Father and Son in Death of a Salesman, and Fences Essay

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

Troy Maxson was a great father to all of his kids when he was there. Troy is a great father because he is hard on his kids when he is around them. A good father should be hard on their kids when they have matured and are starting to go out into the real world. Troy is hard on Cory because he has to make Cory realize that the world is not fair and he needs to find a trade to be treated well.

Troy's inability to come out of his bad experiences of discrimination and his inability to achieve his American dream made his son, Cory, dislike his views so he had disregard for him, so much so that he did not have much respect for him even upon his death. Cory felt that his own dream which he could have easily achieved was shattered by his own father. Although Troy's approach to life was negative but his family knew that, “he meant to do more good than he meant to do harm” (Wilson Pg 137). The same way Willy's suicide was a cowards way of giving up and running away from the mental turmoil he was in due to the unrealistic state of mind. His suicide was as misguided as his idea of success and happiness, his main reason for suicide was the money his life insurance will give his wife that can compensate for what he couldn't achieve and to become a hero in the eyes of his son who was in bad terms with him after he had found out about his father's infidelity.

became a father that Cory never wanted, ultimately leading to Troy’s own demise. While it

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.

One of Troy’s major flaws is his obsession with having a practical career and a steady income. He claims that, although he does not “like” his son, he will always work hard to provide for him because “It’s my job. It’s my responsibility… A man got to take care of his family.” (Wilson 38). He cares very deeply that his sons are also able to guarantee income, even if it costs them their passion. Troy disapproves of his son Lyons decision to pursue

Troy is the father to Cory, a high school student at the time. One day Cory came home excited with news, and told his father he was being recruited and had quit his job to be able to attend practice more (pg 1959 line 76). This intensified the not-so-good relationship the two already had. When Troy was younger, he wanted to go pro in baseball, but to that day kept making excuses about why he was prohibited from doing so. He uses baseball references when he struggles with finding the correct emotional words to say. He uses the ‘3 strikes and you’re out thing with his son. Cory doesn’t understand why his father doesn’t want to let him play sports and go to college because to Cory, times are changing and people are more accepting of race. Cory resents his father’s traditionalist ways and refusal to see ‘the now.’ Cory spends more

The son however is the ‘faith’ within the story. He is the hope for a better future. The son is more trusting towards others and therefore becomes upset and quiet when his father doesn’t agree with him. “I’m afraid for that little boy” – The son has never seen another young boy and is frightened for him but his father shrugs off his pleas to help him and says “I know but he’ll be alright”. Towards the end of the book it appears that the father and his son become distant to each other due to their diverse personalities. It could however be seen that the son is a lot more knowledgeable about dangers and therefore does not need his father as much.

Individuals and society often rely on the trait of responsibility in order to have their daily activities run smoothly. Troy Maxson has incorporated the key ideas of responsibility; to secure his family, friendships and job. Troy had stated multiple times within Fences that his actions are based off of his responsibilities; instead of love. “[...]Liked you? Who the hell say I got to like you?[...]” (Wilson,37). This quote displays that although Troy loves his family, his sense of responsibility is stronger. The sense of responsibility shows he is concerned for what is to come to the family; although this shadowed his emotions to forget to show affection. “[...]Some people build fences to keep people out…and

Where Cory has aspirations of playing football, Troy says that he must continue with his more practical job at the A&P.

Since Troy dad wasn’t the best dad parenting wasn’t the easiest thing for troy to do. He didn’t realize it takes a lot of patients in being a parent, He had to worry about his son now let alone himself. Troy maybe didn’t show it the best but he loved Cory more than he loved his self because at the end of the day all he wanted for Cory is what he thought would be best for

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

Family relationships always have a way of playing a key role for the duration of most literary pieces. According to Arthur Miller’s novel, Death of a Salesman, the interaction of Willy and his sons, Happy and Biff, shows that family ties usually are connected either physically or emotionally in some way or another. Willy Loman is just like every father in a father/son bond, yet all he wants is to be a part of his son’s life. Even though Biff and Happy admire and have so much love for their father when they are younger, later down the road when they are older suddenly they realize he had failed to prepare them for the real society in life.

Perhaps the most important and fulfilling relationship a man can be involved in is one with his own flesh and blood. At the beginning of the play, we learn that Troy has two sons, Lyons and Cory.

Troy's treatment of Cory is influenced by the way Troy's father had treated him when he was a child. Troy may have wanted to give his child a better life than he had, but he ends up acting like his father did. As Kenney writes, "It is ironic how near Troy approaches to repeating his own father’s behavior." (1). The finale of Troy and Cory's conflict comes to a close in a similar fashion to Troy's own ultimate confrontation with his father.