Grubb 1

Brittney Grubb

Professor Hall

English 2100

9 Apr 2011

August Wilson’s play, Fences, carefully pieces together the dialogue and actions

of his character, Troy Maxon, so that multiple circumstances allude to him being a harsh,

unloving, and uncaring father to his children. While many see his verbally abusive nature

towards his family as the very personality he claimed from being treated unfairly by his

own father, it can just as easily be concluded that this is the exact life he was trying to

avoid. Out of anxiousness for his children’s successes and fear of their failing as they

reached adulthood, he ended up shadowing his true character as a caring, loving father

with an overly constructive and closed-minded sense of reality. He does this by cutting

himself off from his son, Lyons, an aspiring musician, and consistently demeaning his

other son, Cory, for his pursuit of being a football player. Troy, then, is ultimately

trapped in a vicious cycle of striving to be a supportive father, unlike his father was, and

doing so to such an extent that he unintentionally reflects the very image of him.

Quite simply, Troy is not fond of what his childhood made him into, and so he

does not want any of his sons to relive it. On page 2007, in a conversation between Troy

and his wife, Rose, the reader learns that Troy does not want any of his children to live a

life like he has lived. He says, “I want him to move as far away from my life as he can

get.” By this, it is obvious that he does not want Lyons following in the same life path as

he did, being “far away” from it by making the exact opposite decisions that Troy made.

The question rises, though, what is it about his life that he does not want his son to
 Grubb 2

experience? The answer can be found on pages 2012 and 2013, when Troy reveals a

specific personal memory of his father’s lust after a friend of his that causes him to see

the true motives of his father’s parenting as greed, not discipline or care. The most

important line in the story is in that moment, when Troy realized he could not trust his

father anymore: “When I seen what the matter of it was, I lost all fear of my daddy.” His

use of the word “daddy” hints to his sensitivity to the situation, his former respect, and

allows for the reader to sympathize with him for a moment, whereas the majority of the

play demands the reader to have a negative view toward his character. In addition, he

“lost all fear” of his father, something that influenced, from his perspective, failures in his

life, such as losing hope of making a living playing baseball and not being able to

maintain a healthy relationship with his wife. Both of Troy’s sons, Lyons and Cory, are

aspiring to make a career out of things they love, music and football, like Troy once

failed to do with baseball. Troy fears that they will not pursue their dreams and end up

like him, but fears they will suffer from the same failure as he did if they do. The

underlying reason behind Troy’s controversial parenting is simply protection.

The first observation of dialogue between Lyons and Troy will lead the reader to

believe that Troy is being harsh and unforgiving, but analyzing the situation at hand will

give them a deeper insight as to what is in fact going on in their conversations. On page

2009 begins a conversation between Troy and Lyons about Lyons consistent borrowing

of money from him.

 Grubb 3

**I realized at like 11 last night that there were some pretty big changes I needed to make

in my paper, so it’s only like 2 pages, I typed out a basic overview of the way the

paragraphs were structured though, which may or may not make sense hah. I understand

it though, just going to need a couple more hours to fix that.

Focus on how history repeated itself and how he seemed harsh but wasn’t trying to be.

1. Reflect on relationship with father and how it affected him psychologically, why he

wouldn’t want that for them. “Never wanted them to have a life like mine.” He realizes

exactly what his life has succumbed to.

2. Find loving-fatherness in his relationship with Lyons, good intentions. Both “lost”

their woman. Pg 1997. “I done spent too many years without.” Given up hope.

3. Same with Cory, good intentions. Wanted to play baseball. He wants to play football.

4. How it ends up being harsh, how that would be a direct reflection of his dad.

Unintentional***

“Part of that cutting down was when I got to the place where I could feel him kicking in

my blood and knew that the only thing that separated us was the matter of a few years.”

2013
 Grubb 4

1. What I consider to be the central idea follows: “While many see his verbally

abusive nature towards his family as the very personality he claimed from being

treated unfairly by his own father, it can just as easily be concluded that this is the

exact life he was trying to avoid. Out of anxiousness for his children’s successes

and fear of their failing as they reached adulthood, he ended up shadowing his

true character as a caring, loving father with an overly constructive and closed-

minded sense of reality.” This is basically saying that Troy’s behavior is

influenced greatly by his past. He both replicates and reverses the behavior he

witnessed of his father. The rest of the central idea is stating that his contrasting

nature has impact on his sons and his family life. There are good ideas here, but

the central idea needs to be more specific. It is vague right now, but it is clear that

the text has been carefully read and thought about because of the in-depth analysis

of Troy’s personality.

2. The analysis of the use of the word “daddy” stood out to me. I hadn’t thought

about the connotation of that word, and the way you explore different reasons for

using the word makes that part seem persuasive. Do you think Wilson intended to

portray Troy negatively? Consider following that question and discussing what

Wilson is trying to get the reader to think. The undeveloped ideas that you put

forth at the end seem to line up well with the p. 2013 quote that you provide.

Wilson himself admitted that that line was one of the most important in the entire

play. I’m glad you are thinking about discussing that line and it looks like it will

go well with your ideas. Consider talking about how his sons, particularly Cory,

respond to Troy’s behavior and treatment of them. I’m thinking specifically p.

 Grubb 5

2028 here where Cory tells Troy that Troy didn’t really give him anything. You

mentioned some ideas about Rose, and I would pursue them further. For example,

think about how Troy is locked into a pattern and how it affects Rose. He admits

his line of thinking on page 2020. Consider talking about how the world is

changing around Troy and he doesn’t realize it. Rose reveals this on p. 2007.

3. The organization so far is the introductory paragraph, a paragraph about Troy’s

past, and the beginning of a paragraph about Troy’s relationships with his sons.

While there isn’t much to go off of, this appears to be a logical way to start

organizing based on the central idea. They follow the same sequence with Troy’s

past coming first and his familial relationships coming afterwards. My first

impression of the paper is a lack of direction. There are too many things going on

at once. Organize your paper around your ideas and the specific examples from

the text you have to support those ideas.

4. Again, because there’s not much to work with, it’s hard to tell what should be

deleted and what shouldn’t. While something may not need to be deleted from the

entire paper, it might need to be moved later in the paper when that specific topic

is addressed. For example, in the long second paragraph, you discuss both Troy’s

past and his sons’ situations. Consider splitting up these ideas and talking about

them one at a time.