Modern day Tragic Hero.

Troy Maxson. To some, it is but a name. On the other hand to most, he was a modern day tragic hero who just couldn’t hit the mark. Troy left behind an interesting legacy, which is composed of a Fatherly figure, a lover, a brother, a friend, and a liar. Troy is dissatisfied with his life. He's unhappy that his pro baseball dreams were stopped by racial discrimination. He feels trapped and unfulfilled in his job as a garbage man. His son constantly disappoints him by not seeing the value of work. And even though he loves his wife, Troy finds a new love in another woman's arms. But first, let’s rewind. Troy had a clean fresh start when he married Rose. For once everything was going right in his life.

He had a son, Cory, and he tried to do everything he could to be the best possible father for him. Since Troy had a rough time growing up with this mother who wasn’t around, in addition to his abusive father who took care of 5 sons, Troy didn’t have what some people would call the best childhood. Troy had this sense of duty to be a father to his family. Troy seems to think that a father's only real duty is to provide food and shelter. He doesn't think it's important for a father to show love to his son. He also doesn't feel his duties to his wife include fidelity. Troy has an affair, but doesn't believe it's necessarily wrong. He's provided for his wife and loves her, but his love now includes someone else. Troy never apologizes for anything he does in the play. It could be that this is why the other characters respect him by the end. Though they were all disappointed by the things he did, Troy always did what he thought was right. You could say then that Troy never once betrayed himself.  Though Troy fulfills his own idea of his duties to his family, others may question this. What do you think? What does a father and husband owe his family?

Modern Societies & past Standards.

                       (in response to prompt #2) 

                       Troy is an interesting fellow. According to him & those close to him, he is not only just a man, but he is also a Husband, a former athlete, a breadwinner, a Father, a good friend, and an interesting individual. According to Troy’s society, a man is all those things we just used to describe Troy. He has a strong-willed character, he isn't afraid of failing, and with his stubborn personality, he keeps getting back up, and keeps trying in order to support his family. I believe Troy is the strongest man in this book, he is the perfect example of a man according to his society’s standards. Nevertheless, I can concur that according to our society’s standards, Troy would be a weak individual. Nowadays the modern average family doesn't only rely on the man of the house in order to prosper. Most of the time, both spouses would have to work in order to support the family and flourish. In spite of this, I am certain that Troy wouldn't be able to put up with this, because he feels as if he would need to be in absolute control of his family. If he had someone else also making decisions in his family, Troy would feel as if he would need to be the one “on top” of this hierarchy and there would be countless arguments and problems. So no Troy would not live up to our current society’s standards, nonetheless, he would be the prime example of a man according to his society’s standards. 

Narcissists

                  I believe that happiness is a right. Of course every individual has the right to feel happy. On the other hand, I believe that every individual has an obligation, or duty as some may say, and in this situation, Troy feels as if he’s entitled to do whatever he wants in order to obtain that natural high called “happiness”. To start, let’s look at our society, according to our society, as long as you’re “happy” life is “good”. However, I disagree. I believe that happiness is not enough; I believe that a life without meaning will make you sick. I believe that happiness isn't all it’s cracked up to be, and Rose from the book “Fences” would agree with me. “Well what’s the difference between happiness and meaning?” someone might ask.  To cut a long story short, here’s the crux of the whole issue; happiness and meaning are different, and happiness without meaning doesn't lead to a great life. Happiness without meaning characterizes a relatively shallow, self-absorbed or even selfish life, in which things go well, needs and desire are easily satisfied, and difficult or challenging predicaments are avoided and that is exactly what Troy is doing. He’s searching for the short term egotistical happiness. And in Troy’s case, he’s putting aside the family that cares so much about him, the wife who he’s been married to for eighteen years, just so he could quench his lusting desire for happiness. I believe this happens every single day in our world, just as easily as it happened in the text. “Is it morally ok?” some people might ask; no. “Do people do it anyway? Disregarding the consequences?” yes. 

Egalitarianism

August Wilson was an amazing playwright, on the other hand, he was also an effective social-reformer. August Wilson Wrote “a cycle of plays, one for each decade of the 20^th century” and through his plays, he was spreading a certain message, however with every new and upcoming play, his ideals would get revised and be up to date. “Wilson has never been interested in plot” he didn’t care that his plays were predictable, in fact if you were able to predict what was going to happen, you would better understand that message he was trying to send out; and that critical message he was so dire to spread out is,  egalitarianism, aka social equality. Wilson’s plays according to him offer white Americans a different outlook on black Americans. For example, in his play Fences all the white Americans see is a garbage man, a person they don’t usually concern themselves with, someone they usually pay no regard to, in spite of this, they somehow fail to recall that this “garbage man” this individual, this soul, this HUMAN BEING, this SOMEBODY is a person as well. Moreover this somebody feels the same you do. He craves the same things we all do, love, honor, beauty, and despises the same things we do pain, betrayal, anguish, sorrow. Recognizing that these things are as much part of the white American’s life, can affect how they think and correspond with Black people in their lives. Wilson once said, “if humanity of a garbage man is a revelation to anyone, we are in much worse shape than the most apocalyptic social critics thinks.