Troy

Troy, the main character of the play Fences is a good man with kind yet very serious intentions. I believe that Troy’s biggest strength and weakness is his seriousness. He is a very hard worker and as the breadwinner he spends his money very responsibly but at times he is not the greatest person. He makes Cory quit football, something Cory is very good at and has a passion for. He almost never acknowledges Cory’s accomplishments/achievements or says “good job son” which Cory yearns for! Troy is a loving husband to rose and a good friend to Bono. As I father he tries his hardest to show Cory, the son that he raised the value of money and hard work. Troy tries to teach Cory a lessons that you can’t go out and spend your money recklessly on cool thing you want when you see them. Other needs must be taken care of first, sort of like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. “While you thinking about a TV, I got to be thinking about the roof… and whatever else go wrong around here. Now if you had 200 dollars, what would you do… fix the roof or buy a TV?” (Wilson 32). Troy is telling Cory that while TV would nice to have, having a solid roof over your head is much more important and you must spend what money you have responsibly. Troy is still very bitter about the fact the he was a great baseball player but was never even given the chance to play in major league because of the color of his skin. This hurt troy immensely and because of it he doesn’t want Cory or any of his kids to get too wrapped around sports because he doesn’t want the same thing happening to them. But what troy doesn’t realize is that times have changed and now more and more “colored” athletes are being allowed to play in the major leagues. “You a bigger fool than I thought…to let somebody take away your job so you can play some football” (Wilson 36). Troy believes there is no future in football for Cory only pain and frustration so there is no reason to be playing now when he could be working and making money. Overall Troy is good man. He just need to be a little more open minded.