In the play Fences by August Wilson, dissatisfaction plays an important role. The main character, Troy, is a tragic hero as he makes decisions that lead to his own destruction. These decisions are fueled by his discontent with life. To a large extent, dissatisfaction fuel Troy’s relationships, negative decisions, and lead to his downfall as a tragic hero. The first time that the audience sees Troy’s dissatisfaction is when he is talking about his job. Troy is a garbage man, but he doesn’t like standing on the back of the truck and lifting because he wants to be a garbage truck driver. For example, when Troy is talking to Bono on page 3, he says, “All I want them to do is change the job description. Give everybody a chance to drive the truck” …show more content…
Even though Rose is a great wife to Troy, he still is so discontent with his life that he cheats on her. Troy tells Rose on page 69, "It ain't about nobody being a better woman or nothing. Rose, you ain't the blame. A man couldn't ask for no woman to be a better wife than you've been" (Wilson, 1986). This shows that Troy was fortunate enough to have Rose as his wife, but he was so unhappy with his life he found someone else to be with and love. Troy says to Rose that he is going to keep seeing the girl he has cheated on her with, Alberta. He then tells her, “It's just...[Alberta] gives me a different idea...a different understanding about myself. I can step out of this house and get away from the pressures and problems" (Wilson, 1986, p. 68). Since Troy couldn’t be satisfied by Rose, he found someone else who made him feel like he could escape his …show more content…
Cory is a very good high school football player and he is being recruited by colleges to play football. Troy is jealous of his son because he is getting the opportunity that Troy never had with baseball; to play at a high level. When Rose tells Troy that Cory is being recruited by colleges for football, he responds by saying, "He ought to go and get recruited in how to fix cars or something where he can make a living" (Wilson, 1986, p. 8). Troy can’t be happy for his son and won’t let him play college football. The audience sees this when Cory says, "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.... Just cause you didn't have a chance! You just scared I'm gonna be better than you, that's all” (Wilson, 1986, p. 57-58). This shows that Troy strongly disagrees with Cory playing football because he is jealous of him. He uses an excuse by saying that he wants Cory to focus on getting a job as to why he won’t let him play football. Troy’s dissatisfaction with baseball play’s a large role in his decision to prohibit Cory to play football. Since Troy never got an opportunity to play professional baseball, he doesn’t want Cory to have the opportunity to play college football. Troy allows his own failure to cost his son a chance to have a college
The dynamic between a father and son is never a simple journey, but instead, comes with curveballs thrown left and right. In Fences, by August Wilson, he writes of the hardships between a father and son relationship and the difficulties a father has over trying to shield his son from life’s cruelties, to the salvation found between being fenced in and finally being placed outside of the fence—both literally and metaphorically. Through out the play, there are numerous confrontations between Troy and Cory—whether it be when Cory asks Troy whether or not he loves him or when Cory throws his football helmet towards the direction of Troy—which show the difficult and complicated relationship between father and son. Also prevalent in the play, was the lack of a father and male figure in Troy’s own life, during his most influential and important years. Troy recognizes that and the way he was/is treated by society in general and wanted to “help” his son by showing Cory the difficult lessons Troy learned during his youth, as a way to lessen the pain that would be inflicted on his son later on.
Brett is extremely excited for this scholarship and he knows he can go pro and have a job doing the one thing he loves and that's playing football. Except there is one problem Brett hates football. He has spent his entire life playing it. His father is a slobbering drunk that does nothing but correct
Troy turns to the one thing he does know, baseball. What he was trying to explain in this quote is how he has been safe and comfortable for the last eighteen years of his marriage and he was given a chance to do something thrilling and he took it. Troy is trying to compare the thrill of cheating to stealing second base after being safe at first. Troy and Cory in the story are not the loving father-son couple, they hardly see eye to eye on anything. Another theme of baseball this story follows is the idea of three strikes your out.
After lots of arguing relating to the state of their relationship, Troy selfishly explains, “Rose, you’re not listening to me… It’s not easy to admit that I been standing in the same place for eighteen years” (70). In fury, Rose responds, “I got a life too. I gave eighteen years of my life to stand in the same spot with you. Don’t you think I ever wanted other things?
