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Literary analysis of august wilson's fences
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Adedeji Adebayo English 1020 Research paper 12/09/2014 How Troy and Rose maxson are responsible for their tragedy in Fences. Fences, is a play by august Wilson written in 1983 with a 1950’s setting. The play is about Troy maxson the protagonist, his wife Rose maxson and the problems in his personal life and family. Troy and rose maxson might be a couple with similarities but they are distinctly different in various ways and are responsible for their tragedies in their lives. In brief, troy maxson is the protagonist of the play, he is married to Rose lee maxson and the father of Cory, Gabriel, raynell and lynson maxson. He is a fifty-three year old responsible man whose shattered ambitions make him leave in his illusion world. He works for …show more content…
the sanitation department by taking out garbage. Troy is also a former baseball player and star in the Negroes league and he sees his abilities wasted to no avail by discrimination of blacks in the major league. He is hardworking, strong and tells fanciful stories even trying to hide the truth.
He has a friend Jim bono who has been friends with him for over thirty years and they also work together in the sanitation department. on the other hand, rose maxson Troy’s wife and the mother of Troy’s second child Cory maxson is a forty three year old woman who volunteers at her church regularly and above all loves her family, unlike troy the illusionist, rose is a realist woman and has high hopes for her son supports him in his decision to play football. Rose is a very compassionate woman and she displays that trait by accepting Troy’s daughter raynell from an affair with Alberta as her own daughter “from now on this child got a mother” and she never stops loving her family even after Troy’s affair with …show more content…
Alberta. Troy maxson is responsible for his tragedy by his mistakes from the past which is haunting him for example stealing to survive, going to jail fifteen years for murder. troy is also responsible for his tragedy because he believes in what he wants to believe in even when everyone else tries to make him see things have changed he still gets adamant to new ideas for example when his wife tells him to allow his son play football " They got lots of colored boys playing ball now. Baseball and football “and his best friend bono also said “Times have changed, Troy, you just come along too early". Even Cory made mention of famous ball players like hank Aaron, Troy neglects all their suggestion and went on to say " The white man ain't gonna let you get nowhere with that football no way” Troy makes his own decision based on his delusions and instead of allowing Cory to play football in college, Troy shatters Cory’s vision by not signing the permission papers and not allowing the college recruiter too. Cory said to Troy "You just scared I'm gonna be better than you, that's all" insinuating his father is jealous of him , Troy still disagrees and told his wife " I got sense enough not to let my boy get hurt playing no sports" . well to according to troy he believes he is stopping his son from playing football not to get hurt thinking he is protecting his son as father should but, neither did he know he just killed his son’s passion from Cory’s perspective Troy also created his tragedy when he lost his son’s loyalty still thinking he is right despite the suggestion from his family and friend. Troy is also responsible for his tragedy by having an affair with Alberta outside marriage that made him lose his wife’s affections he once enjoyed. Rose is a poor judge of character, rose trust troy with all her heart being blindfolded by her love for him and putting expectations on her son but not doing enough to make him pursue his dreams and change the situation. Even though she doesn't allow troy to get past her especially when he says sexual contents in front of people, she makes him know it’s not acceptable. Even when Troy exaggerates his stories as usual she shows her in satisfaction But, she created her own tragedy by lack of assertiveness not being watchful enough also letting Troy’s words and show of affection blindfold her from noticing Troy’s lust issues.
