The movie ‘Fences’ has three main characters: Troy Maxson, Cory Maxson, and Rose Maxson. However, I believe characters such as Lyons Maxson, Jim Bono, and Gabriel Maxson play extremely important roles in the movie also. Therefore, I will speak on all six.
Sense of pride: As the breadwinner, Troy takes great pride in his earnings. When his oldest son, Lyons, comes around asking for ten dollars, Troy replies by saying,“ ‘I 'm just supposed to haul people 's rubbish and give my money to you cause you too lazy to work?’ ” (1, 19). Although he may come across as harsh, his intentions are good, as he wants his sons to be self-reliant like he has been since the age of fourteen, and know what it feels like to be proud an accomplishment. If he hasn’t taught his sons to live on their own, then he has failed as a
“A lot of parents will do anything for their kids except let them be themselves" -Banksy. In the play “Fences” ,Troy, Cory’s father does exactly this. He doesn’t allow his son to achieve what make him happy, which is playing college football. He thinks by doing this, he's doing what’s best for him. Because of this, Cory begins to bear a grudge towards his father. Wanting to be able to move forward with his life and not be the same person as his father, he attends Troy’s funeral, as a way to make peace with their relationship.
In the fences, August describe how Troy is a villain because of the unfair to his wife. Troy lives with his wife, Rose and Son Cory. The little kid
"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. Throughout the play, the characters look at faith, race, opportunities, fatherhood and
Troy’s inability to commit to building his fences despite his repetitive speaking of how he is going to finish his fence shows how his isolation from his wife stems from his inability to truly commit to his wife even though he always told her he loved her. He wanted to protect his wife from the truth that he cheated on her and has a baby on the way with her but the fence prevented true communication with his own wife. Troy's inability to see the change in civil rights during his time period because of the fence led to the isolation of his mindset towards African American rights and the straining of his relationship with his son. His struggle to be accepted into playing professional sports alongside white men lead to preventing his son from playing professional football despite the changing times in civil rights. Without isolation from change, his relationship with his son could possibly be a happy one. Robbery to help family and stop cory football to help family, hide cheating help family. all fail
Troy is controlling and often verbally abusive to his family members because he lacks a sense of control in other areas of his life, he is unable to achieve his dream of becoming a pro-baseball player or advance in his career and this makes him feel inadequate. Troy’s wife Rose represents a stereotypical mother and dutiful wife role. Rose has two disadvantages in her life because she is not only African American, she is also a woman and in some ways she is the wife you would expect during the 1950s era. Rose however, is not weak minded because she recognizes how times have changed and this what makes Troy and Rose so drastically different throughout the play. Their contrasting ideologies represent two different aspects of the “African American Experience” by showing a major question many African Americans faced during the 1950s and that is: “are times really changing?.” Troy and Rose’s son, Cory represents the younger generation and the new opportunities that are beginning to be offered to
Many things affect us as people and as individuals. Parents being the ones that have the most influence over us as children and sometimes, even as full-fledged adults. In the play Fences, Troy Maxton was the father of three children who were affected greatly by him, his actions, and how he treated them as a whole.
In the book, Fences, Troy is a Despicable man. You can see it when coming across people he doesn't really agree with or like discussing with. When it came to the time where that person would make him a little angry he would burst out and also become a different person. But thinking about it and looking back to history, he really didn't get raised with proper love from his family. He didn't really have people show him real or anytime of love from especially from his father. His father was cruel and showed him negative things such as Troy saying in one of the Acts, “All he wanted was for you to learn how to walk so he could start you to working.” ( August Wilson 50 ). He didn't seem to love any of his kids so then Troy couldn't. He also saw his father rape a girl that he
The play “Fences” by August Wilson shows the dynamics in relationships and the multiple dramatic means by which they are established by using one pinnacle point. Wilson uses his main character Troy to stem of four other types of relationships. He shows the complexities of marriage and love in the relationship between Troy and Troy’s wife, Rose. He shows the commitment and betrayal of in the relationship between Troy and Troy’s 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.
In summary, the play “Fences “setting was set during the 1950’s in Pittsburg, where many African Americans were fighting for their rights. Many of the minority population were getting treated poorly and unfairly. Troy Maxson, his wife and son lived off a small alley in a big-city. The main character Troy was a sanitation worker and former Negro League baseball player. His talented son Cory is being hindered by his dad Troy from being a professional football player. Troy Maxson disagrees with his career decisions because of his past life, causing him to not be able to enter the leagues once getting out of jail. As a result, Cory and his dad got into a fight and Troy kicked him out of the house and eventually had
When reading the play “Fences” by August Wilson, one may say that it is a tragedy, and that the protagonist, Troy Maxson, has tragic flaws that leads him through a path of false judgement. Troy is seen as a stubborn man and wants everything to go his way or the highway. However, in actuality, he is not a bad guy, Troy is just a father who wants to keep his family out of harm’s way. This led me to three journalists with similar judgments of Troy Maxson. Critics Joseph H. Wessling, Alice Mills, and Myles Weber all give their own insight on the play “Fences.” I agree with Wessling’s statement “Troy, for all his strengths, is flawed humanity in need of forgiveness,” disagrees with Mills’ claim “…Troy does not face trail of initiation until he crossed the fence and left behind the protection of his family for the world of difficult choices.”, and Weber’s claim “Troy’s cruelty constituted a clever method of challenging
She requested that Cory and Troy work on building a fence in the backyard. Rose hopes that the fence will keep the people she loves close to her and protected from the harshness of the world. Unlike Troy, Rose is a realist who has love and high hopes for Cory. When Rose evesdrop on Cory and Troy, she overheard their argument about football, and talks to Troy after Cory leaves. Troy explains to Rose why he will not allow Cory to play football and tells her that she’s been mothering Cory too much. She then tells Troy that Cory wants to make him proud, and all he wants to hear from his father is “Good job, son.” (19). To make matters worse, Troy has been having an affair with another women named Alberta. He later admits to his wife that he slept with someone else and got her pregnant (30). Troy argues with Rose about why he did it. He justified his actions by saying “She gives me a different idea, a different understanding about myself. I can step out of this house and get away from the pressures and problems, be a different man.” Meaning that Troy feels trapped and Alberta is his escape from his real problems (31). With Alberta, Troy can live an illusion with no time and no worries. Rose is deeply hurt by the news and communicated to
Calpurnia is seen both by Atticus and the reader as more than just a housekeeper and a cook; she is a part of the family and fills in the role of a mother to Jem and Scout by helping raise them alongside Atticus. Atticus deeply cherishes Calpurnia’s efforts of taking care of the children. With her doting attitude, yet, strict disciplinary, Calpurnia treats both Scout and Jem as she would her own children. Furthermore, this following quote proves that fatherhood is indeed an arduous and burdensome role as Atticus says these following words. Without Calpurnia by his side, Atticus would have found fatherhood even more of a demanding role without a wife by his side to help support and take care of the family, as well as raise his children to grow