The hardships that people face, coming from racial and gender injustice, can sometimes affect not just those directly concerned, but their families as well. These injustices, such as the treatment to Troy in Fences during his younger years, change the ways he acts to his sons and the rest of the characters and is the source of much of the conflict they face. Many of the conflicts in the play arise because the characters disagree with the way they see the past and what they want to do in their respective futures. For example, Troy and Cory see Cory's future differently because of the ways they have been treated in their pasts.
Troy’s inability to commit to building his fences despite his repetitive speaking of how he is going to finish his fence shows how his isolation from his wife stems from his inability to truly commit to his wife even though he always told her he loved her. He wanted to protect his wife from the truth that he cheated on her and has a baby on the way with her but the fence prevented true communication with his own wife. Troy's inability to see the change in civil rights during his time period because of the fence led to the isolation of his mindset towards African American rights and the straining of his relationship with his son. His struggle to be accepted into playing professional sports alongside white men lead to preventing his son from playing professional football despite the changing times in civil rights. Without isolation from change, his relationship with his son could possibly be a happy one.
He persistently criticizes and neglects his two sons, which thus draws them away from him. Troy pushes Lyons away by refusing to hear him play his "Chinese music". He also scars hisrelationship with his other son, Cory, by preventing him from playing football and rejecting his onlychance to get recruited by a college football team. Also, Troy states that Cory's things will "be on theother side of that fence" when he kicks Cory to the street. Through this scene Troyacknowledges the fence as an actual, physical divide between him and his son.
Troy 's hatred of his father acts as a catalyst for many moments in Troy 's life, in negative and positive ways alike. Unlike most fathers, Troy 's father didn 't leave him with a material possession such as a house but instead left him with emotional baggage that crippled the earlier and later parts of Troy 's life. From the beginning, Troy 's father was abusive to his mother and all of his siblings. Troy and his family worked hard on their father 's farm and endured his bitterness towards being a sharecropper. Troy states that his father was greedy and would put his own personal needs above the needs of the family.
Troy has a singular perspective on the world. He has a strict demeanor because of how society viewed African Americans back in the 1950s. Troy cares a lot about his family even if he doesn't show it. Throughout his life, Racism has been a barrier for him. He was once young and he chased his own dreams but because of his skin color, several "ideals" got in his way.
Troy chose to escape his reality by having an affair that gives him some laughs and good time every now and then. However, despite the flaws in Troy’s character, he was a providing family man who wants to insure a better life of his sons than the one he had. Based on the play’s time period, which took place at the 50’s, apparently the main problem of Troy Maxson’s character was racism against African Americans at the time that had prevented him from achieving his dreams. Throughout the play, Troy expresses his dissatisfaction in several scenes with the other characters.
Bernadin 1 Patricia Bernadin Mrs. Noel English II 4 April 2017 Literary Analysis: Fences A Fathers Sins The notion of loyalty is something that is valued in a family trying to survive a stressful life. Fences is a play written by August Wilson about an African American Family having a hard time with a man due to his refusal of acceptance and loyalty.
Troy doesn't see that times are changing, and doesn't allow his son Cory to pursue his football career, because of what happened to Troy when he tried to make it big in baseball. During the time that Troy was playing baseball in the Negro Leagues, there weren't any major league black baseball players and it caused Troy to give up on his dream in baseball. Now that Cory is getting recruited to play football at college, Troy simply cannot see that things would be different for his son now that the times were moving forward for black professional athletes. The motivation behind Troy being so against his son playing football stems from his bitterness about not being able to pursue his dreams in playing baseball. Kenney States in his article that “Baseball serves not only as the focus of Troy’s dream and disappointment, but also as his metaphor for what he sees as the essentially combative nature of life itself.”
Although Troy feared and hated his father he would later realize he had traits similar to the devil himself. Troy has a job as a garbage collector and he
From the readers point of view, it is obvious that Rose is too good for Troy, but Rose constantly is faithful to Troy. This shows a special aspect of marriage and the relationship between Troy and Rose. It shows the level of commitment it takes to be in a marriage, but it also show the lack of commitment and gratitude that could be in a marriage. Troy ends up cheating on Rose, because he began to take what he had for granted.
He has a softer tone in the dialogue with Rose which shows that he does care about Cory. He is tough on Cory because he doesn’t want his son to experience the same things as he, as a black male in the mid-century, endured. He believes that a sturdy hand will lead his son in the right direction and prepare him for a harsh world. Troy tells Rose, “He’s got to make his own way. I made mine.