Fences written by August Wilson portray’s a brute man named Troy. He has everything going for him and has a loving family. Troy hit only a double in the game of life because while he cares for his family’s well being, he has slip ups with how he treats his wife and son, and he gets caught up with another woman. Secondly, Troy might not always have the best bed side manner, however he actually does care very much for his family; “I do the best I can do… I carry a sack of potatoes and a bucket of lard… I give you my sweat and my blood” (Wilson 40). Troy tells Rose that he tries as hard as he can to provide for their family. Troy doesn't show his love in a caring way he always tries to just scold and punish, but he has his family’s best interest. Troy tells Rose, “I told that boy about that football stuff. The white man ain’t gonna let him get nowhere with that football” (Wilson 8). Troy doesn't want to let his son Cory get hurt how he did with his baseball career. Cory came home from school and told his mom; “Papa done went up to the school and told Coach Zellman I can’t play football no more… Told him to tell the recruiter not to come” (Wilson 57). Troy went and talked to the coach without telling his son that he was going to talk to the coach. Cory looses respect for his father because Troy goes behind his back to tell the coach Cory will not be playing anymore. Bono asked Troy about being with another woman and buying her drinks; “I eye all the women. I don't miss nothing” (Wilson 3). Troy stares at other women all of the time even though he is married. Bono notices that he has been with another woman and asks him about it: Bono says “I see you be walking up around Alberta’s house. You supposed to be at Taylors’ and you be walking up around there” (Wilson 4). Troy tries to hide the fact that he is seeing another woman. He wants Bono to keep quite about it because he doesn't want Rose to find out. “Troy took a long drink from the bottle”; then Rose said “You gonna drink yourself to death. You don't need to be drinking like that” (Wilson 10)” Troy then jokes about death and says that he has already wrestled with it and says he’s not scared of it.
Similarly, both Cory and Lyons seek careers that lack stability and security - something Troy finds unfaithful to his beliefs. Cory yearns to join a collegiate football team. To supplement the principals he obtains from his steady occupation, Troy forces Cory to desist his collegiate football career and return to his steady occupation working at the A&P.
...y as a responsible person. He overlooks Cory?s efforts to please him and make a career for his son, learned from his past with his own father, is responsible for the tension that builds between him and Cory. This tension will eventually be the cause of the lost relationship that is identical to the lost relationship that is identical to the lost relationship between Troy and his father.
We are first introduced to Troy as he comes home from work with his best friend, Bono. The two became friends after Troy went to prison for killing a man. Despite this, Bono is said to look up to Troy, admiring his “honesty, capacity for hard work, and his strength, which Bono seeks to emulate” (1.1). Throughout the play, Troy and Bono’s relationship is relatively good. They often say that they love each other, and they
Troy was secretly having an extramarital affair with a woman named Alberta. Troy’s friends all knew the truth, but Troy continually denied any involvement with Alberta. Troy’s best friend, Bono, however, managed to convince Troy what he was wrong for continuing the affair. Troy then came clean to Rose, telling her he was going to be the father of a child Alberta was pregnant with. Rose became heartbroken. She told Troy, “I been standing with you! I been right here with you, Troy. I got a life too. I gave eighteen years of my life to stand in the same spot as you. Don’t you think I ever wanted other things? Don’t you think I had dreams and hopes?” (1606). Rose had given up her entire life to be with Troy. However, Troy never once apologized. Troy continually defended himself, and he went as far as to justify himself. Troy claimed Alberta was an escape for Troy. Troy stated, “It’s just… She gives me a different idea… a different understanding about myself. I can step out of this house and get away from the pressures and problems” (1605). Rose was hurt, however, and Troy never apologized nor stopped seeing Alberta. He continued to live in an illusion that he could keep both his family and his secret life separate. However, Alberta later died in childbirth. Her daughter, Raynell, was to be raised by Troy and Rose. Troy effectively destroyed his marriage because of his excessive pride. He refused to believe he was in the
The theme of August Wilson’s play “Fences” is the coming of age in the life of a broken black man. Wilson wrote about the black experience in different decades and the struggle that many blacks faced, and that is seen in “Fences” because there are two different generations portrayed in Troy and Cory. Troy plays the part of the protagonist who has been disillusioned throughout his life by everyone he has been close to. He was forced to leave home at an early age because his father beat him so dramatically. Troy never learned how to treat people close to him and he never gave any one a chance to prove themselves because he was selfish. 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 shape 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. The complication begins in Troy’s youth, when his father beat him unconscious. At that moment, Troy leaves home and begins a troubled life on his own, and gaining a self-destructive outlook on life. “Fences” has many instances that can be considered the climax, but the one point in the story where the highest point of tension occurs, insight is gained and...
