August Wilson Character Analysis

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Trey Dollar April Hall Honors English 9 October 22, 2015
How Something Great Destroys Something Better: How Troy Makes Choices To Destroy His Family.
How does your pride take over another’s life? August Wilson’s “Fences” portrays how Troy, the protagonist, makes prideful decisions that affect his life by changing how his family feels about him. He constantly makes decisions that make himself feel better but, at the same time, change the respect his family has for him. Wilson portrays Troy as a villain through the decisions he makes for his family out of pride, for what he wants and not what is best for his family and as a tragic figure because of his major flaw of wanting to have everyone kept below him so he can do whatever he pleases.
Troy …show more content…
Troy makes Cory give up football because he can see Cory might show him up. He tries to convince everyone it is because he wants Cory to be ahead in life when he actually just wants to be the best. Troy uses his authority to build a “fence” around Cory and try to keep him below himself. Troy tries to keep Cory from excelling above him so he has to power to do what is pleasing to him.
Troy’s major flaw is evident in how he tries to keep everyone below him and keep them trapped in one spot. His flaw is constantly putting others in a place where they are below him and in a position to where he can stop them from anything. Many times people can have their life taken over by pride and disrespect for others. For example, “A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down you cannot see something that is above you” (Lewis). This quote shows how Troy was putting himself in a horrible situation with his family just because he had a flaw he ignored for his good. Many times this flaw was pointed out to Troy but he always ignored it because he wanted to be great to himself and look down on others to feel better. Troy thought that all his decisions would not be a big deal as long as he could use his authority to keep others fenced in below him. He uses his major flaw to not only keep others away from his
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