Troy Maxson Character Analysis in Fences

Obama once said “It's the lack of empathy that makes it easy for us to plunge in wars… It’s the lack of empathy that allows us to ignore the homeless on the street” In August Wilsons’ play, Fences, he writes about a family and the hardships they go through from the color of their skin to lifelong regrets. August Wilson writes about a variety of different characters, but the one that stands out is Troy and his lack of sympathy. Troy is not conveyed as a sympathetic character due to the lack of a father figure, being discriminated because of the color of his skin, and losing connections with his loved ones; This impacts the overall meaning of the play by giving you a different perspective, instead of having an overpowered main-character, you get a character that the readers can connect to on a personal level. 

Troy Maxson was forced to grow up, lacking a father figure, forcing him to toughen up and even losing the ability to feel sympathy along the way. Troy was born into a sharecropping family. After the abolishment of slavery Troy’s father tried to sharecrop but instead he was slipping into debt bit by bit. “He ain’t cared about no kids. The only thing my daddy cared about was getting them bales of cotton in to Mr.Lubin… and find out he owe him money” Troy felt as if his father didn’t care about him or his siblings. He felt as if he was being used by his father to do errands and that's it, their relationship couldn’t grow. Troy’s father was slipping into debt meaning he wasn’t able to give Troy time or really give Troy quality things, since he wasn’t able to afford it. Because of that Troy grew up thinking love was materialistic. Additionally, when Troy was fourteen his father sent him to go out and plow. Instead he went with Joe Canwell’s daughter, to fool around. His father came along and caught them. So his father used Troy as a punching bag. “ I thought I was blind. Both my eyes were swollen shut. The only thing I knew was the time come for me to leave my daddy’s house” Troy was turned into a literal punching bag, his father completely disregarded Troy as his son, and beat him to the point “eyes were swollen shut”. Troy had to grow up in an unloving harsh environment, so without his hesitation he built a fence around his heart never knowing a father’s love. 

Later on in his life Troy was discriminated against because of his skin color. Troy wanted to pursue a career in baseball, since he genuinely enjoyed it. Troy was hanging out drinking with Rose and Bono when the topic of baseball came up, it brought up feelings of anger and jealousy from within Troy. “I’m talking about if you could play ball then they ought to have let you play. Don’t care what color you were. Come telling me I come along too early.” Troy came along to play baseball when conditions were still too harsh on colored people. Slowly time started to change and the first black person was allowed to play professional baseball. Troy was angry and jealous that he wasn’t able to play baseball, but come years later other colored people were allowed to. Moreover, Troy had a job with a moving company. The white people were allowed to drive the truck while he and Bono had to do the heavy lifting work. “Why? Why you got the white mens driving and the colored lifting? You think only white fellows got sense enough to drive a truck” Troy was forced to do hard labor while the whites just had to drive the truck. He was angered to the fact they were treated immensely different from the white people just because of the color of his skin. Because Troy was discriminated against for the color of his skin, he wasn’t able to pursue a career in something he truly enjoyed. Has well, has being forced to do hard labor while the whites chilled and laid back. 

Troy let his pride and lack of feeling sympathy get into his way of his and his family. Troy goes and cheats on his wife Rose, with another woman, Alberta. He even fathers Alberta’s daughter, Raynell. When he broke the news to Rose, she was devastated and cut off her relationship with Troy, keeping it as an acquaintance. “I’ll take care of your baby for you … cause… like you say she’s innocent… and you can’t visit the sins of the father upon the child. A motherless child has got a hard time. From right now… this child got a mother. But you a womanless man.” Rose decides to be a responsible woman, she felt sympathy for Raynell so she took her in leaving Troy alone. He wanted to go out and be free so he fathered another woman's child. At the cost of his freedom he lost his 18 year relationship with Rose. Subsequently, Cory and Troy have an altercation in front of the house. Cory finally gets the guts to stand up against his father, and explain what he has been feeling. With that, Cory picks up a bat and attempts to hit Troy because he kept instigating Cory. Troy ends up over powering Cory and snatching the bat away from Cory. Troy calls out to Cory, “Go on and get away from around my house. CORY: Tell mama I’ll be back for my stuff. TROY: They’ll be on the other side of that fence.” Troy kicks out his own son from his house, in a way following in his father’s actions. This was all due to the fact that Troy couldn’t feel sympathy towards Cory, and see how his actions impacted others. Because of Troy’s pride and lacking of feeling sympathy towards other, Troy costed his relationships with his family leaving him alone. 

Troy went through a life full of many hardships from not having a father figure, being discriminated against to losing connections with loved ones. All of this caused Troy to lack the sense of feeling sympathy towards others.Troy’s father not only used Troy to do his work and has as errand boy, but beat his son till his breaking point. Troy even had to deal with not being able to play the one sport he lived for, for a thing he couldn’t change, the color of his skin. Troy then proceeds to make irreversible mistakes that could have been avoided, ruining his relationships with his family. We as humankind will all face hardships, but can’t forget to show sympathy towards others.