August Wilson creates sympathy for Troy and prevents his audience from viewing him as an abusive father and unfaithful husband. The play Fences is about a garbage man named Troy Maxson; he is married to Rose Maxson and has three kids. One was with his first girlfriend, Lyons, the second with Rose, Cory and the third was with another girlfriend, Raynell. Troy is an unfaithful husband, beats his son and is more stubborn than anyone can imagine. Throughout the entire play, Troy can be potentially heroic, even though he is fated to doom from the start, yet we still admire him. Troy has potential to be a hero, yet he never gets there. This is sure to his constant fight with death. Throughout the play Troy constantly refers to how he had, is and will fight with death. “Alright...Mr. Death. See now...I'm gonna tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna take and build me a fence around this yard. See? I'm gonna build me a fence around what belongs to me. And then I want you to stay on the other side. See? You stay …show more content…
over there until you're ready for me. Then you come on. Bring your army. Bring your sickle. Bring your wresting cloths. I ain't gonna fall down on my vigilance this time. You ain't gonna sneak up on me no more. When you ready for me…when the top of your list say Troy Maxson…that's when you corn around here. You come op and knock on the front door. Ain't nobody else got nothing to do with this. This is between you and me. Man to man. You stay in the other side of that fence until you ready for me. Then you come up and knock on the front door. Anything you want. I'll be ready for you.” (2. 2). This show how ruthless Troy is and how he will not go down that easily. He mentions a list…which could lead to the fact that his fate was already decided. Troy's fate was decided before his time.
From the start he had a struggle with poverty and racism. Racism had been a struggle for himself and his family before. Since he is a black man in a “white man's world”, work would not be the easiest thing to find. “‘Why you got white man's driving and the colored lifting?” Told him, “what's the matter, don't I count? You think only white fillies got sense enough drive a truck.’” (1.1). This shows the segregation between the whites and blacks because the black men have to do the manual labor whereas the white men just have to drive a truck. Poverty was also preventing Troy for being a hero. “What the hell you looking at me for? I ain't got no ten dollars…” (1.1). Troy says this when Lyons asks him for money, he points out that he does not have money and that is he gives him the money he would have to eat rice for dinner then next week. Poverty and racism was bad enough for Troy but nothing could compare to his
background. Troy's background has also helped his misfortune. His father had not loved him as a child (like how Troy does not love Cory.) “Sometimes I wish I hadn't known my daddy. He ain't cared nothing about no kids. A kid to him was 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. If there was anything left over, that's what you go. Man would sit down and eat two chickens and give you the wing.” (1.4). Like father like son, they are exactly the same. Troy had potential to be this great big hero, but struggles from the past did not allow him too. Troy had to deal with poverty and racism from a young age and finding work was not much easier. He constantly fights with death and just does not stop pushing. Finally his childhood was not one to be proud of. Although the struggles had held him from being a hero, he stuck through it all.
Troy wasn't a rude person, he was just a honest and brave man, who wasn't afraid to say what was on his mind, or especially stand up for what he thought was right for him and his “kind”. For example Troy didn't think it was right for only the whites to be driving and the blacks to be lifting, so for this reason he went to file a complaint “ i aint worried about them
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
For starters, Troy grew up in a time of segregation: a time when a Black person had no opportunity. Because of this, he could never become a professional baseball player, despite his talent and success in the sport. So, when Cory says that he has the ability to become a professional football player, Troy immediately shoots him down because he feels the same issues will occur. Troy does not realize that in this newer age, people of color have more rights and opportunity than they did when he was growing up. Ultimately, the generational gap makes it so that Cory and Troy share completely different views on the world, and they can never see eye to eye. In the end, their polar opposite views drive a wedge between them, and they completely despise each
Conflicts and tensions between family members and friends are key elements in August Wilson's play, Fences. The main character, Troy Maxon, has struggled his whole life to be a responsible person and fulfill his duties in any role that he is meant to play. In turn, however, he has created conflict through his forbidding manner. The author illustrates how the effects of Troy's stern upbringing cause him to pass along a legacy of bitterness and anger which creates tension and conflict in his relationships with his family.
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.
Troy is a very self-centered individual. He is only concerned with issues regarding him. For instance, he wants to be able to drive the trash trucks at his job like the white men do. In Act One, scene one, Troy tells Bono that he talked to his boss, Mr. Rand, about driving the trucks. “How come you got all the whites driving and the colored lifting?” (1332). If things in Troy’s life aren’t going the way he wants them to, he makes himself into the victim and searches for sympathy from others. In addition, if he ever does something erroneous, he never accepts responsibility, never admits his wrongdoing and no matter how much anguish he causes someone, he never apologizes for it.
Troy has a right to be angry, but to whom he takes his anger on is questionable. He regularly gets fed up with his sons, Lyons and Cory, for no good reason. Troy disapproves of Lyons’ musical goals and Cory’s football ambitions to the point where the reader can notice Troy’s illogical way of releasing his displeasure. Frank Rich’s 1985 review of Fences in the New York Times argues that Troy’s constant anger is not irrational, but expected. Although Troy’s antagonism is misdirected, Rich is correct when he observes that Troy’s endless anger is warranted because Troy experiences an extremely difficult life, facing racism, jail, and poverty.
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 a situation is resolved is when Rose tells Troy that Alberta died having his baby, Raynell.
toward the black cause. Troy is the victim of a generation with limited opportunities in
In the end Troy died living behind a trail of animosity between him and his family. In my opinion his story is that of a tragic hero. He began being loved and praised by his family but eventually and gradually, he began to succumb to the weight of racism. It can be said that the effects of racism finally took the better of Troy, and consequentially it ruled his life. Like his fictional stories, death finally took him.
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.
Troy thinks about the worst in every situation. He always judges himself in his head thinking that that is what others are thinking. He uses the philosophy of “They can’t make fun of me if I’m already making fun of myself.” Most of the pre-judgments he makes of himself are pretty funny. He thinks of himself as “The Fat Kid” and starts every scene off with that. For example, “The Fat Kid pukes all over the stage.” This really is what he thinks people are thinking, but sometimes he laughs after he makes a new title. “The moment already makes the awkward Hall of Fame, but as per my life, it has to get worse”(Going 47). This shows one way he is humorous; how he sees himself: a big fat joke. He is definitely concerned with how people view him, in other words he is concerned with power. He feels less powerless when he makes fun of himself, because then others know that he isn’t clueless about his appearance. He would have more power and authority if he made fun of himself out loud so that people could laugh along with him, and maybe he could gain more friends. Then maybe, the fat kid could rule the
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
Troy Maxson is portrayed as a big man with a very big personality and a lot of dignity. He is a bitter guy who believes that he owes his family absolutely everything, from his money down to even his own soul. He is the type of man who wants more than what he can get and that is what drives him but it is also that very “want” that leads him into a very tragic life. Writing on the idea of Troy being a tragic hero, Martin says “Troy’s strengths are found in his willingness to fulfill his duty at all times. He also speaks directly to his dignity regarding his position of work and his career in baseball) Martin, 2) “Fences” Troy has many
August Wilson created many themes throughout his famous play, Fences, but the most prominent one is the relationship between fathers and sons. The three father-son relationships introduced in this play seem to be complicated or difficult to understand. However, it is clear that the relationships built between Troy Maxson and his son Cory, Troy and his other son Lyons, and Troy and his own father are not love-driven. The parallelism of actions, events, and tension amongst each of the father-son relationships in the play illustrate how the sons try to break free from the constraints the father has set, yet in the end, these attempts seem to be pointless as the father leaves an everlasting effect on the sons, ultimately creating a cycle of actions