Troy Maxson Crossing over Fences Built around Other Peoples Lives - Essay Example

Troy Maxson Crossing over fences built around other peoples’ lives The play, Fences, by August Wilson is a drama that focuses onthe life of Troy Maxson, who has not been able to live within the fence, and has most often crossed over the fence to indulge in territories that are not his. Troy is black American, and has a family that he is constantly in feuds with, considering that he is a hard-headed man, who only allows things to go his own way, with little regard to the needs of the others in the family (Rich, 72). Nevertheless, through the narration of the life of Troy Maxson, August Wilson has been able to bring the lives of the black Americans in the 1950s into the limelight, most especially regarding the concept of discrimination, which faces the black American first hand, may it be in the employment or the sports sector (Bogumil, 34). The discrimination starts with Troy himself, who is an excellent baseball player, but owing to his race, he never gets to be paid well for his talents. Despite the fact that he is a bit older for a professional baseball player, at the age of 53, Troy Maxson is mostly discriminated against due to his black race (Wilson, 22). Consequently Troy harbors the resentment inside him throughout his life, and at some point the resentment towards other races that discriminated against the black makes Troy prohibit his son Cory from engaging in professional football, despite the fact that he has a talent (Menson-Furr, 98). It is Troy Maxson’s fear that his son will also be discriminated against, and he would not want his son to go through the same experiences that he had to go through as a baseball player. The play, Fences, portrays many aspects of the society refusing to play within the limits of the fences established around social morals, but rather the tendency to cross over the fence and invade the territory of others, in a way that serves to damage the lives of the individuals whose lives are intruded (Wilson, 36). The ethical, moral and even legal norms would demand that talent should be the basis of benefitting an individual, where an individual with a better talent will earn more out of the talent, than an individual with less talent in the same field. However, the society has crossed over these norms and invaded the boundaries of social talent, by introducing discrimination as a factor that defines the way individuals benefit from their talents. Thus, despite the fact that Troy has a good baseball talent, he only earns menial pay from his talent, which is not the same with other individuals from other races, who have access to good teams and better pay, just courtesy of their races (Bogumil, 41). Similarly, the blacks are also discriminated against in relation to employment, where they can only serve as garbage collectors and not even the drivers of the trucks that collect garbage (Wilson, 47). This employment discrimination is also based on the races of the workers, and Troy would only manage to break the discrimination culture very late in his career, to become the first black garbage truck driver (Pereira, 35). In this respect too, Troy emerge as the character that closes the fence, invading the employment space of the other races, where he insists on becoming the first black driver in a territory where the blacks have no space. Troy Maxson’s family faces numerous conflicts, and most of them planted by Troy. The nature of Troy to cross over the fences in the play, Fences, is once again demonstrated by the fact that Troy does not only live within the boundaries of his family moral obligations. Troy has crossed the fence several other times, by engaging in affairs outside his marriage. First, out of his first marriage, troy got a son Lyons (Wilson, 12). Despite being his son, Troy does not seem keen to support him, and he has difficulties even lending him ten dollars, and he only did so when he was implored by his wife to lend Lyons the ten dollars he needed during an incident in the play. Another aspect that demonstrates Troy as the character who crosses over the moral fence is his affair with another woman, Alberta, through which he gets a daughter, Raynell, whose mother died during her birth (Wilson, 33). In this respect, Troy has not been able to live within the moral fence of his family, but has breached the moral grounds by crossing over to have other affairs, which renders his wife, Rose, bitter; since she feels that she is not respected or wanted by Troy. Therefore, even though Rose agreed to bring up Troy’s daughter from the affair with Alberta, she makes it clear that she no longer considers herself as Troy’s woman (Rich, 51). The play, Fences, does not stop presenting Troy as the character who constantly crosses the fence at this point, but also goes ahead to indicate how his action to cross over the fence and invade his son’s life would cause a major family conflict. Cory is Troy’s son with Rose, and he is an excellent football player (Wilson, 27). Therefore, Cory stood a chance of getting into a college courtesy of his talent despite the fact that his family could not have afforded to pay his college fee. Thus, Cory had qualified for a football scholarship to join college, which was eventually blown away by Troy, who insisted that his son cannot play football, since he will end up being discriminated against by the other races (Pereira, 34). Things goes even bad, where Troy refuses to sign Cory’s college scholarship, and goes ahead to inform the school coach where Cory was playing, that his son could not continue playing football (Menson-Furr, 102). This is yet another invasion into other people’s lives by Troy, who then destroys Cory’s future education, causing a major conflict in the family, and also creating resentment in Cory, which was not resolved until the death of his father. Cory was not even willing to pay the last respect to his dead father, because he had not managed to come over what his father had done in relation to the scholarship. Thus, Troy has crossed over the fence once again, by interfering in Cory’s life choices, thus changing his course for the future. Troy would also cross the fence and invade in the life of his brother, Gabriel. Gabriel was a soldier who was injured during his tenure in the military, and thus was compensated for his injuries to enable him live a better life outside the military (Bogumil, 49). However, Troy used his brother’s compensation to buy a home, where they live with his family. This is an action of crossing over the fence and invading into others lives, since Troy was working as a garbage collector, but all he did was drink alcohol together with his friend Bono, whom he met in prison when he was charged for accidental murder during a robbery (Pereira, 43). Thus, instead of using his incomes productively, troy has dedicated his salary to drinking alcohol, and neglected his family, rendering it to poverty. Nevertheless, the worst thing in relation to Troy’s invasion of his brother’s life is that, he has seen him put into a mental hospital, so that he could benefit from half of his paycheck (Rich, 59). Further, after he got a job as a garbage truck driver, troy no longer keeps in touch with his friend Bono, simply because they no longer work together. Therefore, the play, Fences, has demonstrated the life surrounding a single man who has managed to cross over the fences built around other peoples’ lives, and ruined their lives. Works Cited Bogumil, Mary L. Understanding August Wilson. Columbia, SC: Univ. of South Carolina Press, 1999. Print. Menson-Furr, Ladrica C. August Wilsons Fences. London: Continuum, 2008. Print. Pereira, Kim. August Wilson and the African American Odyssey. Urbana [u.a.: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1995. Print. Rich, Frank. August Wilson Century Cycle. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 2007. Print. Wilson, August. Fences. New York: French, 1986. Print. Read More