Consequences in Being Greedy Greed is something that everyone wants to get rid of due to its destructive power, and yet it’s embedded in our human nature. Greed can benefit us in getting what we need and want; however, sometimes we never think of the consequences that greed can bring us. This can be seen in August Wilson’s play, Fences, which focuses on Troy Maxson and his struggles in providing a family during the civil rights era. Troy’s greed and desires in pursuing the American dream lead to devastating outcomes, which can be explained using CommonLit Staff’s “Sigmund Freud’s theory of the Id, Ego, and Superego” article. Freud’s theory states that the human mind and behavior is governed by 3 parts and each part plays a significance in a …show more content…
According to CommonLit Staff’s article, Freud's theory states that the Id "is the most selfish part of our mind", as it only cares about fulfilling "immediate desires and satisfaction". His theory explains why Troy makes irrational actions, such as cheating on Rose. When Troy comes clean with his affair, he explains, "I can sit up in her house and laugh. Do you understand what I'm saying? I can laugh out loud . . . and it feels good. It reaches all the way down to the bottom of my shoes" (page 71). Despite the fact that Troy and Rose have been married for 13 years, Troy's desire of fulfilling his happiness with another woman overwhelms his Ego, which is the rational part of his mind, of staying loyal to Rose. Connecting to Freud, Troy’s “immediate desire” is a sense of euphoria, which he couldn’t get from Rose even though Rose claims that she gave up everything for Troy. All in sum, Troy’s Id seems to control the Ego instead of being controlled, causing his downfall as a …show more content…
Freud claims that the Superego “is the moral part” of a human being and it “controls our sense of right and wrong” (CommonLit Staff). In Act 1 Scene 4, Troy explains his grim childhood, in which he claims that he was a “robber” who has to “steal three times as much” because he has to feed Rose and Lyons (page 56). Due to his affection towards Rose and Lyons, Troy is obligated to steal other people in order to provide food and shelter for his loved ones. This goes against his virtue of being a law-abiding citizen. In addition, he acknowledges the fact that it’s morally wrong to steal from others, yet as a young adult, his desire in caring his family, in the form of greed, overpowers it. Troy’s Superego has no power in controlling his
The members of the family that makes the most effort to keep the family level is Troy?s wife, Rose. The narrator tells us that Rose is a gentle woman. She cares a great deal for her family and her husband, despite the challenge of making her home a positive environment under the strains of a man with such impossible qualities. The author explains her reasons for enduring Troy by saying that ? her devotion to him stems from her recognition of the possibilities of her life without him: a succession of abusive men and their babies, a life of partying and running the streets, the Church, or aloneness with its attendant pain and frustration? (526; I, 1). In light of the fact that Troy is a good man and provides for their family in a way of his duty, Rose loves and supports him and ?either ignores or forgives his faults, only some of which she recognizes? (526; I, 1). Despite his love and respect for his wife, Troy acts extremely disrespectfully towards Rose. Due to the lack of love and respect that Troy was shown as a boy, he does not know feelings to his family. He talks down to his wife as if she were a child, while at the same time he declares his love for her to his friend, Bono. Troy?s fault, however, in declaring his love for his wife and family. He says, ?I love Rose? (555; II, 1), but when the time comes for him to show his love, he only disrespects her. When Rose asks Troy what he and Bono are talking about one
In today 's society people have to deal with several issues that we can 't explain. For some of us we built fences to isolate ourselves from others or in some cases to protect ourselves. No matter what the issue is we, all have to struggle to be able to provide for our families. As a child I built fences when it came to my feelings. For example, growing up I was in the chunky side. Since I wasnt so skinny like the pretty girls in my class. I kinda isolated my self from the other students. That way my feelings wouldn 't get hurt. My fence was to protect me from what I thought was going to hurt me. Well the same thing happened to Troy Maxson. In the play, "Fences" written by the well-known playwright, August Wilson, is the story of Troy Maxson and his beloved family. Throughout the whole entire play, a fence is being built around the Maxson household. As the story unfolds to the viewers, the word fences may look like a simple title, but the truth is it has different symbolic meaning. The real definition of the word fence is revealed along with the personalities of the characters in the play. In "Fences", August Wilson uses different types of fences as a metaphor to explain how these people live.
