Point of View Literary Response Submission Link

Running head: TROY VS DEATH 1

Troy vs Death – A Driving Conflict of the Play

Vernon Hunter

Post University

TROY VS DEATH 2

Troy vs Death – A Driving Conflict of the Play

Fences is a play written by August Wilson that is based on features of black life towards

the end of the twentieth century and what challenges they had to face while living in American

society being African-Americans. This play is based on small and large conflicts in the life of the

main character of the play (Troy), which he had to fight throughout his life. All these conflicts

were created in his life as he used to believe in self-created illusions and also that he was unable

to accept the choices of others. "Out of all these conflicts, the main driving force of the play

Fences is the conflict between Troy and Death as it can be seen superseding every other conflict

as explained below."

In the first scene of the play, Troy Maxson said: "Death ain't nothing but a fastball

on the outside corner." (Wilson,1985, act # 1, scene # 1). Troy was extremely proud of baseball

and knew that he was able to conquer it on his own. He also believes that he was unbeatable

when it comes to issues of life and death as he was able to survive pneumonia ten years ago, able

to survive an abusive father, and also when he had to go through treacherous conditions towards

his journey to Pittsburgh.

Fact is something that is built on a firm belief and not just for the sake of saying, same as

it was for Troy to have a belief in death that is meant for everyone in this world. He uttered this

belief in this first scene; he is seen not afraid of anything, including death again. When he

said, "Ain't nothing wrong with talking about death. That's part of life. Everybody gonna die. You

gonna die, I'm gonna die. Bono's gonna die. Hell, we all gonna die." (Wilson,1985, act # 1,

scene # 1). This quote from the play indicates that Troy had a fair sense of assessing a real thing

and that his interest in that real thing purely was dependent upon the series of incidents that

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happened in his past life, which laid a foundation stone for him to believe whether it was good or

bad (Nindita & A, 2017).

Death is the driving conflict of this play, which is expressed in multiple scenes by

the writer. In one of the scenes of this play, bell of a phone rings in the middle of the night, Rose

answered the phone as woke troy who was asleep at that time. Rose tells Troy that a baby girl

was born; nevertheless, Alberta was no more due to some complications during the birth of a

girl. Troy moves towards the window and leans out in the rain and warns the death to limit itself

only to the other side of the fence that he is constructing. He continues the challenge by saying

that death should not sneak through the back door to him; instead, it should knock the front door

and come face to face as he was not afraid of it in any manner. Troy once fall ill and had to go

through pneumonia. He was fond of telling the tale about his illness to everybody time and again

by saying that he defeated death. Here he compared mortality to an army that tried to conquer

him through an illness. He also said that he talked to the end and felt it standing in front of him

with a sickle visible in its hand. He says, "I wrestled with death for three days and three nights,

and I'm standing here to tell you about it" (Wilson,1985, act # 1, scene # 1). This quote explains

how proud he was to survive his illness; he was not thankful to God, who saved him; instead, he

was taking it as his own triumph. He proudly said that he was standing in front of all to tell the

story as he defeated death after a great fight of three days and three nights, and finally, death had

to give up (Gale, 2019).

Troy admits in the reality of death in the play as he says, "Death ain't nothing to

play with. And I know he's gonna get me. I know I got to join his army" (Wilson,1985, act # 1,

scene # 1), however he was so much into his self-created beliefs that he doesn't just stop here by

saying it, he continues and says "But as long as I keep my strength and see him coming … as

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long as I keep up my vigilance … he's gonna have to fight to get me" (Wilson,1985, act # 1,

scene # 1) which means that although he had some ability of seeing facts as facts, yet he

becomes in charge of his feelings and again starting believing that he was much stronger than

death and had the ability to defeat it through his strengths. Even when he was near to his death,

he was still not ready to embrace the reality of death wholeheartedly. He talks to the death one

on one and says, "I'm gonna take and build me a fence around this yard. See? I'm gonna build

me a fence around what belongs to me (Wilson,1985, act # 2, scene # 2), where he asks death not

to enter the fence that he is going to create around himself and to stay away from him and be on

the other side of that fence (Nadel, 2019). Troy relates death and baseball metaphors. He

admitted that when major leagues of baseball were integrated, he had reached an age that

wouldn't allow him to play baseball, which killed his dreams, and he felt cheated as he loved

playing baseball. He considers the time when he used to play baseball as his best times; however,

he considered it as the death of his dreams as he could no longer play it. Moreover, the songs of

Troy are also from the blues ritual. The song "Hear it Ring Hear it Ring!" he has inherited from

his father. At the time of death of the Troy and towards the last scenes of this play, Cory and

Raynell could be seen singing the same song after Troy died.

In the play Fences, there are many conflicts that are presented by the writer August

Wilson; however, the conflict of Troy with the death is of foremost importance and has played a

vital central role throughout the play. Troy was never ready to give importance to death by any

means. He was so confident about taking death as inferior that he would talk to it one on one in

the play to keep a distance from him as he is unbeatable. Even towards the last scenes of the

play, when Troy was near to his death, he created a fence around him and stopped the death to

enter into it. This confidence to defeat death as a result of a series of incidents that happened in

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his past life which including pneumonia and was also able to survive his abusive father. Troy

didn't give up throughout and fought death right from the start of his life till he actually died.

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References

Gale, C. (2019). A Study Guide for" Fences"(lit-to-film). Gale, Cengage Learning.

Nadel, A. (2019). Reading August Wilson's Character and His Characters: A Suggestive

Introduction. August Wilson Journal 1.

Nindita, D., & A, P. R. (2017). Troy Maxson’s Extroversion In August Wilson’s Fences. Litera~

Kultura 5, no. 3.

Wilson, A. (2016). Fences. Penguin.