Fences written by August Wilson portray’s a brute man named Troy. He has everything going for him and has a loving family. Troy hit only a double in the game of life because while he cares for his family’s well being, he has slip ups with how he treats his wife and son, and he gets caught up with another woman. Secondly, Troy might not always have the best bed side manner, however he actually does care very much for his family; “I do the best I can do… I carry a sack of potatoes and a bucket of lard… I give you my sweat and my blood” (Wilson 40). Troy tells Rose that he tries as hard as he can to provide for their family. Troy doesn't show his love in a caring way he always tries to just scold and punish, but he has his family’s best interest. Troy tells Rose, “I told that boy about that football stuff. The white man ain’t gonna let him get nowhere with that football” (Wilson 8). Troy doesn't want to let his son Cory get hurt how he did with his baseball career. Cory came home from school and told his mom; “Papa done went up to the school and told Coach Zellman I can’t play football no more… Told him to tell the recruiter not to come” (Wilson 57). Troy went and talked to the coach without telling his son that he was going to talk to the coach. Cory looses respect for his father because Troy goes behind his back to tell the coach Cory will not be playing anymore. Bono asked Troy about being with another woman and buying her drinks; “I eye all the women. I don't miss nothing” (Wilson 3). Troy stares at other women all of the time even though he is married. Bono notices that he has been with another woman and asks him about it: Bono says “I see you be walking up around Alberta’s house. You supposed to be at Taylors’ and you be walking up around there” (Wilson 4). Troy tries to hide the fact that he is seeing another woman. He wants Bono to keep quite about it because he doesn't want Rose to find out. “Troy took a long drink from the bottle”; then Rose said “You gonna drink yourself to death. You don't need to be drinking like that” (Wilson 10)” Troy then jokes about death and says that he has already wrestled with it and says he’s not scared of it.
August Wilson’s Fences was centered on the life of Troy Maxson, an African American man full of bitterness towards the world because of the cards he was dealt in life amidst the 1950’s. In the play Troy was raised by an unloving and abusive father, when he wanted to become a Major League Baseball player he was rejected because of his race. Troy even served time in prison because he was impoverished and needed money so he robbed a bank and ended up killing a man. Troy’s life was anything but easy. In the play Troy and his son Cory were told to build a fence around their home by Rose. It is common knowledge that fences are used in one of two ways: to keep things outside or to keep things inside. In the same way that fences are used to keep things inside or outside Troy used the fence he was building to keep out death, his family, and his disappointments in life while Rose used the fence to keep those she cared about inside and help them bond.
We are first introduced to Troy as he comes home from work with his best friend, Bono. The two became friends after Troy went to prison for killing a man. Despite this, Bono is said to look up to Troy, admiring his “honesty, capacity for hard work, and his strength, which Bono seeks to emulate” (1.1). Throughout the play, Troy and Bono’s relationship is relatively good. They often say that they love each other, and they
Troy Maxon experiences a tumultuous life, beginning with his departure from his parents’ home at the age of fourteen. Living on an impoverished farm in the Deep South, Troy describes his father, who beats him regularly and only cares about work, as the devil. In Troy’s dialogue with Bono and Lyons, Troy remarks, “My daddy turned to face me, I could see why the devil had never come to get him…cause he was the devil himself” (Wilson 52). The most influential person in Troy’s early life was, as Troy believes, the devil. His...
His father could have treated his children better, Troy, “Sometimes I wish I hadn’t known my daddy. He ain’t cared nothing about no kids. A kid to him wasn’t nothing. All he wanted was for you to learn how to walk so he could start you to working. When it come time for eating. . . he ate first.” (Wilson Pg. 1213). Troy grew up with an abusive father, it made him have no feelings towards his own kids and it plays a huge role in why he acts the way he does. Joe Canewell’s daughter and Troy were about the same age when they were enjoying themselves. His father caught him a whupped him like a slave. That’s when Troy tries to fight his father because his father tries to mess with the young girl. He woke up battered and broken from being unconscious and that when left
The disappointment Troy has in this situation impacts his judgment regarding Cory who is the son of Troy being recruited to play college football, creating tension between the two.
This makes Troy the antagonist in the story because he is not only hitting up against everyone in the play, but he is also hitting up against himself and ultimately making his life more complicated. The discrimination that Troy faced while playing baseball and the torment he endures as a child shaped him into one of the most dynamic characters in literary history. The central conflict is the relationship between Troy and Cory. The two of them have conflicting views about Cory’s future and, as the play goes on, this rocky relationship crumbles because Troy will not let Cory play collegiate football. The relationship becomes even more destructive when Troy admits to his relationship with Alberta and he admits Gabriel to a mental institution by accident.