Throughout the play Fences, by August Wilson, we are introduced to several of the Troy Maxson's family members. We soon learn that because of Troy's personality traits, he is unable to sustain a healthy relationship. Troy is a father, a husband, and a brother, and unfortunately, he makes it impossible for any of those numerous relationships to thrive.
Even though Troy does not physically abuse his children like his father did to him, he verbally abuses them. He treats Cory very callously and unjustly. In a way, Troy is taking out his frustrations of having an unsuccessful baseball career by not allowing Cory to pursue his dream to play football. Troy crushed Cory’s dream. In Act One, scene four, Cory expresses his misery. “Why you wanna do that to me? That w...
Troy Maxon experiences a tumultuous life, beginning with his departure from his parents’ home at the age of fourteen. Living on an impoverished farm in the Deep South, Troy describes his father, who beats him regularly and only cares about work, as the devil. In Troy’s dialogue with Bono and Lyons, Troy remarks, “My daddy turned to face me, I could see why the devil had never come to get him…cause he was the devil himself” (Wilson 52). The most influential person in Troy’s early life was, as Troy believes, the devil. His...
In Fences, August Wilson introduces an African American family whose life is based around a fence. In the dirt yard of the Maxson’s house, many relationships come to blossom and wither here. The main character, Troy Maxson, prevents anyone from intruding into his life by surrounding himself around a literal and metaphorical fence that affects his relationships with his wife, son, and mortality.
The theme of August Wilson’s play “Fences” is the coming of age in the life of a broken black man. Wilson wrote about the black experience in different decades and the struggle that many blacks faced, and that is seen in “Fences” because there are two different generations portrayed in Troy and Cory. Troy plays the part of the protagonist who has been disillusioned throughout his life by everyone he has been close to. He was forced to leave home at an early age because his father beat him so dramatically. Troy never learned how to treat people close to him, and he never gave anyone a chance to prove themselves because he was selfish.
The disappointment Troy has in this situation impacts his judgment regarding Cory who is the son of Troy being recruited to play college football, creating tension between the two.
August Wilson’s Fences was centered on the life of Troy Maxson, an African American man full of bitterness towards the world because of the cards he was dealt in life amidst the 1950’s. In the play Troy was raised by an unloving and abusive father, when he wanted to become a Major League Baseball player he was rejected because of his race. Troy even served time in prison because he was impoverished and needed money so he robbed a bank and ended up killing a man. Troy’s life was anything but easy. In the play Troy and his son Cory were told to build a fence around their home by Rose. It is common knowledge that fences are used in one of two ways: to keep things outside or to keep things inside. In the same way that fences are used to keep things inside or outside Troy used the fence he was building to keep out death, his family, and his disappointments in life while Rose used the fence to keep those she cared about inside and help them bond.
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
This is the reason why Troy fights against his family and himself, because he feels like he is the only one who can protect them. To Cory and Rose, Troy is destroying the family because of his stubborn thoughts but to Troy he is saving the family from falling apart and this distrust causes the family to eventually fall apart. Troy really does try his hardest to be a good father and is bothered by the fact that Rose and Cory do not see it as him trying to protect them but more of him destroying the family. This hurts Troy because his family is his everything they are what he “fights” for he works day end and day out to put food on the table and try to give them a life he thinks the deserve. August Wilson in “fences” Troy says, “ I love this woman, so much it hurts. I love her so much… I done run out of ways to love her.”(1.1) Wilson uses to show how much Troy actually cares for his wife, to Troy Rose is his everything, she is the light in his darkness, she try’s to guide him back to a sane man. Another Way Wilson shows how much Troy loves his family is when Troy is talking to his family and says that “ You all line up at the door, with your hands out. I give you the lint from my pockets. I give you my sweat and my blood…”(1.3) Troy is saying that he will give them everything until he has absolutely nothing but the lint from his pockets. He will go out of his way to make
Cory and Troy were arguing and Troy says to Cory in act two scene four page 86 “You a man. Now’ let’s see you act like one. Turn your behind around and walkout this yard. And when you get out there in the alley . . . you can forget about this house”. Troy told Cory this because Cory was disrespecting Troy in his own house and Troy told Cory he can leave and go out and live on his own and become a man. Cory picks up Troy’s bat and act like he’s going to hit him with it and Troy says in act two scene four page 88 “You’re gonna have to kill me! You wanna draw that bat back on me. You’re gonna have to kill me”. Cory is standing up to his father and not taking anymore of Troy’s nonsense but Cory loses the fight and leaves home on his own and goes and becomes a man in the real