Personality and Achievement in the Plays Death of a Salesman and Fences

            As we can see from Willy's ideas of personal attractiveness, he doesn't seem to rely on hard work very much, particularly when it comes down to achieving the American Dream.  In actuality, it is the lack of hard work that attracted Willy to become a salesman in the first place.  In a conversation with Howard, his boss, Willy speaks of an eighty-four year old man he'd met when he was

In the beginning of the play, Troy is portrayed as crude, bitter, and stern. His past experiences, such as being incarcerated and running away from home at such an early age, shaped his mindset and his relationship with his sons and his wife, Rose. Not wanting his son Cory to make the same mistakes as he did, chasing a sports career, Troy is harsh to Cory. Troy's belief in the importance of providing for his family outweighed the common belief of expressing love and compassion toward his son. Although Cory longed for that love from his father, Troy believed as a father he was approaching his responsibility of providing for Cory and Rose accordingly and that was his

While social injustice and oppression are rooted in Troy’s life, he tries to regain a sense of power and control. In the essay “Developing Character: Fences,” Sandra Shannon says, “These feelings of being passed over change Troy into a man obsessed with extorting from life an equal measure of what was robbed from him” (95). Since Troy had a cruel and cold relationship with his father and was never able to fulfill his dream as a baseball player, he attempts to control those around him. Yet, Troy’s efforts to control his family ends up bringing them down with him. By attempting to make up for and fill the void that was left in his life, Troy only ends up oppressing others.

From the beginning of the paper, it is evident that Troy is a prideful character with bad morals. He thinks he was better than anyone else. He brags on his batting skills about when he used to be a baseball star in the black league. You see later on that Troy struggles with his self and the relationship with his son. It is the struggles that you see within him drinking and the marriage at first that leads to many more of his problems with other people in his life. He openly admits to an affair and when he does, Cory is outraged. He tries to keep Cory from achieving his dream in a hypocritical and jealousy way which escalated the other arguments between the two of them.

In the books Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, and Fences by August Wilson, there are common themes that run throughout the entire stories. Among these similarities there are two, hard working men who are trying to live the American dream but instead end up becoming frustrated by life. The main character of each book, Willy Loman and Troy Maxson are similar in many ways. They both try hard to be good men and fathers, but unfortunately, they both fail in certain aspects. Troy isolates himself from his youngest son, and many could say that he is too harsh and unnaturally cold towards him. Willy in a way believes that his grown sons could not have done any

When most people think of the term “hero” they think of comic book characters with superpowers or role models who have estimable traits. For some, the thought of a “tragic hero” could seem remotely contradicting and perplexing. However, the Greek philosopher Aristotle defines a tragic hero as a character who, for the most part, is a benevolent person, but suffers from his or her hamartia and hubris, which ultimately leads to their downfall and recognition of their poor choices, as well as the reversal of their situation. The play Fences written by August Wilson describes the struggles and hardships of an African-American family endeavoring to live the American Dream in the 1950s. Although some may argue that the main character, Troy, is not a tragic hero, evidence in the play fortifies that he is due to his essentially good nature, his hubris and his hamartia of obstinacy, which ultimately lead to the reversal of his fortune and his tragic downfall.

Wilson titles the play ‘Fences’ because it reflects the life of African Americans in the 1950s and how they struggle to overcome the barriers they encounter. Fences symbolize different things for the characters in the play. Fence to Troy means keeping something /someone out of his life. After Alberta died, he completed the fence; his way of keeping death away from him. He also created a fence unknowingly between himself and Cory by not letting him pursue his football ambition. To Rose, the fence keeps her family together and secured in their home.

