Troy, the main character in Fences written by August Wilson, is portrayed in a very transparent
way from the very beginning. While describing his personality, words such as prideful,
loud, confident, direct, and stubborn come to mind. We see this while reading Fences through his diction and decisions
he makes when hit with choices. Troy is a husband, former athlete, breadwinner,
father, and friend.
The society that Troy is placed in expects a man to be the
head of the household and a hard worker. Troy lives in a time of discrimination
as well, which makes me believe that race also plays a factor on what the
society expects of a man. This is where Troy emerges as a husband, breadwinner
and father. He works as a garbage man, and in one of the earliest instances of
the book we see the narrator state “Of the two men, Bono is obviously the
follower (referring to Troy as the other). His commitment to their friendship
of thirty-odd years is rooted in his admiration of Troy’s honesty, capacity for
hard work, and his strength, which Bono seeks to emulate” (Wilson 1). This quote illustrates the idea of what
society expects of Troy (stated above). It shows that he’s committed to hard
work, for one of the most obvious reason, to support his family back home. However, we also see that when Troy is faced with
the decision to give Lyons $10, his expectations also align with that of the
society’s values (even towards his own family). “What’s the matter, you too
good to carry people’s rubbish? Where you think that ten dollars you talking
about come from? I’m just supposed to haul people’s rubbish and give you my
money to you cause you too lazy to work” (Wilson 17).
Troy, although a strong-willed man, also shows signs of
weaknesses. Gabriel, Troy’s brother, is a very sensitive topic that Troy
reveals one of his weaknesses. Gabriel went into the war and almost “get half
his head blown off…” (Wilson 28). This resulted in the government compensating
Gabriel with three thousand dollars, in which Troy took. He feels guilty for
this. “That ain’t what I’m saying, woman! I’m just stating the facts. If my
brother didn’t have that metal plate in his head… I wouldn’t have a pot to piss
in or a window to throw it out of. And I’m fifty-three years old. Now see if
you can understand that!” (Wilson 28). He’s very transparent about this to Rose
and it shows the audience that he doesn’t like the fact that he’s almost
dependent on Gabriel.
Our current society arguable has parallel standards as the
time Troy’s placed in, minus the race aspect. We still value men to be hard workers
and for the most part, the head of the household. With this concept, I would
say that Troy definitely lives up to the standards since we see that he is a
family man and breadwinner.
Through Troy’s transparent dialogue and decisions in the
book, we can label Troy as a hard worker and many more.
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