Fences.docx

Mitchell 1

Daniel Mitchell WRIT 106 Professor McCrystal April 19, 2017 Troy and the Fences He Built In August Wilson’s play Fences he uses the fence metaphor to symbolize every barrier that the main character Troy Maxson puts up. From the fences Troy builds between him and his family to the literal fence outside of his modest house, Wilson develops the metaphor to apply to every aspect of Troy’s life, both internal and external. In Fences Troy puts up metaphorical fences that separate him from his job, family, and society; these fences put Troy at odds with his expectation for life, causing the fences to dictate his behavior, and eventually lead to his separation from his wife, Rose. One fence that Troy puts up is the fence between him and his job, and the expectations he has for it. In Troy’s mind, he thinks that he is entitled to the same benefits as any white man that also works as a trash collector, and with this he fights to become the first black driver despite not having a driver’s license. This is because Troy was more concerned about the fight for the job than being qualified for the job, and this also shows itself in how Troy talks about his baseball career. Saying that even at 50 years old he could go out and play better than most of the other people who were currently in the majors. Troy put up a fence between him and reality, where to him the fight is more important than the facts, Troy believes that no matter what he does he will always be the best; that he will be the best driver despite him having no qualifications for the job, and that ten years after he was deemed too old to play in the majors he could still do a better job

Mitchell 2

than players who were currently playing despite his advanced age. To Troy he can do whatever he sets his mind to, and he resents Rose or anyone else for bringing him back to reality. An example of this is when he announces that he got a job driving and Bono says, “‘You mean if the nigger knew how to drive he’d be all right. Been fighting with them people about driving and ain’t even got a license’” (Wilson 485). In this scene, Troy was enthralled with his victory over the white men running the company, all the while being completely unqualified for the job that he wanted so badly. Troy put up a fence between him and his job, pushing him to further his career, while not being qualified for his promotion. Another fence that Troy put up was the one between him and his family. Troy puts up this fence so he will not be disappointed by his family, and in turn they will not be disappointed by his behavior. One example of this is how Troy treats Lyons, every time Troy sees his oldest son he assumes that he wants money. The first-time Lyons is introduced in the first act, Troy is very curt with his son, almost knowing he wants money, saying “You was in the neighborhood alright, nigger. You telling the truth there. You was in the neighborhood cause it’s my payday” (Wilson 465). This shows the relationship that Troy has with Lyons, and even though Troy does not hate Lyons, and even declines repayment for the loan that Troy gave him. It shows that Troy expects Lyons to only show up in good times to get money from him, and when Lyons tries to break this mold to try to socialize with Troy, Troy continues to believe that his son will only be there for money. Troy’s relationship with Cory is also indicative of the fence that he put up between his family and himself. Troy uses his own experiences in the Negro leagues to shoot down Cory’s dream of playing college football and subsequently his dream of going pro. Troy believes that the white man will never give a black man that opportunity and disciplines Cory for trying to follow his dream, forcing him to maintain a job in addition to going to football games

Mitchell 3

and practice, and when Troy finds out that Cory quit his job at the A&P he forces him to quit football and get it back. This point forms the rift between Troy and Cory, because Cory believes that times have changed and there is a place for the black man within the scope of American sports, but Troy believes that Cory will have the same experience as he did in the Negro leagues. That he will be treated as a second-class citizen and will not be properly compensated for his skills only because he is black. Diving down deeper into Troy’s relationship with the world of the Negro leagues. In the Negro Leagues, Troy was a hero, people lining up for hours just for the opportunity to shake his hand. Self-considered to be one of the best players of all time and simply not given a chance because he happened to be black. It was Troy’s opinion that he was better than Jackie Robinson, and therefore more deserving of a spot in the majors than him, but Mr. Robinson was chosen for other reasons as well. “He was regarded as a role model: an exemplary human being, someone who didn't smoke or drink, who was not hostile and defiant, and who was likely to get along well with white players and baseball executives” (Koprince 351). In short, Jackie rose where Troy fell, a convicted murderer who only got into baseball during his time in prison, Troy would have been hostile to the fans and management and would not have made a good role model in the slightest. In addition, Troy was on the tail-end of his career at the time when Major League Baseball was just becoming integrated. Despite all these factors that contributed to Troy not becoming a Major-League player he still harbors resentment towards the white man for taking away this opportunity that he believed to be his right. This resentment continued to grow and fester and he then takes his personal bitterness and applies it to Cory and the opportunities that he has, even though times have changed and Cory is being offered a scholarship for his abilities.