Like many tragic stories “the underlying struggle is that of the individual attempting to gain his "rightful" position in his society” (Miller). Fences is full of struggles starting for Troy as soon as he comes into this world. Troy is born in 1904 into a less than perfect world and by the time he is fourteen years old he leaves Alabama to escape his abusive father. He runs away to Pittsburgh, following the promise that there are good jobs there. Wilson sets the scene in ‘Steel City’, a place of great importance to him. He was born there and sets “nine out of the ten plays in the neighborhood of the Hill District” (Wardi 1). His relationship with his father is lacking, something that he is determined to improve upon with his own children, but as time progresses, it becomes apparent that the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree. As a father Troy doesn’t have much to go off of, the only love he has ever know has come from his father. His mother left when he was young, as did all of the women his father courted: “He wasn’t good for nobody” (Wilson 556). So in addition to his absent father figure

Both Rose and Troy Maxson in August Wilson’s Play Fences make the most of family life despite numerous obstacles both internally and externally. Rose knew that Troy was damaged yet loved him and made sacrifices to build a family. In contrast, Troy is emotionally unavailable due to past and present conflicts and is a resentful husband and father who provided the bare essentials to his family in the forms of money, shelter, food, and clothing. Although, both Rose and Troy think of escaping to an alternate idealized life; Troy acts on his thoughts and does turn to another woman for what he believe is freedom from his current life.

August Wilson’s, Fences, is often considered the African-American counterpart to the play, The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. Therefore, this leads to many analyses comparing and contrasting the two main characters, Troy Maxson and Willy Loman. This is examined through the scene our group chose, where Troy is losing his grip on reality and his family, more specifically his son Cory, because it illustrates one of the main differences between Troy and Willy. In the scene chosen, Troy is conscious of what is happening, he understands he has lost the respect of his son, and begins to realize that he has lost the fleeting grip on reality he originally had. While contrastingly, in Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman lies to himself and others to avoid recognizing his failures. This led to our group focusing on researching more about the American Dream. The American Dream, or in this case the lack of, is essentially what killed both of the protagonists in each script. It emphasizes the message both playwrights were

In August Wilson’s Play Fences, Rose and Troy Maxson make the most of family life despite numerous obstacles both internally and externally. Rose knew that Troy was damaged yet loved him and made sacrifices to build a family. In contrast, Troy is emotionally unavailable due to past and present conflicts and is a resentful husband and father who provided the bare essentials to his family in the forms of money, shelter, food, and clothing. Although, both Rose and Troy think of escaping to another life; Troy acts on his thoughts and does turn to another woman for what he believe is freedom from his current life.

There are many moments in Fences when conflict through love and anger is shown between Rose and Troy. Rose has been a loving and caring wife to Troy for the past eighteen years, but when Troy disrespects that and goes off with another woman. Rose feels betrayed and replaced. “Maybe you ought to go on and stay down there with her...if she a better woman than me” (Wilson, 69). This represents her frustration with Troy, and how she feels hurt after continuous years of a healthy marriage. Although, after Rose cools down from hearing the frightening news, she wants to stay involved in Troy’s life because she still loves and cares for him deeply no matter what.

Troy and Willy have different issues in life. The issues Troy had with his life concerned his race. This is because all his life he wanted to become a

After reading the play it is obvious that Troy is building a fence around his home to make his wife Rose happy. The whole play is based around the fence and how it needs to be done, this even causes a little argument between Bono and Troy. Bono knows about Troy’s affair with the girl down the road and he strongly believes Troy should build the fence for Rose because she deserves a lot better of a life than Troy is giving her. As the play goes on to Troy begins to work on the fence, but as the reader we begin to see that the fence is not only to make Rose happy, but it begins to be symbolic of boundary’s from Troy’s home life and the life he has with Alberta. Bono “some people build fences to keep people out… and other people build fences to keep people in. “Rose wants to hold onto you. She loves you.” (Wilson 1410) It is easy to see that Troy is not happy with the fact that his wife supports his son Cory and his football career, this disagreement seems to be the main reason he pushes himself away from his family. Troy is holding onto his failed baseball career and he believes that Cory will be treated as he was back in the day. This leads me into the main message in the play, don’t let the past impact your

In "Fences," Troy struggles to fulfill his role as a father. The relationship between Troy and his son Cory is not as normal and