Who Is Troy Maxson's Tragic Flaw
The inspirational play, “Fences” was a drama written by August Wilson that sets the setting in the 1950’s. During this time period, segregation was prevalent and deeply affected many African American communities. The struggles faced by these African Americans were very evident within the characters in the story, specifically Troy. Troy, the protagonist, and patriarch of the family fail to accept reality. Through the use of tragic flaw, Wilson reveals how pride can lead to self-destruction. Troy Maxson's ego is one of many components of his character. Due to his challenging accomplishments and independence, Troy established an egotistical outlook The play states, "We wrestled for three days and three nights. I can’t say where I found the strength from. Every time it seemed like he was gonna get the best of me, I’d reach way down deep inside myself and find the strength to do him one better” (Remember: In-text citation). Surviving a near-death experience from pneumonia is one of Troy’s numerous accomplishments. However, his …show more content…
He reveals his selfishness when engaging in an extramarital affair. Rose tells Troy “We’re not talking about baseball! We’re talking about you going off to lay in bed with another woman . . . and then bring it home to me. That’s what we’re talking about. We ain’t talking about no baseball” (Remember: In-text citation). Troy compares life to baseball because that’s what he is most familiar with, considering his past. He perceives his own risky behaviors, such as an affair, as stealing another base. “Stealing bases” in life allows Troy to relive his glory days when baseball gave him a purpose in life. However, he only “steals bases” for himself rather than for his family. Selfishly, he sees himself as a victim because he is only trying to relive his glory, even though it’s costing his family ties. His pride blurred his vision and Troy can’t understand how his actions affected his
Baseball Quotes In Fences
910 Words | 4 PagesTroy tries to use baseball metaphors to explain why he cheated on her. He said “I just might be able to steal second. Eighteen years I’ve been wanting to steal second” (70). In order to try to explain himself, Troy uses baseball analogies. This doesn’t do much for Troy’s defense, but it shows us what Troy does when he’s put in a corner.
Troy Maxson Flaws In Fences
811 Words | 4 PagesTherefore 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.
August Wilson Selfish Quotes
549 Words | 3 PagesIn 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?
Character Analysis Of Troy In Fence By August Wilson
884 Words | 4 PagesTroy 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).
August Wilson Fences Symbolism
1516 Words | 7 PagesTroy’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.
August Wilson Fences Literary Analysis
883 Words | 4 PagesHe 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.
The Importance Of The Father In August Wilson's Fences
1457 Words | 6 PagesTroy '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.
Troy Maxson In The Movie Fences
2169 Words | 9 PagesThe 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. Troy Maxson (53), is an African American garbage collector.
Troy's Unsympathetic Character In Fences By August Wilson
970 Words | 4 PagesIn the play Fences by August Wilson, Troy Maxson presents as the protagonist. He is an unsympathetic character who seems to hurt all those around him with his aggressive persona. Troy is a selfish man, with a one sided perception on life which made him unable to accept the choices others made. Due to his upbringing, Troy is unable to show love in a normal fashion. Instead, he blocks his family out by using a harsh exterior, emotionally excluding himself from his underlying love.
Troy Maxson Character Analysis
1222 Words | 5 PagesAccording to the play’s story, Troy Maxson is the main character of the play. He is a bit of a complicated character. He is a very stubborn, self-centered person who lives in his own world. He created his own illusions and lived in them. Troy’s actions throughout the play are influenced by his way of thinking, broken child hood, and past mistakes.
August Wilson Fences Women
497 Words | 2 PagesTroy uses that as an excuse to validate having an affair on his wife, but when the universe catches up to him and he produces a love child, Troy is forced to confess to Rose.
African American Experience In Fences
978 Words | 4 PagesTroy 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?.”
Racism In The Play Fences
702 Words | 3 PagesThe 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.
How Does August Wilson Use Language In Fences
1010 Words | 5 PagesHe 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.
Theme Of Racism In Fences
1501 Words | 7 PagesIn August Wilson’s playwright Fences, the narrator portrays racism in a social system, in the workplace, and in sports, which ultimately affects Troy’s aspirations. Troy Maxson is constantly facing the racism that is engraved into the rules of racial hierarchy –– fair and unfair, spoken and unspoken. Troy suffers many years of racism when he plays in the Negro major Baseball League; therefore he decides to protect Cory from ever experiencing those blockades in his drive for success. In the end, although Troy is always driving to obtain agency, Troy always succumbs to the rules of racism because those racist ideologies are too hard to overcome. Throughout the play, Troy is perpetually confronting the racist social system that displays unspoken
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