While reading “Fences”, I was bothered by the lack of a clear “hero” character. Usually in a story I can find at least one character to latch onto and force all of my hopes upon, but there is no such character in “Fences” (or at least not one who gets the job done).
The first character we meet is Troy. It is pretty obvious from the beginning of the story that Troy is not going to be much of a hero. He’s a brute, crude, and a little too rambunctious to trust with our confidence as a hero. Furthermore, he fails at the pivotal point in the story that determines his fate as a good or bad character. When Bono tells him to be good to Rose because she is good for him, Troy then admits to Rose that he has fathered a child with another woman. At that moment, August Wilson eliminates Troy as a hero possibility for us.
Our second, and more realistic, hero possibility is Rose. Initially she seems like a good candidate. She is caring and forgiving, even taking in her husband’s illegitimate child. She stands up for her son even in the face of an angry Troy. But the one problem I have with her as a hero character is that she stays with Troy or at least that she doesn't seem to get as angry as she should about his infidelity. She takes in his child with another woman and stays married to him. On the one hand, I think she is extremely admirable for those actions. But the modern-day feminist in me still wanted to see her walk away from him or at the very least give him a harder time. I think in a way that Wilson meant for her to be the strength behind the family and the only reason it endures. For some reason, though, she still does not seem like the hero of the story to me.
If I had to pinpoint the so-called hero of this story, it would be Corey. He starts out as the talented and full-of-potential teen who is struggling to overcome his father's expectations and ridicule. He has a sort of Cinderella story of sorts in that he leaves home without any prospects and returns as an accomplished man. It's probably partly my teen bias that draws me to Corey's story but I definitely sympathized with him and his story.
The only problem with considering Corey as the hero of the story is that he is clearly not the main character. We learn about Troy's life, Troy's actions, and Troy's problems. We do not witness Corey's transformation at all. He leaves home essentially the same boy we meet in the beginning of the story and returns completely differently without us knowing the full story. That, however, brings us back to Troy. Perhaps it is my sympathy for Corey that does not allow me to have any sympathy for Troy. He is a lonely and unfortunate person who essentially misses out on some of the better things in life. But he does have good times with his wife and baseball and he was given every opportunity to have a good family life. But he doesn't.
All in all, I'm still waiting for a hero to emerge from this story. Even though Wilson seems to point to Troy as the hero, I cannot accept Troy as a good enough character to warrant the title of "hero of the story". And Corey cannot really be the hero since the story does not center around him at all. So there we are--left without a hero. Now I'll just have to listen to that voice in the back of my head saying, "Does every story really need a hero?" (631)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
Z--good question: "Does every story really need a hero?" I'm not sure I can answer that, although I do think Troy is on some level a heroic character, but a tragic hero, one doomed to self-destruct and to bring pain onto others by the demons he can never control.
But I was almost more interested in your thoughts on Rose, who is, for me, a highly admirable character who in the end finds fulfillment raising another woman's baby into her own daughter.
Many people criticize Rose for not leaving Troy when she finds out he's been cheating--and fathered another woman's baby! And I can understand where that idea comes from. Today, a woman could leave her husband and, more or less, continue her life. But in Rose's time, women didn't work all that much. When they did work, they didn't make enough money to sustain themselves or a family. Rose didn't have much of a choice: live with Troy or, for all practical purposes, die. What makes Rose a hero to me is that she chooses to keep Troy's baby. Rose had the opportunity to discard the child altogether, but she didn't because that would punish the child. Admittedly, she had an ulterior motive for keeping the child--remember when Rose said Raynell was all the children she had wanted, but never had?
So, in short, I disagree with your point, but understand where you're coming from. :)
Alex Zadel--
I liked your take on the story and I tend to agree with you in certain places. I really liked your views on Rose, but I dont think that she had to leave the family just to prove her point. Lets not forget that she still had a son to take care of and enduring that relationship for the sake of her son is admirable (though maybe I would feel differently if I was a lady). You seem to be really harsh on Troy. I don't agree that the adultery alone would be enough to think of Troy as an anti-hero, but what really gets me is when he feels as if he needs to keep going back to Alberta. Troy turns out to be a really tragic figure as he tried desperately to do everything right for his family, but his family life doesn't exist as how he expects it to.I honestly never even contemplated Cory being a hero. I guess its because he wasn't mentioned frequently enough in the story, but you make some good points in regards to his role in the story.
i love it! i like that you didnt give into the fact that our minds naturally want a hero... its nice that you accepted the fact that there was no hero rather than gave the position of hero to someone who obviously didnt deserve it!
Alex,
You should listen to the song by Frou Frou called Holding Out for a Hero. It's from the Shrek soundtrack.
Wilson obviously wants Troy to be depicted as the tragic hero. But I agree with you in saying that he doesnt deserve the title.
I think August WIlson made a poor choice in using Troy to tell a story about the trials and tribulations that blacks endure because Troy does no justice for the black community nor mankind in general.
A very insightful character analysis! I agree that Troy cannot qualify as the hero of the story because he does not personify any noble values to which the surrounding society should aspire to follow. Though the modern-day feminist in me also had a problem with Rose as the hero since she stayed with Troy, I think that she may be the hero figure in this story since she chooses to take the moral high ground and sacrifice any desire for revenge against Troy in order to do what is best for her family.
I thought this entry was very well done. You always have great character analysis. You go into such great detail and point out things I would have never thought were important!
I agree that Troy is not the hero, although he is the central figure in this play. He is too troubled and unable to overcome his problems to be a hero. However, his actions, even the bad ones, give others the chance to prove themselves and overcome obstacles and as Lauren said, "take the moral high ground"
Good job
Love you :)
On this day I must bid my aristocratic counterparts farewell. I shall not go into detail of what has driven me to such action, but it was the topic of Gary’s speech. I have authored a brief, might you say, rebuttal, which can be read here.
Jane Austen (48)
Post a Comment