Fences Troy And Rose Maxson example essay topic

Essay On Fences We all lead lives filled with anxiety over certain issues, and with dread of the inevitable day of our death. In this play, Fences which was written by the well known playwright, August Wilson, we have the story of Troy Maxson and his family. Fences is about Troy Maxson, an aggressive man who has ongoing, imaginary battle with death. His life is based on supporting his family well and making sure they have the comforts that he did not have in his own childhood. Also, influenced by his own abusive childhood, he becomes an abusive father who rules his younger son, Cory's life based on his own past experiences. When the issue comes up of Cory having a bright future ahead of him if he joins the football team, Troy refuses to allow him.

The root of this decision lies in his own experience of not being allowed to join the baseball team due to the racial prejudices of his time. He does not realize that times have changed and because of his own past, he ruins his son's life too. His wife, Rose, also plays a big part in the way the story develops. Troy has an affair with another woman called Alberta. When Rose finds out about the affair, she is devastated. In this situation we find out what her own hopes and dreams were.

Alls he wanted was a happy home and family life because of her unstable past. The theme of this story is how a black family, in the late fifties to early sixties, faces the problems that many families are faced with, but in their own unique ways. This theme can be traced and observed through the insecurities and resulting behaviors of the two main characters, Troy and Rose Maxson. The main character of this play, Troy Maxson, considers death to be a part of the baseball game of life. In one part of the book he gives a description of how death came to him when he was in the hospital, and he told it to return another time.

Death is one of his main insecurities. As he gets older he feels death coming closer and closer. It seems asif, just to hold death in abeyance by trying to feel young again, he has an affair with this other woman named Alberta. Death strikes closer to home base for Troy, when his mistress dies while giving birth to a baby girl. At this point in the book he makes a deal with death. He says to it", Ain't nobody else got nothing to do with this.

This is between you and me. Man to man. You stay on the other side of that fence until you ready for me". (page 77). The fence is very symbolic in this situation. It symbolizes his insecurity about death and how he has put up these imaginary fences for protection. It leaves us with a very clear image of man who fears nothing in life, except death.

Rose's childhood was also filled. Her father was a drifter who went from place to place starting a new family every where he went, so that it got to the point where each of her step brothers and sisters had a different mother. This was the basis for her insecurity and possessiveness of her own family. In her case also, the fence was symbolic.

It stood for her need to hold onto her husband, son, and her comfortable home life. For both Troy and Rose, the turning point in their lives comes when Rose is informed about the existence of another woman in Troy's life. Even Troy's friend, Bono, tries to warn Troy about the risk he is taking by seeing this other woman. Bono tries to explain Rose's personality to Troy by saying", Some people build fences to keep people out... and other people build fences to keep people in. Rose wants to hold on to you all. she loves you". (page 61). She wants to hold on to the happy and loving family life she has, and the fence metaphorically illustrates a way of holding on.

In the case of both the characters, Rose and Troy, what influences their attitudes is the way they were in their past. Troy was refused the chance to join the baseball team in his youth, so he feels that his son also should not get the opportunity. Troy was ignored by his father when he was young, so instead of ignoring his son, Troy is overly critical of him. He is critical to the point of inciting an act of disrespect from Cory.

Cory has reached the point where he even has the audacity to say to his father, "I ain't got say excuse me to you. You don't count around here no more". Rose has a different outlook of life. She wants the chance to have family to take care of and to protect. She has observed the effects of prejudices in her life too, but she changes with the times. S heis not like Troy who does not realize that the world is advancing around him.

It's not exactly the happiest of endings, but the characters get what they want. Troy gets death when he is ready for it and while he is doing what he loves best, swinging a baseball bat. Rose still has a chance at a family life. She gets the chance to bring up her step daughter, Ray nell, in the way she wants. She has someone to protect and take care of, finally. The characters in the play still have their fences up, even towards the end, but the hope and the potential is discernible in the reunion of the family.

We can see the prospect of the fences coming down bit by bit, and the family's insecurities disappearing, one by one..