Fences Compare And Contrast Essay

Both of the plays, Fences by August Wilson and Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, exhibit father and son relationships in a way similar to that of the poem “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden. In Hayden’s 1962 poem, a son describes the relationship between him and his dad, or the lack thereof. Using impactful and descriptive words, Hayden is able to beautifully illustrate this love-hate relationship between father and son. The poem entails how the father gets up early, even on the weekends, to go into the freezing chill and perform intensive physical labor in order to provide for the family. He still makes time to polish his son’s shoes too. However, despite this obvious affection, there are still harsh words being exchanged between

He does not sugarcoat how he feels either, saying that he does not have to like his son, implicitly stating here that he does not. This angered approach of speaking to his son is what the father displayed in the poem, as put by the son when he said, “fearing the chronic angers of that house” (Hayden). Yet, it is hard to feel as though he just views it as a responsibility, he does as much as he can for his family and only wants the best for them, as shown when he told Rose, “Woman . . . I do the best I can do. I come in here every Friday. I carry a sack of potatoes and a bucket of lard. You all line up at the door with your hands out. I give you the lint from my pockets. I give you my sweat and my blood. I ain’t got no tears. I done spent them” (Wilson). These words from Troy imply that buried deep down he likely feels some level of love for them. He truly provides as much as he can humanly muster, but emotionally is just not there, as Troy at this point in his life “ain’t got no tears”. This also shows a direct connection to the dad from the poem, from the words of Hayden, “with cracked hands that ached / from labor in the weekday weather made / banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him” (Hayden). This is precisely what Troy is experiencing, although no one gives him his flowers for all his hard work he does, he continues to earn for his family regardless of that. But, Troy’s harsh language and his purely

Willy too, like Troy, showcases similar characteristics to the father from “Those Winter Sundays”. The most prevalent being the extremely high work ethic. Willy for years has been a traveling salesman, driving long distances on a weekly basis in order to sustain his family. Also much like the father Willy rarely gets emotional, although uniquely to him, what emotions he does show usually seem like way too much or way too little for the given scenario. His dedication to his hard work is demonstrated when his wife, Linda, says, “He works for a company thirty-six years this March, opens up un-heard-of territories to their trademark, and now in his old age they take his salary away” (Miller). That is thirty-six straight years of driving cross-country every week for one company. This is very in line with the father from the poem. However, despite all of this labor and loyalty over the years, Willy is underappreciated now in his old age. He is tired and unable to do things as he once did, and even still he tries his best to work in order to keep his family afloat. Also like the dad, he does all of this hard work and receives very little praise in return, or as an aforementioned quote stated “no one ever thanked him”. This is shown when he goes to request a change of position at his work to something more accommodating and his employer, Howard, tells