Character Analysis of Character in Fences by August Wilson, Essay Example

Introduction

The play is purposely set during the season Hank Aaron led the Milwaukee Braves to the World Series beating the New York Giants. The play opens with Troy making a complaint to his bosses about the idea that only white men should be permitted to drive the garbage truck at the company in which he works. Bono questions Troy about whether he is having an extra-marital affair and he denies it but Bono reminds Troy that he has been seen at Alberta’s the alleged mistress’ home. The prelude to the rest of the play obviously shows that there will be a hint of suspicion, drama and cover-up. The main character Troy Maxson is living a double life which he is constantly trying to hide from the rest of the community which eventually leads to a world of discontent, turmoil and crime. Troy has been friends with Bono for years who he met in prison but there is friction in the relationship because Troy continues his extra-marital affair with his pregnant mistress against Bono’s advice. Troy decides to choose the mistress over thirty-four years of friendship with Bono. Lucille is Bono’s friend and supports Bono’s position and further shows that a man can certainly change his path of life to a positive nature. Troy Maxson’s personality is depicted as a young man that was once on top of the world but was stiffened by situations of time due to prejudices beyond his control; hence he carried these negative traits and eventually passed them onto his family.

Troy Maxson lives in a world of self-created illusion from denying the reality of his extramarital affair with Alberta to his non-reality of having struggles with death and the devil. Reader may even think that the main character is ego-centred and closed in the set of his own principles. Troy has a way of instigating turmoil with just about everyone in the story because of his delusional beliefs. He further does not accept other people’s beliefs and attempts to rationalize why they should not have such beliefs. His personality trait of self-illusion and denial brings turmoil with him and Rose because he is in constant contradiction of his self-illusion stories.

Troy further expresses his disregard to Lyon’s decision to be a musician and Corey’s decision to pay football. This character trait gives light that he is stubborn and non-supportive of his family’s ideas which goes back to his childhood issues.  It is quite ironic that Troy’s last name is representative of the imaginary Mason-Dixon line that separated the slave states from the free states. Troy was once on top of life as a baseball career player and now is at the bottom of his career with a dead end career. His dead-end career gives rise to the idea that he has low self-esteem and cannot cope with life on life’s terms. He has a poor relationship with his sons Corey and Lyon. His personality was once full of life, outgoing, with an athletic and thriving body now depleted down to a mind full of hate and dissonance. The innings in the baseball game correspond to the different eras of Troy’s life. Some of the innings depict success in Troy’s life where he is a great hitter for the Negro League along with his protests at work that eventually leads him to win the position as a driver at work. In contrast he resents the false promise that baseball held for him and he blocks every effort his son has to succeed in the sport of football.

Troy is hypocritical in that he wants his family to live a life free of rebellious practises and to rebel against racial practises but he does not want to practise a life of life that is practical in a modern and traditional sense. Troy is what you would call a tragic hero. His personality trait is one that is always in conflict with him and others.  He is loved at the beginning of the story and as he gets away with an affair the opinion of him begins to diminish. When he dies there is much disarray with inheritance for his family to sort. Troy cannot read and had spent time in prison in his early life. He grew up in the years of Southern poverty. Even though Troy dominated the family they all gather at his funeral to wish him off to the heavens in the sky especially his brother Gabe who howls with frustration and anger for St. Peter to open the gates of heaven for Troy.

Conclusion

During the time Fences was set blacks had become integrated into professional and collegiate sports prima facie. Though blacks still were not afforded the same equal rights as whites in the sports arena. Troy Maxson was very old and could not take advantage of the integrated system of sports. Though Maxson was restless and quite vicarious he represented the struggle for justice in the 1950’s. Further he represented a person’s attitude to resist social and political change. The house, the incomplete fence, the baseball tied to a tree and the porch are all symbols of dissonance and chaos during this time. Troy is a very proud man and wants to provide very well for his family but comes to the realization that he can only provide with the help of his disabled World War II veteran brother by use of his disability checks and that certainly does not settle well with Troy. Symptomatic to his chaotic nature and inability to complete what he started, the porch and the fence need finishing as well as tidying. Troy further has not committed to his eighteen year marriage leaving it neglected and untended to. Troy often speaks about death using symbolism of baseball. He could not deal with the fact that he was perhaps born at the wrong time and did not get the recognition he deserved as a baseball player such that of Jackie Robinson. Even when explaining his affair to Rose he uses baseball terminology to do so. He referred to his mistress as being able to steal second. Troy was a classic example of a person that was a success within him but not in the external world due to the external forces of an unjust society and he could not live with that, he could not accept that. His decisions in life were based on the premise that he had failed rather than looking at what he had accomplished. He passed on the negativity to his wife and his two sons.