Andrew Andraos
Literature LENG-201-003
Essay 2
Troy in Fences
Troy Maxson is the protagonist of Fences, a fifty-three-year-old, African American man who works for the sanitation department, lifting garbage into trucks. Troy is also a former baseball star in the Negro Leagues. Troy 's athletic ability diminished before the Major Leagues accepted blacks. Hard-working, strong and prone to telling compelling, fanciful stories and twisting the truth, Troy is the family breadwinner and plays the dominant role in his over thirty-year friendship with fellow sanitation worker, Jim Bono. Troy 's character is the centerpiece that all of the other relationships in Fences gather around. Troy is husband to Rose, father to Lyons, Cory, and Raynell, and
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Troy wants Cory to have a better life than he has had working as a garbage collector. He refuses to yield to Cory for this reason regarding football and college recruitment. We see here another weakness in Troy. Though he aims to be a good father to his son and to be a better father than his own father was, Troy 's inability to see that the world has changed keeps him from letting his son go to college. He is bitter and resentful at the opportunities lost because of the color of his skin and is desperate to protect Cory from the same sort of disappointment. We can see that Troy clearly attempts to fulfill the expectations he sees for himself as a father and husband.
Troy Maxson transforms into a lonely, unloved, fearful man from his original position as the center of attention in his family and social world. Though he constantly tries to escape his life, Troy Maxson tries to engage life and challenge Death because he believes in himself and his convictions, however illusionary they may be. Troy begins by confronting his employees about their discriminatory practices, he boasts to his best friend Bono and family member that he is not afraid of death and he keeps a secret that he thinks he can get away with about his affair with Alberta. When Troy demands respect from his son, Cory, he gets it and when he teases his other son Lyons, Troy feels bigger and better.
Fences by August Wilson shows the evolving African-American experience during the 1950’s to the 1960’s. The main character Troy Maxson makes his living as a sanitation worker to provide for his family. Throughout Fences the audience can see how Troy’s past played a strong role in his relation with his sons and wife. Troy would eventually meet his ultimate demise after an altercation with his second son, Cory Maxson. Through Troy’s actions and relationships with his family, Wilson shows that as the determination of individuals clash it can lead to the decline of family relationships.
Troy Maxson is the main character in August Wilson’s Fences. However, he isn’t like most characters. He has many different faces, or personalities. He shows different traits that make him different things such as the tragic figure, the hero, and even the villain. Troy Maxson’s personality and the way he presents himself changes throughout the play to transform him into completely different people.
Similarly, at Fences, Troy Maxson also aims to be a responsible husband and father figure. He purchased a home for his family using his brother's military money. Like Proctor, Troy made efforts to pass on lessons about manhood and responsibility to his son, Cory, based on his own experiences. When Troy reveals to his wife Rose, "I'm trying to find a way to tell you. I'm gonna be a daddy.
Both of them have the racism, discrimination, the generation conflicting. The hard period time in which Troy Maxson in Fences, he is an African-American. He has his dream to be a player in the Major Leagues. The racist segregated society destroys the dream of a man. The big suffering which he has to be from his child life until he has a family and the relationships in the rest of his life. A father of his children, a husband of Rose, he volunteers put the big responsibility on his shoulder. He is proud of his protection on his family to be safe. However, the conflict between Cory and Troy, that is a big picture of interculturalism in the relationship between father and son. Troy put the bad thought in his son's head about him by accident. Cory thinks his father never likes him because Troy stops Cory to play football and attend to college. Cory thinks Troy want Cory to be a stupid one, just working for a supermarket. Troy tries to explain the problem and make it clear to Cory. Troy wants his family to be safe. Troy wants to protect all people in his controlling because he knows this feudal society, is never fair and equal to African-American. The fear of Troy is so big to blind to see the future of his son. He is scared of people around him, the White people, America society. The fear of the Black American. they are always the lowest stream of this society. They were exploited labor, they being held as
All Cory wanted was warm love and affection, but Troy doesn’t know how provide that to him since all he ever got was tough love. When Cory started to fight against Troy, Troy said, “I done spent the last seventeen years worrying about what you got… you a man… turn your behind around and walk out this yard (Wilson 1177). On one hand, the line is pretty heartwarming because Troy admits that he cares about Cory enough to worry about “what [Cory] got”. On the other hand, Troy is blinded by his own experiences that he forces his son live in way that he thinks is right without any consideration for what
In the play fences, the main character Troy Maxson is portrayed as a family man that is misunderstood. Despite his actions towards the end of the play, Troy is caring and is a great family man because he wants what best for them, supports them and because of his troubled past. It may seem as if Troy turned bitter and insane as the play goes on, but he is just misunderstood. He knows how to take care of his family and know what’s best for them.
