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Examples Of Nihilism In Fences

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The Oppressive Nihilist
Troy Maxson, the hero of August Wilson's exemplary play, "Wall", is constantly battling with tolerating the progressions around him. Troy's childhood and individual disappointments have caused him to live as a skeptic whose narcissistic and narrow minded. Troy lives by his own standards and is not able to acknowledge the decisions of others that conflict with his own particular logic. "Fences" is presented in the late 50's amid a period when bigotry and separation was still endemic crosswise over America. Wilson starts the story with a look of history and presents the condition of Maxson's adolescence. "Troy was destined to a tenant farmer father who was disappointed by the way that each product took him further into obligation. The father knew himself as a disappointment and took it out on everybody, including Troy" (pg. 1). Growing up he immediately took in the estimation of work and the thought that a man assumes liability for his family regardless of how troublesome circumstances possibly. As a …show more content…

He was not able to battle that reality that he was unsatisfied with life, along these lines he always rationalized to legitimize his activities. At the point when admitting to his wife, Rose, that he was engaging in extramarital relations with another lady and had gotten her pregnant, he said, "You can't locate a superior lady than Rose. In any case, appears like this lady simply adhered onto me where I can't shake her free. Presently she's stuck on for good" (pg. 63). He acted unaware of the circumstance as though he had no way out other than to undermine her. Troy had constantly discovered himself censuring others for his own charms instead of assuming liability and working towards change. He declined to trust that times in America were changing, thus he assembled a non-literal wall to disconnect himself from

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The movie ‘Fences’ has three main characters: Troy Maxson, Cory Maxson, and Rose Maxson. However, I believe characters such as Lyons Maxson, Jim Bono, and Gabriel Maxson play extremely important roles in the movie also. Therefore, I will speak on all six. Troy Maxson (53), is an African American garbage collector.

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1669 Words | 7 Pages

Hesler Garcia 3/7/18 Mr. Amoroso English 10H 3. Troy Maxon is a paternal figure in Fences. Troy is a responsible black man. However his responsibility leads him to be a selfish person. The book states “Troy: It’s my job.

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910 Words | 4 Pages

In the book Fences by August Wilson, the author chooses baseball to compare many of the struggles everyday people deal with in everyday society. August Wilson created some very relatable characters to portray the message of life and love Fences attempts to display. It is ultimately displayed in a quote by the main character Troy Maxson. Troy said “That’s all death is to me. A fastball on the outside corner” (10).

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811 Words | 4 Pages

Therefore he starts drinking more, being that he cannot stand not being the center of everyone’s attention. But all the problems he has originated from, and worse than that, he does nothing productive to try and fix any of them. This once again proves that Troy is unsuitable to be a proper father for Cory and a respectable husband for Rose. Troy loses the dignity, respect and even love that was once given to him by his friends and family. His own selfish needs are fuel for the destruction of the life he once knew.

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970 Words | 4 Pages

but it also impacted the relationship he has with his children. As a child, his father never showed him affection, therefore he is unable to replicate. Although Troy is a protective and loving father, he is unable to show these emotions due to his past experience. Troy never learned how to treat others, especially those close to him. Instead, his past hinders his present, destroying every loving relationship he has

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549 Words | 3 Pages

In Fences, by August Wilson, Troy’s selfishness makes him a tragic hero because it causes him to make decisions that hurt not only himself but ultimately the people who he loves most. Troy’s inner selfishness is the sole reason for his affair with Alberta, and it is what eventually triggers the split in his family. When trying to stop the metaphorical bleeding caused by his affair, Troy characterizes himself with Rose as “we”, to which Rose responds with, “All of a sudden it’s ‘we.’ Where was ‘we’ at when you was down there rolling around with some godforsaken woman?

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1222 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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1516 Words | 7 Pages

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.

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418 Words | 2 Pages

Though he does not blame Rose for this, he refuses to apologize for cheating. He says his conscience is clear. He rationalizes his infidelity with the idea that the pressures of his life as a provider have led him, quite naturally in his view, to find an outlet, as he tells his wife. His response to her anger and pain is an admission that the other woman offers an escape from his responsibilities. She makes him forget the endless repetition of his life for a few moments.

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883 Words | 4 Pages

August Wilson's play Fences addresses a great content of interpreting and inheriting history. Throughout Fences, much of the conflict emerge because the characters are at disparity with the way they see their foregoing and what they want to do with their forthcoming. Fences explores how the damaged aspirations of one generation can taint the dreams of the next generation on how they deal with the creation of their own identity when their role model is a full of dishonesty. Wilson illustrates his qualities primarily through his use of symbolism in the play Fences.  

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884 Words | 4 Pages

Troy wants to control his family. When the Scene 1 Troy’s elder son Lyon’s has come to borrow some money as a loan, but troy criticizes him badly, but his sons rememorized him that in his childhood, his father is not there to complete his needs in his youth now he is too old. He wants him to get a good job, but Lyon’s think that nothing wrong with his music and he doesn’t want to get any jobs. ‘’ Troy offers Lyon’s sound advice, but Lyon response reminds Troy and witnessing the exchange that, as Lyons said ‘’ You and I are two different people, Pop,’ and that Troy’s prescription about life and work are a ‘’day late and the dollar short’ (119)(Wilson 19).

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702 Words | 3 Pages

Troy’s outlook on life is more narrow minded however, his family is more optimistic for a better future. Troy was raised by a very dominate male figure who was abusive. His father would be little him and made him like he would not be able to overcome racism. Troy despised his father who was mean and never showed him any love.

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978 Words | 4 Pages

Troy is controlling and often verbally abusive to his family members because he lacks a sense of control in other areas of his life, he is unable to achieve his dream of becoming a pro-baseball player or advance in his career and this makes him feel inadequate. Troy’s wife Rose represents a stereotypical mother and dutiful wife role. Rose has two disadvantages in her life because she is not only African American, she is also a woman and in some ways she is the wife you would expect during the 1950s era. Rose however, is not weak minded because she recognizes how times have changed and this what makes Troy and Rose so drastically different throughout the play. Their contrasting ideologies represent two different aspects of the “African American Experience” by showing a major question many African Americans faced during the 1950s and that is: “are times really changing?.”

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1457 Words | 6 Pages

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.

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1501 Words | 7 Pages

In August Wilson’s playwright Fences, the narrator portrays racism in a social system, in the workplace, and in sports, which ultimately affects Troy’s aspirations. Troy Maxson is constantly facing the racism that is engraved into the rules of racial hierarchy –– fair and unfair, spoken and unspoken. Troy suffers many years of racism when he plays in the Negro major Baseball League; therefore he decides to protect Cory from ever experiencing those blockades in his drive for success. In the end, although Troy is always driving to obtain agency, Troy always succumbs to the rules of racism because those racist ideologies are too hard to overcome. Throughout the play, Troy is perpetually confronting the racist social system that displays unspoken

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