Troy's Battle with Anger in August Wilson's Fences Essay

Fences written by August Wilson is an award winning drama that depicts an African-America family who lives in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania during the 1950’s. During this time, the Mason’s reveal the struggles working as a garbage man, providing for his family and excepting life as is. The end of segregation began, more opportunities for African American people were accessible. Troy, who’s the father the Cory and husband of Rose has shoes fill as a working African America man. He is the family breadwinner and plays the dominant role in the play. Troy’s childhood was pretty rough growing up on a farm of 11 children. Overtime, he realizes the change of society. He builds a friendship fellow sanitation worker, Jim Bono while in the penitentiary. Troy planned to build a fence around his house to control the number of people on his property. The fence also plays a symbolic role throughout the drama. These motives and characteristics control is what makes Troy the friend, father, worker, and husband he is today.

The theme of August Wilson’s play “Fences” is the coming of age in the life of a broken black man. Wilson wrote about the black experience in different decades and the struggle that many blacks faced, and that is seen in “Fences” because there are two different generations portrayed in Troy and Cory. Troy plays the part of the protagonist who has been disillusioned throughout his life by everyone he has been close to. He was forced to leave home at an early age because his father beat him so dramatically. Troy never learned how to treat people close to him and he never gave any one a chance to prove themselves because he was selfish. This makes Troy the antagonist in the story because he is not only hitting up against everyone in the play,

Although there were a couple of mistakes he made, he made sure he did not make the same mistake his dad made which was not providing for the family. Rose was Troy’s wife who respected him as a husband and made him and her children dinner every night. According to what he says, he truly loves his wife; "I love this woman. I love this woman so much it hurts. I love her so much...I done run out of ways of loving her" (1.1.173). This quote allows the reader to realize that the Maxson family does have a foundation of love. Cory and Lyons also admired their father because in their eyes he was an excellent father figure. Bono was Troy’s best friend whom he met at a correction center and has known him for 30 years. Troy was a role model to Bono and he admired Troy's leadership and responsibility at work.

Family is not always the easiest thing to deal with as families always seem to get into disagreements. This is shown in the play “Fences” by August Wilson which is full of tension between the main character, Troy, and his various family members. Troy’s many bad decisions and mistakes cause a lot of hate to be directed at him and a lot of arguments ensue throughout the play. August Wilson uses many narrative elements in the play to make it more interesting and show the tension more clearly. Overall, in the play “Fences” August Wilson uses narrative elements such as father-son conflict, contrasting motifs, and characterization to show characters’ problems to create tension between characters.

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.

Consequently, the relationship between Troy and Rose became

In the play “Fences” by August Wilson you see a father and son relationship that reflects the struggles that are faced with all odds against them. This play brings out many family conflicts from betrayal, disappointment, embitterment, compassion, loyalty, and forgiveness. A father who's demeanor to not let bygones be bygones leads him down a difficult path of failure and a son who's resentment towards his father tears them apart. In this play August Wilson presents a multigenerational vision in which our sense of waste is more than balanced by an infusion of hope. (___) Troy Maxon born and raised during a time of great turmoil.

From the beginning of play Troy was willing to build fences around his house, Bono explains that people build fences for two reasons: “some people build fences to keep people out…………other people build fences to keep people in.” Bono suggests Troy respect love of Rose and break the relationship with Alberta, but it was too late. Rose was upset with Troy, it was hard for her to overcome what troy did. She has been good wife and mother or eighteen years and at last, she was betrayed and emotionally hurt by her husband. How might it feel to her when she knew that, Troy was in the relationship with Alberta to relieve his pain and pressure from life. They did not talk to each other for six months in spite of staying in the same house. Rose, her love was great she could not stop herself from talking to him and Troy was still responsible to his family, he used to give his pay to his wife every Friday. Rose from the beginning was an understanding wife and mother, she understands that her husband does not earn enough, so she used to manage that money properly for useful stuff. She never asked for any luxurious stuff, they did not have TV at their house. She was an understanding mother, she never forced her son to look job and earn money. She knows that he wants to be a player, so she supports him. Even though her husband pay was not enough for their own expenses, she used to give ten dollars to

Fences and August Wilson Fences are like the walls we put up in our own lives. We build them to protect our privacy, we build them to hide what is really going on. In the play Fences written by August Wilson, we learn about a man with a family who he lies to and doesn’t look out for his family. Troy a husband and a father, is a man with only his intentions in mind.

Troy was a bad father to his family. Troy made sure to work hard to supply his family with a house, clothes,

Troy’s hardness towards his son is his way of showing him love and despite the fact that Rose and Cory, troy’s son, try to convince him that times have changed and that he can now play baseball with the whites the father still adamantly refuses to let him play. Troy is a strong figure in this setting and stands for how black men perceived life while under the rule of the white men.

The story “Fences” by August Wilson, shows the struggle that a certain family goes through. This family is the Maxson family, each and every character in this story has a problem they face throughout their life whether it be a problem about money, choices, illness, or even love. The problem that Troy the father faces is that he is not satisfied with his life or love life. When he was younger he tried out for the pro baseball team and did not get in because of his race. Which left him distraught and led to all the problems his family faces. He feels he has more of responsibility than a life that he should be living. This causes him to eventually find another life with another woman. Him doing this causes a big toll on all family members.

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.

Along with the fallout from Troy's affair, the Maxsons also must deal with the smoldering tension between Troy and his son Cory. One can feel it, like a disease eating away at the family's foundation. ”(Norris 1) Her claim is important because it shows that even though Troy lost his control with his devil of drinking and fell to temptations that would break a family apart, but Rose takes control of the situation to keep her family together. Troy grew up in a household where everything wasn’t normal, which caused the devils of his childhood to interfere with upbringing of his family. Troy uses the devils of his past to put up barriers between him and his family, but it’s not because he wants to it’s just the way he grew up.

The way Troy is living his life has multiple effects on the ones he loves. Troy's complaining and contentious ways is are believed to be caused by the way his father treated him when he was younger. After fighting with his father and leaving home, he is sentenced to time in prison. In prison Troy learns how to play baseball but cannot play in the major leagues because he is black. During the play Troy has many disagreements with many different people. The people he argues with the most are Cory, Bono, Rose, and Gabriel. Cory is his second son, Bono is his best friend, Rose is his second wife, and Gabriel is his brother.