Troys Characters Research Paper - 1100 Words

Troy's Characters (Research Paper Sample) Content: Topic:Name:Institution:Date:Tracing and examining how Troys character changes over the course of the play. Is he a villain, a modern hero, a tragic figure or a combination of these? Troy transforms into a fearful, unloved and lonely person from his initial status as the center of focus on his social world and family relationship. Although, Troy tries to escape his life, he engages life and challenges death using his convictions. Troys character changes over the course of the play. His character displays a combination of various personalities; though he can be considered as a modern tragic hero. Wilson August depicted most of the characters having distinct roles which have made it easy for the readers to understand their personalities. Troy is the most difficult character to understand in the play. His mindset is fixed on the past; he faces tragic flaw because he does not let the past go. Troys life revolves around hardships, abuse, poverty, conflicts, and racial discr imination which had negative effects in his life including people around him. The aim of this paper is to justify that in this play, August Wilson wanted to make readers understand how complex Troy Maxson (the modern tragic hero of the play) is. Fences examines the conflicts in Troys mindset. He lives in a Christian-oriented society but believes that Christianity is not a religion for the black Americans (Shannon 127). He is convinced that Christian God forsaken African American people. The play is set during 1950s in which Troy is depicted as a garbage collector. He is so frustrated because he struggles with the impacts of abandoning school early in order to assist his father in doing farming. Poverty influenced him to start robbing and later he was imprisoned because he murdered somebody. In his fifteenth year in prison, Troy realized that he is talented in baseball sports. He remained determined to achieve his potential in the baseball game, though was denied the opportunity bec ause of his African origin. He does not go for church services to seek direction or comfort. Menson-Furr views that the play begins with Troy and Bono journey to home after completing their job on Friday (181). Troy is seen complaining about racial discrimination that black Americans are facing at workplace. He is angry that only white men are allowed to work as truck drivers while African Americans reduced only to work as garbage collectors. His upset also is triggered by unfulfilled talent of his baseball sports and having served imprisonment in jail for several years. All these negatively affect his relationship with his brother (Gabriel), his son (Cory), his wife (Rose) and other characters. Despite, he loves his wife; Troy has an affair with Alberta. Later, Alberta becomes pregnant, but she dies in childbirth; thus leaving the baby girl to Troy, who has no alternative, but asks Rose to take care of the child. He is a self-inflicted person; this is a problem that influenced him to deny his son obtaining scholarship through his football career. He becomes loveless, friendliness, and lonely when his secrets, anger, and fear begin affecting him, and consequently, his loved ones disrespect him. Lives of his family members changed, and they no longer depend on his presence. Wilson presents that although, people around Troy warn him that the actions he is doing have tragic effects, he stubbornly continues to follow his own actions (11). Troy is dissatisfied with his life. He is unhappy because racial discrimination stopped his interest in becoming pro baseball player. As the garbage collector, Troy feels unfulfilled and trapped. Cory obtains an opportunity to join college based on a football scholarship, although Troy declines to sign the permission paper. Troy claims that he does not want his son to experience suffering from the similar racial discrimination which barred Troy from becoming an active baseball player. This becomes a major problem when Troy inform s Corys high School football coach that Cory can no longer play football anymore. This ruins Corys hopes of joining college. Troy creates both small and big conflicts with all characters in the play (Snodgrass 27). He causes conflicts as a consequence of his ability to believe in self-created illusions. He believes in illusions as a result of his inability of accepting choices and reality in real life. Troy is a responsible person, but his thwarted dreams influence him to believe in self-created illusions (Elam 346). In the play, Troy entertains Rose and Bono with an epic narrative about his struggle with a personified death or evil character. Troy often re-inflicted his battle against Death Personified that he always narrates in a baseball terminology; although, with time this became a reality. He meets his death while fighting the rag ball he tied to a tree in the garden. During his funeral, Troys family members renewed their relationships; Rose gently advises Cory to abandon t he emotional fences which have been separating him with Troy. When he is so self-pitied and vulnerable, Troy talks about his pastime life experience rather than seeking Christian inspirations to heal his emotional wounds. He prefers the pastime life experience since they have cultural response of the African Americans to the situations which faced them. Such a belief cultural system is quite different from Christianity. Troy believes in such a cultural system that allows his marital infidelity and encourages the habit of extorting his brothers money. While his is not interested in Christianity, Troy is obsessed with his baseball game which is more relevant in his life. According to Shannon, whereas Alberta provides Troy with unconditional emotional and physical relationship, Gabriel offers him with a financial base (134). Troy thinks that he does not require any divine inspiration while such human alternatives are ava...