Troy’s relationship with his youngest son, Cory, was a prime example or his controlling nature. One major conflict between them was Troy Forbidding Cory from playing football. As said in the quote, “ If you go on down there to that A&P and see if you can get your job back. if you can’t do both...then you quit the football team you’ve got to take the crookeds with the straights ”(Act 1, Scene 3, Line 192) Troy is not happy with the fact that Croy quit his quit because of football practice. Troy is so against it because he was denied acceptance into a baseball team because of his race in his past. In a way troy thinks he his looking out for cory but deep down, as rose brings out in the next scene, he is haunted by his own
Troy Maxon. Troy is a bitter man, withering away in his own hatred for the way things
In the opening of the play, the main characters are developed to be very stereotypical archetypes. Troy is the money earning, hard-assed, head of the house and Rose is the gentle and caring mother. Through metaphors, Wilson can contradict these initial character developments and reveal the character 's true intentions. In the opening of the play, Troy 's character is “... fifty-three years old, a large man with thick, heavy hands; it is this largeness that he strives to fill out and make an accommodation with” (1.1.1). His appearance implies that Troy has an ego larger than himself and strives to fill up the missing space in every way possible, but is not showing his struggles. In a heated argument with Rose Troy says, “It’s not easy for me to admit that I been standing in the same place for eighteen years” (2.1.70). In other words, Troy is perceived to be a self-sufficient and progressive man, until now. He reveals his vulnerabilities and says that although he puts on a front of accomplishment, he has felt
A life spent making mistakes is not only human, but expected when the life itself is seen as a mistake. While the main character, Troy, in Wilson’s play “Fences” elicits exclamations of disapproval from the readers, Troy’s background gives meaning to his poor decision making as a man, husband, and father in the 1950s. Troy’s thought process, loss of sense of self, and actions prove him to be a pure example of a black everyman. The black everyman bends under the pressure of having to be highly masculine while also living under the thumb of the white race. It is clear in every interaction Troy is in that he oozes sadness, while inwardly seething at the slightest implications of anyone around him reaching new heights. Thus making Troy’s character not only believable due to his hypocrisy, but also sympathetic as a result of the disadvantages he has lived through. I see a part of Troy in every black man I know, always wanting more, but never losing the awareness that it may be out of their grasp.
August Wilson’s play Fences gives a glimpse back in time into the life of Troy Maxson during the 1950s. Troy Maxson is an African-American living in Pittsburgh working as a garbage collector. However, he is bitter and feels as if he has been cheated out of a good life because of his past, race, and age. This behavior drives a wedge between him and the people who care about him. Wilson uses the theatre life themes of generation and love to tell how Troy Maxson displays self-destructive characteristics.
Troy took care of his family as a man should. He took care of his sons with all that he had, but the love for his family was not evident in his character, especially with what he did to Rose. Cheating on Rose was a very selfish, and disrespectful act that showed no love towards his family. Troy’s behavior does not derive from racism, but stems from the relationship he had with his father when he was a teenager. Without him knowing, Troy was very similar to his father. His father “stayed right here with his family. But he was just as evil as he could be” (Wilson 905). Troy’s description of his father was the same person he was. In his conversation with Cory he says to him: “like you? I go out of here every morning…bust my butt…putting gup with them crackers
One of these metaphorical fences that was shown throughout the play was the fence that Troy built between himself and his wife, family, and friends. Bono points out that Troy builds this fence between his wife because he is cheating on her. Troy pushes his wife farther and farther from him by cheating on her. Rose finds out that Troy had been cheating on her when Troy tells her that the other woman is pregnant. The other woman dies during childbirth forcing Rose and Troy to take care of the child. During the play he does not have the motivation to finish the physical fence that he is building, which is similar to the motivation he is to stay committed to his wife. Troy is unable to open himself and communicate his emotions and his own affection. This effects Rose because she is unaware that he is cheating the entire time, and she has to find out when he tells her he got Alberta pregnant. This leaves Rose in disappointment of her husband.
In addition to these negative feelings, Troy also had another side; he was a responsible man. However, his responsibility as a family man will conduct him to
Troy: I don’t care what nobody else say. I’m the boss . . . you understand? I’m the boss around here. I do the only saying what counts.
Troy is the son of an abusive father. His father was hardly around to raise him. When he was around, he made him do chores and if he didn’t do them he would beat him. One time, after Troy tied up the mule, just as his father told him to, he went off to the creek with a girl to “enjoy himself.” The mule got loose, and his father found out. His
Regardless of head-ships and difficulties, the Maxon family clearly shows that, with the contribution of both Rose and Troy, has a foundation of love. This foundation is what holds the symbolic fence between the family and the rest of the world. This foundation is strong, and is especially tested by Troy, Who, despite his later betrayal, genuinely loves his wife, Rose
I think it’s a perfect example of women in the 1950s because after the war, women still found themselves in traditional roles but were slowly breaking out of them. When the men returned from the war, many women wished to keep their jobs but instead became stay at home mothers who were expected to care for the children as well as cook and clean. Many ads and TV shows portrayed the perfect “wife and mother” that women in the 1950s were expected to be. Rose deals with Troy 's nonsense mostly because she feels she has too, and even after Troy cheated on her and had a baby by another woman she took care of the baby. An example of this is when Rose said “I told him if he was not the marrying kind, then move out the way so the marrying kind could find me.” This shows that Troy is unloyal, and Rose was always subject to his wild ways. Especially when Rose insisted on marrying him instead of
Troy becomes so wrapped up in his own misfortunes and bitterness that he fails to realize what strength his family really has (Zirin). They are trying and willing to help him but he is unable to fathom the possibility of that because he is so far gone. Troy says “…Come on! It’s between you and me now!