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Troy As A Tragic Hero In Fences, By August Wilson

875 Words4 Pages

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. He was doomed form the start, but bears no responsibility for possessing his flaw. For example, Troy mentions “he wishes he never had a father, because his father only cared about work and the ladies” (Goodwin et al. 310). Not to mention, …show more content…

Troy didn’t want his son to get caught up in sports because he felt like he would never have a chance, just like him back when he wanted to play professional sports. In the text, Cory says “Papa done went down to the school and told coach Zelllman I can’t play football no more. Wouldn’t even let me play the game. Told him to tell the recruiter not to come” (Goodwin el at. 314). Therefore, by troy going down to the school and ruining the chances of his son’s career, that showed a flaw of judgment and a selfish decision he made. Troy’s relationship with his son was strained and this was one of many reasons why Troy felt depressed and unhappy with his life. Troy met a woman by the name “Alberta” which he met on a night out and engaging with Alberta was one of the biggest decisions he had to make. Troy tells Rose “I’m trying to find a way to tell you… I’m gonna be a daddy. I’m gonna be somebody’s Daddy” (Goodwin el at. 319). Therefore, Troy making the decision to finally tell his wife that he’s going to be a dad; consequently he also had to inform his wife that he was having an affair with another woman. The decisions that he made with sabotaging his son and telling his wife that he was having an affair and a baby by another woman, ultimately resulted into him suffering for the mistakes he has

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August Wilson’s play Fences was written in 1983. Fences is the sixth play in Wilson’s Pittsburgh cycle. Pittsburgh is important because it represents a better life for blacks; it provides them with jobs and helped them to escape the poverty and racism of the south after the civil war. It represents promises and promises that were broken. I feel like Fences represents the struggles Troy and his family faced because of their complexion and their constant disappointments as black people.

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Austin Wilson's Fences focuses on an African-American family in the 1950s in Pittsburg, and their troubles. They experienced racism, problems with money and parenting. I believe that Troy is both a good and bad parent, because he financially takes care of his children, doesn't use them for his own benefit, and doesn't listen to what they say. Instead, he does what he thinks is best for them without their input.

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According to Toni Arnold, “Troy struggles with how similar he is to his father, and the ways in which he tries to be different. Troy refuses to be like many of the men of his father’s generation who were “searching out the New Land …woman to woman” with a bad case of the “walking blues”(Arnold,Struggle). Though Troy excruciatingly tried to avoid being like his father,fate had its way and he died

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Rose, his wife, is the one who holds the family together through the toughest times. She defends her family, and cares for another woman’s child. Cory, Troy’s son, attempts to be like his father while growing up; however, he soon realizes he is mistaken. He eventually turns out to be nothing like his father. While Rose and Cory emotionally progress throughout the play, Troy emotionally declines.

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It’s not like he’s wrong, but his tunnel vision with past issues ends up ruining his family’s life. He refuses to let college administrators recruit his son Corey onto college football teams because he thinks that they're just going to use him as a prop, to which his wife responds, “Times have changed from when you was young Troy. People change. The world’s changing around you and you can’t even see it” (Wilson, 40). Troy believes that African Americans can’t make it in sports, citing his past failures to get in Major League Baseball.

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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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One Man’s Journey Troy Maxson, the lead character in the play, “Fences”, written by August Wilson is a man who experienced a great deal of discrimination in his younger years. As a result, he carries a chip on his shoulder, which affects every area of his life and especially his family. The play is set during the 1950’s, a time when African American people were no longer slaves but were still unable to experience the same opportunities as white people regardless of their abilities or work ethic. The racial discrimination prevalent during those times is illustrated throughout the play in the life of Troy Maxson and in the lives of his family members.

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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.

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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.

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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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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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Troy cheats on his extremely faithful wife with a younger woman and has a baby with her. Wilson seems to set the scene with Rose, Troy’s wife. Even through trials and tribulation with Troy, Rose stays with him. Wilson sets up Rose as almost the model wife of the time period. She is faithful, always has dinner ready, and is available for Troy’s nighttime pleasures when ever he pleases.

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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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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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