And when she learns about the Troy’s affair with Alberta that brought about raynell. She accepts raynell as her child but cuts Troy off by saying “ You always talking about what you give...and what you don't have to give. But you take too. You take...and don't even know nobody's giving! " Which also led to more tragedy for her to be lonely even when living with Troy. she lost affection for him even though she is still displaying a natural mother’s care and performing her duty as a wife by leaving his food in the kitchen while he pays up the house bills but the two were emotionally absent in their marriage. In conclusion, Troy and Cory were once a happy couple before the tragedy they created based on their ego and insensitivity to threats to their union. Though they can't be blamed for all their tragedies but it is their responsibility to deal with their issues before it gets out of hand. For example it is not Troy’s fault not to be able to play in the major league because of discrimination but it his responsibility to give his son a chance and also control his lustful desires that led to the birth of raynell which broke his wife’s
heart. on the other hand not all rose’s tragedy is her fault because she trusted her husband and put faith in his decisions but it is her fault not to be able to detect the warning signs from Troy’s words and delusional speeches and also allowing herself to be totally controlled by the love she has for Troy. Never the less they are both responsible for their tragedy in a way. Citation Wilson, August. Fences: A Play. New York: New American Library, 1986. Print. Jamal, mahub. Prince George’s community college, 2014. Hitchings, Henry (27 June 2013). "Fences, Duchess Theatre - theatre review", London Evening Standard, accessed 28 September 2014. Napierkowski, Marie Rose (ed.) (January 2006) [1998]. "Fences". Drama for Students. vol. 3. Detroit: Gale; eNotes.com. Vecsey, George (1987-05-10). "Sports of the Times; Ray Dandridge, the Hall of Fame and 'Fences'". New York Times Kirszner, Laurie G., and Stephen R. Mandell. AP Edition Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. 8th ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2013. 1110. Print.
Troy had faced through so many consequences with in his marriage with Rose. A quote to support that Troy had tried his best to give everything to Rose is “ I ain’t ducking the responsibility of it. As long has it sets right in my heart . . . then I’m okay. Cause that’s all I listen to. It’ll tell me right from wrong every time. And I ain’t talking about doing Rose no bad turn. I love Rose. She done carried me a long ways and I love and respect her for that” (August Wilson, pg 63). This states that it is a comparison between Daisy from The Great Gatsby because Daisy had gone through so many problems with her marriage but all she wanted was the best for her to accomplish an American Dream for her future even though Troy had helped her a lot. Another detail from an outside source is “ Young people are supposed to have a chance to make their own decisions and to live its consequences even if it means failure because life is not about passing or failing it’s about learning from our mistakes and try not to repeat them. After all we are humans and all humans make mistakes”. From https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/should-parents-allow-children-choose-own-careers-play-parsan-narang. Even though Troy was not a young person he had always tried to take care of his family no matter what happens because when he was a young
The diction used in this scene shows the strength in Rose’s voice. “I’ll take care of your baby for you… cause… like you say… she’s innocent… and you can’t visit the sins of the father upon the child. A motherless child has got a hard time. From right now... this child got a mother. But you a womanless man.” This scene is very emotional and climatic. The bluntness of Rose’s words and the lack of sympathy she has for Troy shows the reader how little love Rose has left for him. The last sentence of the quote is really what leaves the reader’s jaw dropped. Wilson allows Rose to say so much with so little. In addition, her strength in this scene is very admirable. For me, I see my own mother in Rose. Most people admire their mother and see them as a mentally strong person. That being said, I am able to empathize with Rose because I am able to relate her to my own mother. I think that if my mother was in the same situation as Rose, she would have taken the baby in as her own as
...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.
Rose’s loyalty to her family showed a load amount of strength in character. Even though she was not the mother of the child, who would eventually be named Raynell, she still stepped up to the task, even if it was against what she wanted in life. In the play Fences it states, “Okay Troy.. you’re right. I’ll take care of your baby for
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
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...
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.
