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Troy Maxson As A Complex Character In Fences, By August Wilson

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Troy maxson as a complex character

Fences, a play by August Wilson, is set in the 1950s in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. This play is centered around a 53-year old African American man named Troy Maxson. Troy is introduced in the play as a father of 2 sons and a husband, the bulk of the play is focused on Troy and his strengths and shortcomings, along with how they affect his family. Troy, although providing for his family and working very hard, has flaws that overshadow his positive traits.
Troy Maxson, despite having many bad qualities, puts a lot of effort into providing for his family. Although the time period Fences is set in makes it hard for someone like Troy to be successful, Troy does his best at his job. Troy continues to put everything he has into work because his family needs it. “It’s my job. My responsibility! A man got to take care of his family” (Wilson 38). Rose, Lyons, and Cory are positively affected by having enough money to live in their house and pay their bills. Troy can afford to go drinking with friends and give his sons money. He is able to afford the supplies for …show more content…

Troy is constantly talking down to people and saying things about them. He treats all of his family members with disrespect and acts like they don’t know anything and he should be the only one who makes any impactful decisions. Troys doesn’t seem to realize that it is his behavior that causes these relationships to get worse. Troys rudeness makes his family members more distant from him and seems to make him more of a bitter person. This creates relationships of disrespect, which is reflected in Troy deciding for himself that Cory should not play football. Troy blames others for the the arguments he has and completely fails to see that it is his own attitude that causes people to think a certain way about

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Every family has their hardships and challenges in life, but they are given a choice to overcome them or to pass the trauma to the next generation. Fences, written by August Wilson, portrays the trauma that Troy endured when he was younger and how he transferred those problems to his son Cory, making it a generational trauma. Many different scenarios can cause these issues, and if this trauma is not healed, it can break families apart. The generational trauma that both Troy and Cory had to endure affected their relationship drastically, leading to Cory attempting to end this vicious cycle.

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August Wilson faces a lot of difficulties in his life. He begins writing Fences in the twentieth century, and he portrays the African American experience between the 1900s to 2000 (Wilson 11). In Fence August Wilson tells the story of a father, Troy Maxson’s lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Troy was a very talented baseball perspective with hopes to play in the major leagues. Maxson’s had the bad luck of having to grow up when racism was the biggest part of America.

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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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Brother, Gabriel. He shows the father and son complex in the relationship between Troy and Troy’s son, Cory. And finally he shows true friendship in the relationship between Troy and Troy’s best friend, Bono. Wilson masterfully crafts the novel to show many different types of relationships in a short three acts.

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