Troy's Legacy

Tory Maxson had somewhat of a different legacy for certain people in his family. Cory hated him for the way he raised him. Troy crushed Cory’s dream and passion of playing college football all for something as simple as a job at a local convenience store. He really resented Troy for that. Cory could never understand why Troy would do something like that to him. He didn’t want to be anything like him. “Rose: You just like him. You got him in you good. Cory: Don’t tell me that, Mama.” (Wilson 97).  Cory and Troy never saw eye to eye but Cory did turn out well. He is now a Marine Corporal which is a big accomplishment. That was Tory’s one goal for Cory, to be successful. For Rose and Reynell, Troy was the provider. He took care of them, made sure they had food to eat and a roof over their head. He worked very hard at his garbage man job so that they could have the best life possible. He loved and cared for them. Tory definitely won’t be remembered as a great man in Rose’s eyes after he had an affair with the woman from Florida and had a kid (Raynell) with her. Rose pretty much only stayed with Troy and helped raise Raynell because that was all she knew and had no other options. Troy cheating on her really crushed her because all she wanted was a loving, faithful and happy family. Troy’s action ruined that for her. She stayed with him but nothing was ever the same.

 

Happiness

From reading the play “Fences” I can see that Rose doesn’t need much to make her happy, it’s actually pretty simple. She doesn’t ask for much. She only really needs two things, which are an affectionate husband who loves her and will be faithful and a kind and loving family. She had that for the most part, even though Troy and Cory didn’t get along to well. She was happy but her world came crashing to the ground when Tory came clean to her about his affair with the woman from Tallahassee, that he had gotten her pregnant and that he wasn’t going to stop seeing her because it made him feel so great.  “Why, Troy? Why? After all these years to come dragging this in to me now. It don’t make no sense at your age. I could have expected this ten or fifteen years ago, but not now.” (Wilson 67). This made Rose feel used and unimportant to Troy. She had stood by his side through the good and the bad and tired her best to be everything he could ever ask for. And then he does this her. “I done tried to be everything a wife should be. Everything a wife could be” (Wilson 67). She gave him 18 years of her life and he cheated on her, essentially ruining everything that she needed to be happy.

I think our society presents happiness as how much stuff you have or how much money you have. It’s all about what you own and the stuff you have that other people don’t. That’s not what truly makes you happy in my mind. I believe that constantly improving in all aspects of life, earning what you have, and working hard is what actually makes you happy. I wouldn’t say happiness is over glamorized, it is one of the most important things in life. Happiness is what makes life worth living. Happiness isn’t a right. You have to earn happiness and I also believe you can’t be happy all the time you have to go through a struggle and work as hard as you possible can to reach your potential. Then you’ll be happy. Nobody wants to underachieve.

In the text the characters are happy with just the basics. In the real world some people can’t deal with it if something doesn’t go their way. Everyone wants the newest and nicest things but in the play the characters are happy with what they have. Troy is happy with not having a TV, he just needs a roof over his head.

 

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.

The Legacy of August Wilson

August Wilson had a tough childhood growing up. His birth father was estranged from the family and he was raised with his 5 brothers and sisters by his single mother living in a cold water flat behind a grocery store on Bedford Avenue in the Hill, a struggling neighborhood in Pittsburgh. “Wilson attended St. Richard Parochial School in Hill, then progressed to Central Catholic High School, in Pittsburgh’s Oakland section, in 1959. As the only African American student in the school, he was constantly threatened and harassed, so he left just before the end of his freshman year. He attended Connelley Vocational High School where he felt he wasn’t challenged enough and later switch to Gladstone High School. In 1960, at age 15, Wilson dropped out of Gladstone after a teacher accused him of plagiarizing a 20-page paper on Napoleon. He went on to receive his education at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and on the streets of Pittsburgh. In 1999, Wilson was awarded the first and only high school diploma given the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.” (Biographical Sketch of August Wilson). Wilson had to deal with all that adversity throughout his childhood because he grew up poor and black in the 1950s and 1960s.  Even with all the odds stacked against him and without a formal high school education he was still able to becoming one of the greatest American play writers ever. I believe the legacy Wilson left behind is one that shows that you can make it anywhere in life no matter where you came from or what’s holding you back. Wilson never left the struggles of his childhood or the fact that he never graduated from a formal high school stop him from being great. I think that is why so many people still look up to him, besides that fact that he was a phenomenal play writer.