Storytelling

//Your topic is going to be a tough sell as it will be difficult to show Troy as truly a soft-hearted, fearful man. What in the play leads the audience to perceive Troy as a soft-hearted, fearful man with just a manly facade? //


 * Thesis Statement:** In August Wilson’s Fences, storytelling functions in the play as a catharsis for Troy and his only way of expressing his emotions while maintaining his tough and manly image.


 * Intro:** The play “Fences” by playwright August Wilson is set in Pittsburgh in the late 1950’s and tells the story of the Maxson family. The play is basically about dealing with the racial prejudice of that time and the plot focuses on the developing and deteriorating relationships among the characters. One major aspect of the play is the storytelling by the protagonist Troy who is portrayed as a very manly and tough character displaying only emotions of anger which further emphasizes his masculinity. However, __Wilson uses storytelling as a catharsis for Troy in expressing his other emotions and feelings towards issues such as racism, an oppressive father, and death while at the same time maintaining his tough image.__

Catharsis: the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions.

While Troy seems very defiant and openly confrontational towards the idea of racism and white people in his everyday life (even going as far as complaining to his white superiors that there were no black truck drivers), he seems to lack the same kind of bravado and courage when facing racism in his stories. In one of his stories, a white salesman is portrayed as the devil who threatens him into paying ten dollars at the beginning of every month. However as the story reverts back to reality, the audience finds out from Rose that Troy hasn’t actually paid the ten dollars at the beginning of every month. By being fearful of the white salesman in his story, Troy expresses his true emotion of fear towards racism. However at the end of the story, Rose brings up the fact that Troy does not pay the ten dollars each month thereby counteracting any signs of Troy as a weak and fearful character but rather a modest one who will admit to things that he did not actually do. So by having Troy manipulate the story in this way, Wilson successfully fortifies Troy’s character as that of a strong, tough and manly one.
 * I. Racism**

//“Devil standing there bigger than life. White fellow…” (15) “To this day… the first of the month I send my ten dollars. Rose’ll tel you.” (15) “Troy lying. We got that furniture from Mr. Glickman. He ain’t paying no ten dollars a month to nobody.” (16)//

When Troy tells the story about his father, he is releasing his repressed emotions and memories of his evil and abusive father and thereby gaining relief of finally having told somebody. Troy begins the story by describing his father as a very strict and repressive person even going so far as calling his own father “evil” which has a very negative connotation. When he gets into a direct confrontation with his father over the girl, Troy calls his father the devil thereby showing the classic good vs. evil conflict. Unlike almost all of Troy’s stories, he does not defeat his father but is still seen as the hero who bravely tried to fend off his oppressive father against an innocent girl whom his father was about to rape. Although, Troy says that his father was about to rape the girl, Troy’s father probably had no intention of raping the girl and this part of Troy’s story was completely fictitious and was fabricated by Troy in an attempt to make him seem even more like a hero by saving the damsel in distress. This story also reveals Troy’s true emotions about his father, which are ones of abhorrence and hate. So through this storytelling, Troy reveals his real emotions while at the same time strengthening his tough visage by adding certain fictitious parts to the story.
 * II. Oppressive Father**

//“But he was just as evil as he could be. My mama couldn’t stand him. Couldn’t stand that evilness.” (51) “Now I thought he was mad cause I ain’t done my work. But I see where he was chasing me off so he could have the gal for himself.. When I see what the matter of it was, I lost all fear of my daddy. Right there is where I become a man… at fourteen years of age.” (52) “and when my daddy turned to face me, I could see why the devil had never come to get him… cause he was the devil himself.”// (52)

Throughout the play, Troy issues many challenges against death and his story of a fight with death is one of many examples. In this story, Troy describes himself in a physical struggle with death while in reality, he is fighting off pneumonia at a hospital. In the beginning, Troy describes a “coolness” that crept over him as death approached and this coolness is just another symbol for the coming of death so when Troy himself gets cold, he is showing that he is indeed quite afraid of death and the loneliness that ensues after a person dies. However as Troy’s story progresses, his initial emotions of fear and dread fade away and a sudden surge of bravado comes on as he challenges death to a fight and all the ‘cold went out of him”. In his story, his strength and courage is so much that death is even taken aback by it. Thus by changing the story to fit his own ends, Troy creates another instance in which he is shown as the brave and fearless man who dared defy death. He is also shown as a hero who came out alive in the end with his struggle against death.
 * III. Death**

//“He touch me just like I touch you. I got cold as ice and Death standing there grinning at me.” (11) “I told him, “Bound over hell! Let’s settle this now!”” (11) “It seem like he kinda fell back when I said that, and all the cold went out of me.”// (11)

Storytelling is an opportunity for Troy to uphold and further support his manly characteristics since when he is telling a story, he is entirely in control of what happens. Therefore by being in total control of a story, he can manipulate it and tell it however he wants for his own self-benefit. We as the audience know this since in between the storytelling, Rose would always put in a few words stating that Troy was exaggerating or altering some facts or just completely making something up. An evident example of Troy’s control over the stories to benefit himself and maintain his manly image is the fact that Troy is ALWAYS portrayed as the hero or protagonist in his stories fighting off evil or bad things such as the devil or death. This constant repetition of the devil or death symbolizes his battle against evil and the injustices of the world thereby making him seem even more valiant and courageous and which then further sustains and supports the audience and the characters perceptions of Troy as a tough and masculine individual.
 * IV. Maintaining manly image**

All in all, through the use of storytelling, Troy manages to reveal to the audience not only his softer side but also his ability to be in control and turn things around so that they benefit himself which in this case was manipulating the stories that he told into archetypal good vs. evil conflict that not only strengthened his role of a tough and strong individual but also made him seem even more manly and heroic. n
 * Conclusion**

//“Every time Troy tell that story he find different ways to tell it. Different things to make up about it.” (12)//