Mitchell 4

The biggest fence that Troy puts up is the one between him and Rose. Rose and Troy had a very complex relationship, based on mutual love and respect, but being constantly tested by Troy. The two disagreed on how to raise their son as well, Troy wanting Cory to get a job and be able to support himself, while Rose was open to him following his dream and playing football. This rift grew and grew until Troy committed adultery and ended the marriage even though the two stayed together afterwards, despite them not talking. Troy saw Rose as the right thing to do, that he was not “going back to the penitentiary. I wasn’t gonna lay in the streets with a bottle of wine. I was safe. I had me a family. A job. I wasn’t gonna get that last strike” (Wilson 501). To Troy him staying with Rose was the first good decision that he made in his life, and through thick or thin he was going to stay with his woman even if he slipped up. This put Rose on a pedestal in Troy’s mind, and built her up to an unrealistic standard, that Rose was perfect and that she was his everything. Then when he went out and impregnated another woman, he had nobody else to turn to and had to go back to Rose and admit his wrongdoing and beg for forgiveness. What Troy forgot was that Rose was a person too, with her own hopes and dreams and expectations for how her life was supposed to go, and that for her Troy was the safe choice as well. The fence that Troy never put up was the literal fence that went around his yard. This fence was supposed to be in place to keep out the outside world and protect the family from any of the threats associated with the outside world. However, Troy was the biggest threat to the family, not the outside world. With his ideology of going down swinging, he would always go down with a fight. He shows this when he kicks Cory out of the house, and when he has an affair he says that it was because he was standing on first for so long he had to try for second. The baseball metaphor is even applicable to the yard that Troy never fenced in, with Troy’s field

Mitchell 5

going from being the fields of the Negro Leagues with aspirations of going pro, to being a dirt yard that he could not even afford to buy without Gabriel’s injury. A yard that Troy could not even fence in, with rags as his ball and dirt as his grass, a disappointment for a player of his alleged caliber. Troy frequently sites going down swinging as his ideology for life, using it as a metaphor for both life and death. For life Troy constantly tells Cory not to strike out, going as far as to say “That’s strike two. You stay away from around me, boy. Don’t you strike out. You living with a full count. Don’t you strike out” when Cory stops Troy from hurting Rose (Wilson 502). To Troy baseball was more than just a sport to him, but a way to guide his life in a way that he saw honorable. Troy shows this by using baseball in a way to even describe death, saying that when death came for him he would fight and go down swinging, and when he dies, it “comes just after he takes one final swing of his bat in the backyard, presumably consummating the challenge to Death” (Letzer 304). This challenge was issued when Troy was ill, and Troy said that he fought death for three days and won, and Troy challenged death, saying that when it finally comes for him he will swing as if death were a fastball on the outer half of the plate. To Troy baseball was his way of life, even years after he stopped playing he constantly referenced baseball to describe his life and even in his eventual death he literally goes down swinging. In Troy Maxson’s life, he erects many fences that separate him from reality and his family, despite him never completing the literal fence that was in place to protect his family from the outside world. In addition, Troy uses metaphors from his life as a baseball player to describe both life and death and to guide him down paths both honorable and not. Fences paints the picture of the incredibly complex and dynamic Troy Maxson and to portray how he lived his life until his death at a young age.

Mitchell 6

Works Cited Letzler, David. "Walking around the Fences: Troy Maxson and the Ideology of "Going Down Swinging." African American Review, vol. 47, no. 2/3, Summer/Fall2014, pp. 301-312. EBSCOhost,ezproxy.montclair.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.asp x?direct=true&db=fth&AN=101207858&site=eds-live&scope=site. Koprince, Susan. "Baseball as History and Myth in August Wilson's: Fences." African American Review, no. 2, 2006, p. 349. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.montclair.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=tru e&db=edsglr&AN=edsgcl.152934688&site=eds-live&scope=site.