Troy's Legacy

My point of view on Troy’s legacy is similar to what I thought it was at the beginning of this play. What I had gathered in the beginning was that Troy didn’t really care about his family, but he was a hardworking man. At the end of the play now I would say his legacy was being a hardworking man, living through tough times, wanting nothing but happiness, and going out of his way to receive that happiness no matter the outcome.

You can see troy is a hardworking man, he kept but job driving the truck, even though it got very lonely and wasn’t all worked up to be as he expected. “It ain’t the same, Bono. It ain’t like working the back of the truck. Ain’t got nobody to talk to… feel like you working by yourself.” (83) This quote shows that even thought is job sucks, he stays with it because he has to support his family and keep his household alive.

I also see troy wanting nothing but happiness, and going out of his way to get that. No matter what might happen in the process of getting it. I’m talking about cheating on his wife, who did nothing but support him when he was in need. Raised his kids, and took care of his household. That woman did everything but he left her to be with someone else. “Then I saw that gal… she firmed up mu backbone.” (70)

Troy left a positive legacy and a negative legacy. Troy’s positive legacy was that he was a hardworking man, he took care of his children and did whatever it took to make sure they didn’t end up on the street. However Troy also left a bad legacy, he was being selfish and going against his wife and family and seeing another woman. No human is perfect and I would say Troy is the perfect example of that, you try hard… but you can’t always get what you want.

Happiness and Relaxation

Happiness in Fences, from what I’ve gathered, is being stress-free. The life’s that Troy, Rose, and Cory live are just full of stress, so when the opportunity of a stress-free moment or environment opens up they jump to it. Troy is surrounded by people taking from him, he goes to work and make money to feed his family, keep the roof over their heads safe and put together. Rose lives a life where she cleans, cooks and takes care of the family. Giving, and giving, with some more giving and has to live with her husband no appreciating her, or understanding all the work she really does. “Don’t you tell me about no taking and giving!” (pg. 72) Cory lives in a life where he just wants to play football, but his father will not let him. His father makes him have a job, go to school and play football if that’s what he wants to do. Which is too much for anyone to do. With so much stress when they see an opening where they can just escape, or sit back and relax. They’re happy with it, but it’s usually only short amounts of happiness that happen in intervals.

                In today’s society happiness is can come in short term events like, enjoying your day with friends, spending time with family, taking selfies with your Starbucks. We can have good days or bad days just based on if we got enough sleep or drank enough coffee etc. We have long-term happiness. Scoring that new job without the psycho boss, getting a brand new car you’ve been saving up for, moving into a new house. It’s long term stuff that happen after achieving our goals.

                The society in Fences and today’s society both have connections but also have many differences. Some of the connections are being the small things, you’re happy when you finally get a break from work, and the kids, you can go to sleep and get that extra few hours. However, no one in Fences really has any long-term happiness. We could possibly see Cory having long-term happiness but his father ruins that for him, stopping him from following his dreams. You don’t really see people happy often in fences it’s a really depressing society.

Troy, at a Happy Medium.

What we’ve seen of troy so far is a very strong and hardworking man. Troy is a husband, married to Rose. And a father of two kids Lyons, and Cory. We can see the first child was kind of hard for Troy, he neglected him causing the two to grow apart and the kid only comes around when he’s in need of something, like money. “Naw, Pop… thanks. That ain't for me. I don’t wanna be carrying nobody’s rubbish. I don’t wanna be punching nobody’s time clock.” You can see the two of them having complete difference personality’s from this. Troy is a very hard working man that does whatever he needs to earn money to support his family. Where Lyons just wants to get money and spend it, really living the fast life.

Troy’s second child however, Cory has been around his father more and wants to connect with him. He mentions the family should get a TV “So you can watch it. They got lots of things on TV. Baseball games, and everything. We could watch the world Series.” This quote shows Cory really trying to connect to his father, he wants a TV so it’s something to spend time together doing. However Troy responds in a very negative way. “What I want with a TV? What I want one of them for?” The idea of being able to spend time with his son, goes right over his head.

Although we’ve seen troy in a weak light, of not having in compassion or caring to put in the effort to spend time with his kids. I still see troy as a very strong man. Troy doesn’t focus so much on spending time with his family because he’s working so hard to keep a roof over their heads and keeping them stable. From what I’ve gathered so far Troy would fit into today’s society just fine. He’s a hard working the cares for his family, He knows not to abuse credit, He’s the man of the house taking care of money, and bill and fixing anything when it breaks. These are the attributes I think of in today’s society for men, he’d fit in just fine.