In Fences, the main character, Troy Maxson, plays as the antagonist. For the duration of his life, Troy confronted numerous hardships and troubles, that’d come to create shortcomings and tensions in his present life. These tensions are exemplified extensively through narrative elements such as characterization, motif, and foreshadowing. In the early reference point of the book, Wilson makes tension clear in the fact that Troy’s strength and mental/emotional state correlate directly to one another; “It is this largeness that he strives to fill out and make an accommodation with.” (1) From this point, we realize that much of Troy’s attitude towards several events throughout the book will likely connect to his one-sided perspectives and what
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In his description, Troy opened up possibilities as to why he’d chosen to have an affair with Alberta, an event that was not necessarily mentioned then, but earlier in the book, when Bono mentions Troy’s been “eyeing her” (3). Later in the story, Troy makes it a point to explain to Rose that not only had he been engaging in extramarital entanglements, he’d been expecting a child with Alberta …show more content…
Rose, being a typical 1950s housewife, was a caring, patient woman, possessing the grace of a rose, willing to assume each liability she’d committed herself to as a wife (this was likely Wilson’s imagery of a wife in the time that he’d lived). Rose stood by Troy throughout the vast majority of the book. They stood in the same place for almost two decades, but Rose loved Troy dearly and willingly obliged, “I took all my feelings, my wants and needs, my dreams… and I buried them inside you.”(71) Rose made it a point to fully commit herself to Troy, but he was unable to fully commit to her, even though he’d claim to love her the same as she did him. Troy explained that he’d stood on first base for 18 years and was utterly jaded, that he’d gone off in search of something different. Troy, having been a failed baseball player in his prime due to segregation, used baseball not only to explain his actions and mistakes to Rose, but as a representation of his capacity and his reluctance to give in to fate. Troy saw himself as being an indomitable figure on the baseball field, and displayed the same philosophy in his everyday life, “Death ain’t nothing but a fastball on the outside corner.”
In his description, Troy opened up possibilities as to why he’d chosen to have an affair with Alberta, an event that was not necessarily mentioned then, but earlier in the book, when Bono mentions Troy’s been “eyeing her” (3). Later in the story, Troy makes it a point to explain to Rose that not only had he been engaging in extramarital entanglements, he’d been expecting a child with Alberta …show more content…
Rose, being a typical 1950s housewife, was a caring, patient woman, possessing the grace of a rose, willing to assume each liability she’d committed herself to as a wife (this was likely Wilson’s imagery of a wife in the time that he’d lived). Rose stood by Troy throughout the vast majority of the book. They stood in the same place for almost two decades, but Rose loved Troy dearly and willingly obliged, “I took all my feelings, my wants and needs, my dreams… and I buried them inside you.”(71) Rose made it a point to fully commit herself to Troy, but he was unable to fully commit to her, even though he’d claim to love her the same as she did him. Troy explained that he’d stood on first base for 18 years and was utterly jaded, that he’d gone off in search of something different. Troy, having been a failed baseball player in his prime due to segregation, used baseball not only to explain his actions and mistakes to Rose, but as a representation of his capacity and his reluctance to give in to fate. Troy saw himself as being an indomitable figure on the baseball field, and displayed the same philosophy in his everyday life, “Death ain’t nothing but a fastball on the outside corner.”