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Fences Troy Character Traits

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In the play “Fences”, the main character is a 53 year-old man by the name of Troy Maxson. He has been married to his wife, Rose, for eighteen years. Troy’s father mistreated him and his mother at a young age thus driving away his mother and ruining his family leaving him to run away from his father where he eventually settled in Pittsburgh, PA. He didn’t grow up with a loyal father and only had the examples and morals that his father had taught him. Troy was a thief in his younger years because he couldn’t get a job due to racial factors during the time. Troy ended up going to prison for killing a man in a fight and in prison he met Bono who is now his friend. So far, things have not been so good for Troy. At work he struggles with racial …show more content…

This play takes place in 1957 where the African American society was still facing discrimination from the white population. Troy has had to endure some pretty tough situations in life and all of these events have created the personality he has today. He is a man of great pride and this is evident when Bono confronts Troy about cheating on his wife. A characteristic he most likely learned from his father who had no respect for women. Troy doesn’t want to admit it to Bono that he is cheating because in the beginning he is denying it. He says he is just being friendly with the other woman, Alberta, and that he is like that with all the women. Eventually he gives in and admits that what he is doing is wrong and he wants to fix it but doesn’t know how. This shows that even though he has been through so much in life, he is morally aware of his doings and knows that he is in the wrong. This characteristic shows that he wants to be a better man than his father was. He wants to fix things and work things out. When he tells rose about the other woman he also mentions to her that he is fathering a child with her. She of course is shocked to hear that as any sane woman would be. It took a tremendous amount of courage for Troy to confess the mistake he made. This shows that even though he knows he messed up, he takes full responsibility for what he has done and that is a great example of what a true

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and I buried them inside you.” ( Fences page 71). When Troy told her he had cheated on her she responded by saying she had to hold on to her feelings and needs for him. “Rose: I’ll take care of your baby for you… from right

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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.

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The way Troy had a bad experience with sport baseball and what he went through in the past is what developed his character in the book “Fences”. In the beginning of the book we get introduced to a character named Troy and he is a father and husband; we also get told that he used to play baseball growing up and how he only grew up with a father who in his words was “so evil”; for a short period of time before he moved out on his own. Troy is African American and with him being African American and growing up during a racist time he didn’t get very far with baseball and because of that it spun his life in a spiral and he’s never forgotten about it. In the beginning of Fences Troy is talking to Bono and Rose and Bono brings up Troy’s son Corey playing football and even having a recruiter coming to check him out.

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His relationship with Bono shows this clearly. For it always appears as though Bono only listens and comments in their conversations. It is rare that he brings up a new topic, and when he does Troy is sure to make it go in a direction he wants it to. Rose has to be the worst victim of Troy’s selfishness because Troy never even considers her feelings or how he might hurt her. He also ignores the responsibility he owes her in being her husband, all because he wanted to indulge himself with another women.

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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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It additionallyconveys the emotional barrier that Troy puts between them. Furthermore, Troy ruins his marriageby cheating on his wife, Rose, by having an affair with another woman named Alberta. Howeverunlike Rose, who strives to build a fence around her family, Troy attempts to evade capture in thefence. He doesn't have the capacity to understand that Rose wants to keep the family close becausehe never truly had a close family. As a result, Troy ends up driving everybody away just like hisfather.

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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.

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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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