Cory Olman Character Analysis

Troy's lack of commitment to finishing the fence that Rose wants put up represents his lack of commitment in his marriage. He doesn't understand that Rose wants to keep the family close because he never truly had a close family. He becomes a womanless man. “From right now… this child got a mother. But you a womanless man” (79). Troy pushes Lyons away by refusing to hear him play his "Chinese music" (48). He also damages his relationship with his other son, Cory, by preventing him from playing football and rejecting his only chance to get recruited by a college football team. The “fence” also depicts that Troy is disowning Cory when they get into an argument and Troy kicks him out on to the streets. Troy states that Cory’s things will be on “the other side of that fence” (89). As a result, Troy ends up driving everybody away just like his father. The “fence” acts like a physical divider between the Maxson’s household and the outside world because Troy doesn’t bring anything others would normally have into his house and Rose does not want any outsider intruding her family.

After finding out about Troy's affair, Cory stands up to his father in order to protect his mother during an altercation between Troy and Rose. Troy nearly hits Cory, but he is able to stop himself before threatening Cory by saying, "You better stay away from me, boy" (72). Cory and Troy's relationship following this incident is practically nonexistant until the time of their last fight. During that fight, after two months of staying out of his father's way, Cory has finally had enough of Troy's verbal abuse and once again stands up to him. This quarrel ends with Troy nearly hitting Cory with a baseball bat, but he is once again able to stop

Troy tells Rose about his affair. Rose accuses Troy of taking and not giving. Troy grabs Rose's arm. Cory grabs Troy from behind. They fight and Troy wins. Troy calls "strike two" on Cory.

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

The fence Rose asks Troy to build for her is a representation of the walls that arise between characters throughout the plot of the play. One example of this is the wall that comes between Troy and Cory when Troy does not allow Cory to play football. In Act 1 Scene 3, Troy and Cory’s relationship experiences a complication when Troy refuses to let Cory play football:

Troy is entirely stubborn in his ways that he cannot see that times has changed. Since Troy was fenced out from playing professional baseball, he fences Cory out of playing college football. Troy and Cory’s relationship resembles the fence by its purpose and physical attribution. When it comes to sports, they are separated by the different generations, but they come together because of their love of sports. Like a fence that is meant to separate outsiders, but connected to bring together the fence. Troy and Cory’s relationship continues to get pushed apart throughout the play. In Act 2, Scene 4 Troy and Cory get into a fight which leads Troy to state to Cory that his things will “be on the other side of that fence.” When Troy kicks Cory out onto the streets, the fence becomes an actual division between both of them. The two spend a lot of time building the fence, only for it to create a literal and emotional barrier.

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 and Cory is all Rose has, she is afraid of losing them and although she does not say anything, she believes the fence will keep them close to her and the bad will stay on the other side of the fence. Rose is a strong black woman who loves and cares for her family and will do whatever it takes to keep them safe and close to her. Troy does not care for the fence, he believes it’s pointless to build the fence therefore, he slowly works on it.

Growing up, most parents want what is best for their children with the hope that they will lead a better life than the one they had. On the surface, this does not seem to be the case in the relationship between Troy and Cory in August Wilson’s Fences. Troy was a hardworking man who did all he can to provide for his family. Cory worked equally as hard in his athletic career. Troy made a decision to end Cory’s football career out of protection but Cory viewed it as his father’s jealousy. Troy’s rough attitude and relationship towards Cory stems from multiple sources: Troy’s relationship with his own father, his jail time, the fact that he did not make the Major Leagues in baseball due to discrimination, and his reluctance to accept the idea that the times have changed. Each of these plays a distinct role in their relationship, ultimately cultivating in Troy losing Cory for good.

In the play, Fences, Troy seems to have a complicated relationship with every other character in the play. This applies especially to his relationship with his son, Cory. Troy and Cory have many similarities and differences that complicate their relationship. There are many outside factors that also make matters worse.

