Death

DEATH In the August Wilsons play Fences; death is the ending to Troy’s Maxson’s story. Wilson incorporates death in the whole story to foreshadow to the audience what is only inevitable because of nature. Troy’s struggle with death throughout his life has always been a negative association. Wilson possibly wants to challenge Troy’s position on death by showing the readers when it is okay to move on to possibly better things in the after life.

1) Wilson uses Troy’s confrontational attitude and dialogue concerning death as a way to foreshadow his death, which is also ironic because he is the one person in the play that loses his life and dreams. Deaths arrogant attitude towards death shows weakness in his character. It is ironic how Troy talks about baseball in context with death because his dreams to play baseball were shattered by old age and symbolically are dead. He has experienced the death of his dreams to play baseball but is unable to accept the fact and blinds himself from reality by becoming cocky and arrogant thinking that he is immortal. This attitude creates a dramatic end to the story because the one person in the book who was supposedly couldn’t have anything hurt him ends up dying. This quote shows Troy making an effort to keep death away from him. It seems like a bold statement but however it can be seen as cowardly because he is trying to hide from death. It shows that he is scared of death and is unable to accept it as a part of life. Troy sees death as a member of the KKK and the devil as a white man who is a creditor. Troy incorporating racism with death shows how the struggles in his life had such a profound effect on him that he sees these people as the most evil forces in the world. Wilson portrays death in this way to show that Troy is unable to accept death just like how his generation is unable to accept social changes. 2) Troy lost his dream to play baseball and the support of his family and friends but he kept on living. Wilson wants to show that death is not necessarily bad and can sometimes be better then struggling on through life. Wilson shows that by skipping directly to Troy’s death that those years weren’t significant and that the only step left for him to reach in life was to die.
 * “Death ain’t nothing. I done seen him. Done wrassled with him. You can’t tell me nothing about death. Death ain’t nothing but a fastball on the outside corner. And you know what I’ll do to that!” pg 10 (I,i) **
 * “I’m gonna build me a fence around what belongs to me. And then I want you to stay on the other side. See? You stay over there until you’re ready for me. Pg 77 (II, ii) **
 * “had him a white robe with a hood on it” pg 12 (I,i) (the devil) **
 * He goes from Troy losing everything to Troy’s death almost 10 years later. **

Troy’s death is very ironic. He spent much of the play challenging death telling him to bring his army but he just fell down and died one day in the backyard. There was no struggle or fight. Wilson shows that death doesn’t have to be a violent but can be beautiful as Troy died practicing the thing he loved most in his life, which was baseball. Here Wilson is portraying heaven as something positive through Gabriel’s point of view. This contradicts Troy’s point of view because he is always referring to the devil and how he wants to challenge death. The reference of morning, the start of a new day, is like the start of something new where you would enjoy things such as big fat biscuits that are tasty and delicious. ** “Old Blue died and I dug him a grave” pg 99 (II, v) ** Cory and Raynell sing the song Troy had sung throughout the play at the very end. This shows how once people die how they are carried on by the impressions they left on people. The whole last chapter can be seen as Wilson showing how each character was influenced by Troy and how there will always be a part of him in them. “I wrestled with Death for three days and three nights and I’m standing here to tell you about it” pg 12 (I,i) “(Troy assumes a batting posture and begins to taunt Death, the fastball in the outside corner.) Come on! It’s between you and me now!” pg 89 (II, iv) “Ain’t nothing wrong with talking about death. That’s part of life. Everybody gonna die.” Pg 10 (I,i) Devil: “I miss a payment the devil was coming back and it’ll be hell to pay” pg 15 (I,i) Heaven: “Troy…. St. Peter got your name in the book. I seen it. It say…. Troy Maxson” pg. 26 (I,ii) “Better get ready for the judgment/ My Lord is coming down” pg 27 (I,ii) “People gonna have a hell of a time trying to get into heaven if them gates ain’t open” pg 48 (I,iv) Finale “He finishes his dance and the gates of heaven stand open as wide as God’s closet.)/ That’s the way that go! / (BLACKOUT)” pg 101 (II, V)
 * “Bring your army. Bring your sickle.” Pg 77**
 * “every morning me and ST. Peter would sit down by the gate and eat some big fat biscuits” pg 26 **
 * __Other references to death__**