Fences is a Tony-winning play written in 1985; set in August Wilson’s youth, he wrote this to uncover the nobility and the dignity of the adults he grew up around. To better understand that generation and what his parents went through to become the parents he knew so well. Through the story, the audience follows Troy Maxon, the protagonist, in 1952 throughout his everyday life as a black man in America. You see the conflicts like racism, discrimination, and generational trauma that impact his relationships and actions throughout the story. Ultimately, through the events of Fences, Troy’s overcritical, impulsive, and egotistical nature leads to his negative character arc and unavoidable death.
Using the law to aid Troy’s argument strips his claim of anything personal or emotional. Laws are rules that have nothing to do with love or family and they are made by complete strangers. Troy is saying that there is nothing personal about him liking or disliking his own son because there is not a law that forces him to “like” his son. This part of the speech is an important piece of support for Troy’s claim because it begins to challenge the largest, yet simplest and least questionable piece of evidence that Cory may have to counter argue his father’s objective. This also gives the reader insight into Troy’s views because he values the law over the fundamental caring that is expected of a father. Toward the end of this section of the speech, Troy mentions that he puts in hard work for his family that is in no way a token of how much he likes them and it would be foolish to think otherwise.
Cory is very aware that his father is envious of his athletic accomplishments. Troy also has no respect for Lyons and he does not support his dream to be a musician.
This supports his action in not wanting Cory to play football. Troy had the grudge of thinking he wasn't able to play baseball because of his color, so he takes it on Cory, who has the dreams of making it big and pursuing football, which causes Troy to ultimately destroy the father and son relationship along with Cory’s dreams. Along with Troy damaging his relationship with his son, he also had destroyed his partnership with his wife, Rose in the novel, Fences. Troy and Rose had been together for 18 years. But Troy had believed and was stuck on the thought that he had wasted 18 years of his life with Rose, by staying in his safety zone and not progressing nor taking any more “strikes” or risks. But now, Troy had came clean to her and explained to her how he has been seeing another woman, Alberta who is now going to have a baby with
Even though it’s not clearly shown, It creates a path for the plot. Troy tries the best way he thinks it is to raise Cory to make sure he doesn’t end up like him. As Abraham Lincoln once said “The best way to predict your future is to create it”. Troy tries to be the grown up that a teaches you the way of caring for others feelings and just showing appreciation, because he was never given that when he was younger. He wasn’t hard on Cory for no reason, he just wanted the best for him.
This situation makes me wonder if he is actually scared that Cory will be an amazing athlete and will be better than him. Troy maybe jealous that his son has opportunities to succeed that he never had, no matter how great of an athlete he was, he could have never made it to the pros because of his skin color. Now his son is being recruited by professional teams to play for them. Troy may be against this because he doesn't want his son to be able to live the dream that he was never able to live. This makes their father son relationship very interesting. It is said that fathers typically want their sons to be better off then they are, especially not very wealthy people. You would think in this situation Troy would support Cory in what he wants to do and be happy for him that he has such wonderful opportunities. Troy maybe be acting like this because Troy still lives in a dream world and still thinks he a great base ball player. He has trouble accepting that his
In the play Fences, by August Wilson, the main character, Troy Maxson is involved in numerous relationships with family members throughout the entire eight years that the story takes place. Troy is a father, husband, and brother to other characters in the play. Unfortunately for Troy, a strong-minded and aggressive man, he constantly complicates the relationships with his family members. Troy's hurtful actions and words make it nearly impossible for him to sustain healthy relationships with not only his two sons, but also his wife and brother.
August Wilson’s play Fences is about the life of Troy Maxson, an African American male in an oppressed predominantly white world, where his dreams of becoming successful were never fulfilled due to racism and segregation in the South. Troy represents many African Americans during his time in their late fifties who struggle to find their identity in this social terrain of American during the post war where some racism is still present but not evident as when Troy was growing up. Most of the conflict in the play comes from Troy’s inability to accept the opportunities his son Cory has on becoming successful he’s also naïve to the changing society around him still believing the world is the same way from when he was growing up. Rose, Tory’s wife
Almost everyone Troy encounters in the play, he betrays, for example taking away his son's dreams, and locking away his brother. One person Troy betrays is his son, Cory, out of spite and jealousy. Since Troy is Cory’s father he feels he can control his life even if it means hurting Cory, one way he does this is by taking away his dream, “Papa done went up to the school and told Coach Zellman I can’t play football no more.” (Act 1 Scene 4) Troy knows that this is what Cory wants to do, he wants to play professional football. Due to the fact that Troy’s baseball dream did not come true, he pulled Cory out of football, claiming that it was for his own good when in reality it was out of jealousy. Troy also betrays his brother by locking him in a mental hospital. In the beginning of the play, Troy claims he wants his brother to be free and explains that nobody should be locked up. Then towards the end of the play Rose tells Troy, “I said send him to the hospital, you said let him be free… now you done went down there and signed him to the hospital for half of his money.” Troy claims he wants his brother to be happy but truthfully he wanted half of Gabriel's money, and just did not want to admit it. In order to receive half of the money Troy took away Gabriel's happiness and betrayed