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The Complexity Of Troy Maxson In Fences By August Wilson

1094 Words5 Pages

Ava Sharpshair
Latia Farria
CCP Lit
5/4/23
The Complexity of Troy Maxson
Troy Maxson is the main character, and also classified as the most complex in the play Fences by August Wilson. Troy is the father of Lyons and Cory Maxson and husband of Rose Maxson. He is portrayed in this play as a hardworking, closed-off father who only wants the best for his family, but only the way he wants it. He spends his life wishing he made it to major league baseball but consistently states he's held back by both racism and his family. This impacts how he treats his family both negatively and positively as he regrets his life decisions and brings it to his homelife. This play is riveting with family drama, cheating, and lost dreams all portrayed through Troy’s actions to his …show more content…

As the play progresses Troy amplifies his biggest strength, dedication to family values through good times and bad. Although he is a difficult father, he is still loyal and takes care of his responsibilities. This is shown through his relationship with Cory, specifically when Cory is offered a scholarship to play football in college. “A man got to take care of his family. You live in my house…sleep you behind on my bedclothes… fill you belly up with my food… cause you my son.” (Wilson 38) Although Cory is mad that Troy does not approve of his future sports career, Troy emphasizes that he wants Cory to have a steady income and a stable life. He supports this by talking about his life wanting to be a baseball player but didn’t because he’s responsible for Cory and their family and he wants them to have a steady income and a place to live and eat. Although he comes off aggressive, he still shows Cory that he cares and comes from a place of responsibility and wants the best for him. Even though it is not what Cory wanted to hear, it is what Troy has to say because it is what he needs to

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However, his use of tough love and lack of approval towards his children creates conflict in the play, which suggests the importance of a father’s emotional role in a family. The role as a breadwinner: In Troy’s mind, he has done everything right as a father because he has provided his family with basic needs for survival: a place to live, food on the table, and clothes on their backs. His strong work ethic has made him the man he is today; but he often burns all his fuel at work and, at the expense of his family, copes with his pain by drinking.

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In the play “Fences”, written in 1957 by August Wilson annotates how Troy’s childhood experiences affected his life and put a strain on his relationship with family and friends. Troy’s enormous amount of pride, flaw of judgment, and malicious actions lead to his shortcomings and resulted into him becoming a tragic hero. In the story, Troy had a lot of flaws in his character throughout the play. As Troy was growing up he never had the proper guidance, so he had to take care of himself the best way he could.

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Troy talks about his life saying that he did what no one expected him to do. What Troy was saying in this passage was that he made it against the odds, found Rose and Cory, and was able to get a decent job for himself. Cory uses baseball to express himself because baseball is what has been most profound and meaningful to his life. Baseball is his passion in life and is what got him through many struggles. But while he is talking to Rose, she does not understand what he is trying to convey saying, “We’re not talking about baseball!

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This made Cory and Troy’s relationship fall apart because when Cory was asked to go play college football and his father wouldn’t sign the papers to allow him to go because he let his own feelings intervene with his son 's opportunities. Troy: ” I don’t want him to be like me! I want him to move as far away from my life as he can get. You the only decent thing that happened to me. I decided seventeen years ago that boy wasn’t getting involved in no sports.

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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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Troy not only disapproves of his son Cory playing football, but he also disagrees with his oldest son Lyons aspirations of becoming a musician. We see this when Troy states “get recruited in how to fix cars or something where he can make a living”. Instead of focusing on sports, he believes Cory should pick up a trade that can provide an income for his future. Cory is a talented athlete just like his dad, but due to Troy’s dreams being shattered by the white man, his outlook is tainted. Although Troy is predominantly aggressive, he is attempting to protect Cory from the same disappointment he once endured.

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In fact Troy would be likely unable to handle that truth. In Walking Around the Fences: Troy Maxson and the Ideology of “Going Down Swinging,” David Letzler argues “the entire social, racial, and political world view Troy derives from baseball is misguided” (Letzler). Troy’s entire worldview is defined by his baseball career (or lack thereof). Troy relates almost everything in his life to baseball. At some points it seems that the only life experience that has been important to Troy thus far was his experience playing baseball.

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During the play, Troy describes the pain of prejudice and the breakdown of his once-promising career. He was about to embark on another successful professional baseball career when he ended himself in a job that was a dead end. He is particularly tough on Cory, a gifted athlete who aspires to play college football. Troy doesn’t want Cory to pursue a career in sports because he thinks it’s a dead-end and won’t lead to a better life. Troy expresses his concerns about Cory’s future and explains why he is so overprotective of him.

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Troy does not want Cory to experience the hardships and injustices he felt trying to become a baseball player, so he wants Cory to work after school instead of practicing with the football team. Cory, however, sees that times changed since baseball rejected a player as talented as Troy because of the color of his skin. Cory knows the possibility exists that the professional sports world will include, not exclude

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That's what we're talking about. We ain't talking about no baseball. This quote emphasizes the conflict between obligations to one's family and selfish ambitions when Rose confronts Troy about his adultery. Troy uses baseball as a means of escape, a means of achieving his goals, and a means of claiming his independence. Yet Rose views his activities as a violation of the devotion and trust that support their marriage.

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Troy believes that is better for Cory if he had a real job, something that no one can take form him and to provide a stable economic security for him. In Troy’s mind if Cory goes for the football thing, which is controlled by the whites, his dreams might be destroyed and he doesn’t want that for his son. Of course that resulted in disturbed relationship between Troy and Cory. Troy’s way in protecting or caring for his son might be harsh, that can be refers for Troy’s relationship with his father as the plays shows. Troy refuses to acknowledge that times have changed and Cory can be something if he plays, instead he ruined his son’s

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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

The play describes the life of Troy Maxson a middle age Africa-American man who was raising his family in time of racism. Troy is married to Rose and the father of three children. Troy has two sons Lyons and Cory, and a daughter named Raynell. August Wilson describes the life of Troy as someone who feels he is being oppressed and how different the culture was when his was a child growing up compared to his children’s lives.

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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.

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"When the sins of our fathers visit us, we do not have to play host. We can banish them with forgiveness; As God, in His Largeness and Laws"(Wilson X).This epigraph by August Wilson provides an insight into the importance of the topic in the play Fences. In Fences, the play depicts the relationships of the Maxson family and their friends. Troy Maxson, a middle-aged African American man, is happily married to his wife Rose and takes care of his son Cory whilst occasionally interacting with his other son from a previous relationship. However, the complexities of Troy 's past create issues for him and his family and their relationships begin to deteriorate.

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