Through Troy’s perspective, he sees the fence as a barrier between his enemy known as; death. If death gets through the fence, it would have to come through Troy himself, since he believes that instead of loving his family; protecting them has more worth. It is clear Troy starts to build the fence to keep those who are mistreating his family out; although he himself grows distant. We can infer that Rose and Troy’s perspective of the fence had started to collide. Rose had viewed the fence to keep those she values and cherishes within the fence; while after Troy confesses he is cheating on her with Alberta a division with his family is shown. Division with their family occured due to Troy mistreating Rose and not realizing his mistake sooner. This is to show that Troy’s trait of responsibility reinforces the main symbol. Troy had acknowledged his mistakes resulting in a mental and emotional separation between the couple. “[...] A motherless child had got a hard time…. From right now this child got a mother. But you a womanless man. [...]” (Wilson,122) This confirms that even with the presence of Raynell; Rose will not acknowledge Troy for what he used to mean to her. Further into the play it is revealed that even with this rift, Rose continues to communicate with him to keep order within the house, although emotionally her ties have been severed with Troy.

In the play when Cory and Troy fight, Troy kicks Cory out of the house saying, “Cory: Tell Mama I'll be back for my things. Troy: They'll be on the other side of that fence." (Henderson) It is in this particular passage that Troy uses the fence physically to represent the dividing line between Cory and him, but more specifically the emotional barrier he’s put between him and his family. Troy grew up with an abusive father which makes his complete emotional disregard towards his family logical. If the man that raised you taught you keep your emotional guard up even with your family, you would probably treat your family the same way that Troy treated his; with complete emotional neglect and disregard. The fence working as barrier could also symbolize Troy trying to protect himself from feeling too deeply towards things which could end up disappointing him or already have. For instance, when Troy became passionate about becoming a Major League Baseball player he suffered extreme disappointment when he was rejected because of his race. It was this life lesson that reinforced Troy’s upbringing of emotional disregard towards things he could grow to either want, love, or feel passionate about like his family and friends. Troy’s philosophy in building the fence was that if you don’t grow an emotional attachment to something then it cannot hurt you, and he stayed by philosophy till his death. The fence also became symbolic of the barrier Troy wanted to

The title of the work, Fences, acts as an extended metaphor throughout the play. Troy builds fences between himself and virtually everyone in the play, isolating himself further and further as he clings to the past and refuses to adapt to a world changing around him. He builds a fence between himself and his friend Bono when he takes a promotion at work, and then puts a fence between he and Rose when he goes outside of the confines of their marriage with Alberta. He also builds a fence between himself and Cory by his refusal to acknowledge his son's dreams. As Bogumil states, "By drawing a strict boundary around himself regarding familial relations, Troy loses virtually every sense of affection and bond between himself and his son, causing Cory to conclude that his father does not even like him" (48). When Cory alludes to the question of his father liking him, Troy responds, "....cause I like you? You about the biggest fool I ever saw." He continues with, "You my flesh and blood. Not 'cause I like you! Cause it's my duty to take care of you. I owe a responsibility to you! (Wilson, 38). Later in the play, in the end of Act Two, Scene Four, Troy and

In the play, Troy’s relationship with his son, Cory fades. The relationship first starts to wane when Cory and Troy are in the yard working on the ever so symbolistic Fence in the yard. Cory tells his father that a recruiter will be visiting him due to his success in both school and in football. Troy asks if he still has his job but Cory tells him that he will work on weekends. Troy becomes exceedingly angry with his son and forces him to quit the football team saying that: “The white man ain’t gonna let you get nowhere with that football noway” (35). Even with the tensions high between blacks and whites in the time period, Troy is still very harsh in his words. Perhaps, this can be attributed Troy’s past experience with baseball which didn’t end well for him. This action by Troy is both a crooked and straight. It is crooked because it holds a bar of limitation over his son’s head but it is straight because Troy is only doing it to protect his son. This event shows the reader that there can

Throughout the play “Fences” by August Wilson, the character of Troy is constantly trying to shape Cory into the person he wants Cory to be, rather than permit Cory to explore possibilities and make his own decisions. These dynamics compel Cory to take drastic measures in an attempt to create the change that he wants to experience and to become the person that he envisions. The drastic measures Cory employs involve verbal and physical violence against his father. Each episode of violence changes the dynamic between father and son, but also changes Cory himself. He begins to think that aggression is the only means of creating meaningful change. While he may be correct in thinking that violence changes situations and people, he does not fully understand the implications of change for everyone touched by the conflict and this shapes his character