In the final moments of the play Rose is totally aware of her journey. In a conversation with Cory, she tells him that when she first seen his father, she thought “Here is a man I can lay down with and make a baby”, fulfilling her dream of motherhood. “I married your daddy and settled down”, she sees how she continued to lose bit and pieces of herself during the marriage. However, standing in her own truth, she admits “It was my choice. It was my life and I didn’t have to live it like that. But that’s what life offered me in the way of being a woman and I took it. I grabbed hold of it with both hands.” Through her trials and tribulations Rose realizes that she doesn’t needed Troy to build a fence to protect her love ones from
She says, "A man that believe in himself still need a woman that believe in him. You can't make life happen without a woman.You'll see a hard time when your good woman is gone". In the play ‘Fences’, Troy was born in the 20th century and he was African American. There was very less opportunity in that time period for blacks. For example, Troy was a garbage collector and he really had proud of it. So we can see that if an African American person could be proud of collecting garbage then how much of little opportunities they had to work for a living. Troy’s came from a bad family, his father was rude towards him and he disrespected women too, He left his house at the age of 14. He even went to jail in the case of murdering somebody. Considering all problems he faced in his life, He could have lived his life in a really bad way and also could never have made a family. But he did make a family with Rose after getting married to her. Even though he made a family, he could not keep it together for so long. He wanted some fun rather than love of Rose and that is why he cheated on her by being in an affair with another woman named Alberta. In his life, after doing all the fun he wanted by being with Alberta, He does realize that life is very hard when good women are gone when Rose leaves him after she gets to know about his affair. He does realize that women
Rose devotes her entirety to Troy, whom does not show his appreciation for her in return. He procrastinates on the minor tasks for his wife, such as building her a fence for her garden. Additionally, he betrays her by desiring love from another woman. Bono expresses his awareness of the situation to Troy, and he responds that he is only being polite by buying her drinks (Wilson 1837). Troy denies having relations with Alberta, but as the story unfolds, he is proven to be unfaithful. “Yet even as he informs Rose of his unfaithfulness, he insists, "I ain't sorry for nothing I done. It felt right in my heart” (O’ Reilly). Troy’s adulterous behavior severs the remaining portion of his relationship with Rose. He conceives a child with Alberta while cheating and she dies giving birth to the baby. Rose agrees to care for the innocent child because she does not know the sins of her father (Wilson 1873). Rose attends to the baby girl as if she were her own, but no longer revolves her worries around Troy. She consumes herself with church to deal with the burdens that her husband has inserted into their
She keeps Raynell in but exclude Troy from her life because he is the reason why the family couldn’t be entirely close. Indeed, his selfish decisions build the bridge between him and his relatives. On the positive side, those decisions help some characters to bound even more. As a matter of fact, the relationship between Cory and Rose is stronger due to the similar situation they both live; trying to stand up against Troy. In fact, Cory will firmly defend his mother, when she and Troy were fighting over the Alberta incident, by pushing Troy away from her: "(CORY comes up behind TROY and grabs him. TROY, surprised, is thrown off balance just as CORY throws a glancing blow that catches him on the chest and knocks him down)" (2,1). Thus, Rose carries Raynell within the yard, where the fences surround them, but rejects Troy’s presence around her family. It is evident that this symbol illustrates the relation between the proximity of the Maxson family and the significance of the fences surrounding their yard. Hence, through the use of symbol, this play shows how the significance of fences represents the importance of preserving members of a family
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
She lives down the block and Rose doesn't know until Troy tells her after his friend Bono talks to him. When Rose finds out, she is very angry and sad and she and Troy get into a huge fight. Troy grabs her by the arm, but Rose is strong enough to tell him to let her go, and she doesn't get scared by Troy. She stands up to him when Troy tries to fight Cory too. When Alberta has the baby, she dies, and Troy goes to get the baby girl and brings her back to Rose. Rose is so kind that she takes the baby in as her own, even though it's not related to her in any way. She tells Troy that "I'll take care of your baby for you. . . 'cause . . . like you say . . . she's innocent . . . and you can't visit the sins of the father upon the child. A motherless child has got a hard time. From right now . . . this child got a mother. But you a womanless man" (Wilson 1588). This shows just how kind and strong Rose is because she takes the baby in and raises her, but she separates herself from Troy because she can now see how horrible he is. Still, when Troy dies, she arranges everything and goes to his funeral, and when Cory comes home and says that he doesn't want to go to the funeral, she makes him go. She is kind enough that she still wants Cory to show up at his dad's funeral and for Troy to have people remember
Character traits - Each of the character in this play has a different spike to portray, Starting from Troy Maxson, he is a hard-working person. Troy is the family member and plays the dominant role in his friendship for over thirty-year with fellow sanitation worker. Troy is a tragic-hero who has excessive pride for him becoming the member of a family whose wages supplies its livelihood. Troy's years of hard-work lacks him in quality which depresses him. Troy often fails to provide the love and support to his family members. From the starting, Troy is persuaded as a character who is played a loved, admired person and also getting away with his secret affair. But eventually, Troy's death leaves many negative attributes as an inheritance