Troy claimed, “I don’t want him to be like me! I want him to move as far away from my life as he can get” (1588). Even though Cory tried to explain to his adamant father that sports were becoming accepting of blacks, Troy maintained nothing had changed, even in the face of evidence. Rose tried to convince Troy on Cory’s behalf, “Times have changed from when you was young, Troy. People change. The world’s changing around you and you can’t even see it” (1589). Cory tried to remind his father there were many black baseball players such as Hank Aaron in the major leagues, however Troy maintained, “Hank Aaron ain’t nobody” (1586). Cory listed several others, but Troy could not comprehend times really had changed for the better. Eventually Troy kicked Cory out of the house for disrespecting him, and Cory gratefully left knowing while he wouldn’t play football anymore, he would still be better than his father. Troy’s pride in his worldly knowledge got in the way of Cory realizing his dreams; this caused Cory to lose all respect and love for his
In Fences, August Wilson introduces an African American family whose life is based around a fence. In the dirt yard of the Maxson’s house, many relationships come to blossom and wither here. The main character, Troy Maxson, prevents anyone from intruding into his life by surrounding himself around a literal and metaphorical fence that affects his relationships with his wife, son, and mortality.
Later Troy and Cory get into a big argument in the front yard and Troy kicks Cory out of the house and looses his son’s respect. In the last scene Troy dies and is sent to heaven with Gabriel’s trumpet, he is forgiven and is redeemed as a flawed hero. In August Wilson’s “Fences” Troy is viewed as a tragic hero, to be a tragic hero one must have dignity, something to fight for, and a downfall, Troy is the perfect example of a tragic hero because he possess all three of these qualities.
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, but he is also hitting up against himself and ultimately making his life more complicated. The discrimination that Troy faced while playing baseball and the torment he endures as a child shape him into one of the most dynamic characters in literary history. The central conflict is the relationship between Troy and Cory. The two of them have conflicting views about Cory’s future and, as the play goes on, this rocky relationship crumbles because Troy will not let Cory play collegiate football. The relationship becomes even more destructive when Troy admits to his relationship with Alberta and he admits Gabriel to a mental institution by accident. The complication begins in Troy’s youth, when his father beat him unconscious. At that moment, Troy leaves home and begins a troubled life on his own, and gaining a self-destructive outlook on life. “Fences” has many instances that can be considered the climax, but the one point in the story where the highest point of tension occurs, insight is gained and...
Even though Troy does not physically abuse his children like his father did to him, he verbally abuses them. He treats Cory very callously and unjustly. In a way, Troy is taking out his frustrations of having an unsuccessful baseball career by not allowing Cory to pursue his dream to play football. Troy crushed Cory’s dream. In Act One, scene four, Cory expresses his misery. “Why you wanna do that to me? That w...
Similarly, both Cory and Lyons seek careers that lack stability and security - something Troy finds unfaithful to his beliefs. Cory yearns to join a collegiate football team. To supplement the principals he obtains from his steady occupation, Troy forces Cory to desist his collegiate football career and return to his steady occupation working at the A&P.
...y as a responsible person. He overlooks Cory?s efforts to please him and make a career for his son, learned from his past with his own father, is responsible for the tension that builds between him and Cory. This tension will eventually be the cause of the lost relationship that is identical to the lost relationship that is identical to the lost relationship between Troy and his father.
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. Lyons is Troy's son by a previous marriage and Cory is Troy's son by his current marriage. Neither Lyons nor Cory share a close relationship with their father and Troy is mostly to blame for that.
Cory and Troy were arguing and Troy says to Cory in act two scene four page 86 “You a man. Now’ let’s see you act like one. Turn your behind around and walkout this yard. And when you get out there in the alley . . . you can forget about this house”. Troy told Cory this because Cory was disrespecting Troy in his own house and Troy told Cory he can leave and go out and live on his own and become a man. Cory picks up Troy’s bat and act like he’s going to hit him with it and Troy says in act two scene four page 88 “You’re gonna have to kill me! You wanna draw that bat back on me. You’re gonna have to kill me”. Cory is standing up to his father and not taking anymore of Troy’s nonsense but Cory loses the fight and leaves home on his own and goes and becomes a man in the real