage, there is an exchange of words and Cory says to troy “Just cause you didn’t have a chance! You just scared I’m gonna be better than you” (1:4). This comment really hits troy deep because baseball was a big part of his life and for him to be denied the thing in which he truly loved made him turn out the way he is now. To have his own son say he was going to be better than him not only make troy feel inferior to him but also making troy realize that Cory had a chance at something that he never had. Troy proceeds to tell Cory where his “mistake” was indirectly using baseball by telling him “See...you swung at the ball and - didn’t hit it. That’s strike one. See, you in the batter’s box now. You swung and you missed. That’s strike one. Don’t you strike out!”(1:4). This is one of the stronger analogies that troy uses in the play to signify more and more how baseball has made an impact on his
This makes Troy the antagonist in the story because he is not only hitting up against everyone in the play, but he is also hitting up against himself and ultimately making his life more complicated. The discrimination that Troy faced while playing baseball and the torment he endures as a child shaped him into one of the most dynamic characters in literary history. The central conflict is the relationship between Troy and Cory. The two of them have conflicting views about Cory’s future and, as the play goes on, this rocky relationship crumbles because Troy will not let Cory play collegiate football. The relationship becomes even more destructive when Troy admits to his relationship with Alberta and he admits Gabriel to a mental institution by accident.
As a result of Troy being unable to find a place to live or a job he started stealing to get by. Eventually the situation escalated and he murdered someone in a robbery gone wrong; this led to him being sentenced to 15 years in prison. Prison is where he found his love for baseball. He became quite good with a bat and hoped that when he got out he could play professionally. Unfortunately due to the segregation of the MLB Troy was never able to pursue that career and he is resentful of the situation his whole life.This caused him to be a very bitter person for the remainder of his life and this also caused him to shoot down the hopes and dreams of his son Corey by telling him things like “...The white man ain’t gonna let you go nowhere with that football
Later Troy and Cory get into a big argument in the front yard and Troy kicks Cory out of the house and looses his son’s respect. In the last scene Troy dies and is sent to heaven with Gabriel’s trumpet, he is forgiven and is redeemed as a flawed hero. In August Wilson’s “Fences” Troy is viewed as a tragic hero, to be a tragic hero one must have dignity, something to fight for, and a downfall, Troy is the perfect example of a tragic hero because he possess all three of these qualities.
In conclusion, Troy joke that baseball would always come first in his life; ironically, this comes true after considering, he tears his family apart being selfish, naïve and bitter due to the racial discrimination act done upon him. He puts baseball before his family, especially his wife and son. Troy is inconsiderate of his wife and kids when he thinks he is trying to help them by avoiding certain outcomes. However, death did take a toll of Troy, but did not go out without a fight; Troy actually struck out
This inability to change diversely affects Troy's relationship with his second son, Cory, who is a promising athlete. Sports provide the arena for the continuing conflict and foreshadows the characteristic that will eventually lead to Troy's downfall. There is a constant struggle between Troy and Cory because Troy will not allow his son to pursue his athletic dreams, telling him instead to keep his after-school job. This stems from Troy's past, when he was a promising baseball player who was prevented from playing because he was black. Troy's fears carry into the new generation when he prevents his son from pursuing a football scholarship because of his past, even though the world was changing at this time, and colored people were expanding into...
Losing the respect and company of people was one of the few things that caused him to feel some form of remorse for what he did to Rose. However, Troy did nothing to fix the problems he created, except to drink and pretend he was still respected. It becomes especially clear that nobody respects Troy when Cory blatantly says “I ain’t got to say excuse me to you. You don’t count around here no more” (II iv, 85). Although nobody else says it as obviously as Cory, most characters realize Troy’s failure. Even though he may have provided for his family in the physical sense, Troy neglected them a great deal emotionally. This once again proves that Troy is unsuitable to be a proper father for Cory and a respectable husband for
Even though Troy had become blind to the changes of the past ten years, it was the ignorance that provoked him to deny Cory's chance at succeeding. Which is were we start to see the true relationship toward the two. Often we tend to see fathers use their sons to achieve the success they feel they have been denied to in the past. But Troy had no desire to live vicariously through his son, instead, their relationship began to result in a confrontation that turns into violence. After having been told by his own father that he was earning strikes, Cory grabs the baseball bat and intents to swings at his father. Which was the strikeout Troy had warned his son on? However the only thing that happened was that Cory swung twice, missed, thus making
Although it seems as though Cory is determined to escape from what his father wants, he still takes the same path his father went on. This ironic situation is shown when Troy says "I don’t want him to be like me! I want him to move as far away from my life as he can get” (Wilson 481). Throughout the play, Cory is also trying to pursue this individuality, but ends up trying to chase after his dreams in a sport just like Troy. Cory faces a battle inside him as he tries to form a unique identity separate from his father; however, Troy is resistant to Cory's attempts at individuality. Troy's efforts to restrain Cory from being an individual character makes Cory take on drastic measures, such as verbal and physical violence, in an effort to become the person he wants to be. Troy restrains Cory from pursuing his dreams so much that it builds up to a point where Cory points out the truth that Troy is so afraid to hear; “Just cause you didn't have a chance! You just scared I'm gonna be better than you, that's all" (Wilson 493). Sports acts as a barrier between them from ever becoming close, even though they are both interested in them. This confrontation results in Troy counting numbers until Cory