1162 Wilson, August
hubs, African Americans were “offered no such wel-
come.” He says, “The city rejected them, and they
fled and settled along riverbanks and under bridges
in shallow, ramshackle houses made of sticks and
tar-paper.” Troy Maxson is one of these people, and
as he lives his life before the rebellious, progressive
era of the 1960s, he dies a rejected man, rejecting
those around him
Jennifer McClinton-Temple
SucceSS in Fences
Success is subjective. For some, success is about
money and fame; for others, a roof over their heads
and food on their tables is enough to be counted
among the successful. In the African-American
community in the mid-20th century, when Fences
is set, it is this later definition to which they were
often forced to limit themselves. In his brief preface
to the play, Wilson writes that when the descen-
dants of African slaves came from the South into
the cities of the Northeast, those cities rejected
them, pushing them to their margins. So they made
do with what they had. He says, “They collected
rags and wood. They sold the use of their muscles
and their bodies. They cleaned houses and washed
clothes . . . and in quiet desperation and vengeful
pride, they stole and lived in pursuit of their own
dream: That they could breathe free.” This sort
of freedom was the only version of success many
African Americans believed they could hope for
prior to the liberating time of the 1960s. Troy Max-
son believes this, rightly or wrongly, about himself
and his loved ones, and this attitude has led him
down a bitter, defeatist path.
Troy apparently believes that having a job that
is better than the job he has, a garbage collector, is
the brass ring. He forbids his son Cory to pursue
his dream of playing football in favor of a job at the
A&P. His wife, Rose, tries to tell him that Cory only
wants to follow in his footsteps as an athlete (Troy
talks a great deal about his baseball-playing years),
but Troy cuts her off, saying, “I don’t want him to be
like me! I want him to move as far away from my life
as he can get” (1.3). Troy refuses even to consider the
success of black major league baseball players such as
Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron, claiming, despite
evidence to the contrary, that white men will never
really let them be successful on the field. He seems
to feel that by merely surviving, by being alive, he
has won the only battle open to him. Of his lifelong
fight with death, he says, “Every time it seemed
like he was gonna get the best of me, I’d reach way
down deep inside myself and find the strength to do
him better” (1.1). By not dying, he has beaten death,
and that is the one triumph he is willing to pursue
and to trumpet.
Those around Troy, especially his sons, do not
feel so limited by life. Lyons feels that success is
about being happy as well as about being employed.
He spends a lot of his time working as a musician,
knowing that this is what will make life worth living
for him. He says about music, “I know I got to eat.
But I got to live too. I need something that gonna
help me to get out of the bed in the morning. Make
me feel like I belong in the world” (1.1). Bono notes
that you have to be a good musician to play at the
venue where Lyons works, but Troy still will not
agree to go see him, continuing to insist there is no
point in this pursuit.
Similarly, Troy will not consider the possibility
that Cory could be successful as a football player,
He says, “The white man ain’t gonna let you get
nowhere with that football noway” (1.3). Ironically,
Cory is actually thinking of his future, keeping up
his grades while playing football, and has attracted
the attention of a college recruiter from North
Carolina. Troy is so suspicious of the possibility
that a black man could achieve this kind of success
that he thwarts Cory’s chances by forbidding Cory
from playing and telling the coach to call off the
recruiter.
Troy’s relationship with Rose demonstrates best
his warped sense of success. Rose, by Troy’s own
admission, is the best part of his life, the best thing
that has ever happened to him. After 18 years of
marriage, still a loving, affectionate couple, most
would took upon this union as a great success in the
midst of his string of failures and terrible luck. Troy,
however, cheats on Rose because he feels trapped,
seeing only his own side of things. Rose tells him
that she had hopes and dreams too, but that she put
those aside to devote herself to their family. Rose
sees success in such an endeavor, but Troy can see
only his own stifled feelings, and his act of infidel-