The+Devil

 **The Devil**

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In the play //Fences// by August Wilson, the devil is mentioned repeatedly and portrays Troy’s exaggerated imagination as a means of making his own insipid life more interesting as well as his unyielding perspective towards people and the world he lives in. Through the fictional stories that Troy recounts, the reader immediately gets a sense of Troy's sanity and his eccentric imagination. These encounters with the devil are also metaphors for his overcoming of the many hardships and struggles in life. Although these stories with the devil are just figments of Troy's imagination, they are his means of escape from reality where he can just enjoy himself much like Rose playing the lottery or Lyons being in a jazz band. But while Troy delights himself with these stories, he immediately becomes a realist and very pragmatic when other people have dreams of their own therefore showing his selfishness in wanting to be the only one allowed to have these fantasies. ======

**"You ain't seen no devil. I done told you that man ain't had nothing to do with the devil. Anything you can't understand, you want to call it the devil." (I.i. pg. 14)** **"Death stood up, throwed on his robe... had him a white robe with a hood on it." (I.i. pg. 12)**
 * Here Rose is displaying her frustration at Troy's stories and pulling Troy away from the illusion that he has created for himself and back into reality
 * The line "anything you can't understand, you want to call it the devil" shows Troy's reluctance to acknowledge the world as changing for the better.
 * For example, he referred to the salesman that showed up at his house offering to give him furniture for monthly payments as the devil. We can tell that Troy was very unfamiliar with this process of not paying someone all the cash at once but rather through gradually at fixed dates. Because of this, Troy takes what one of the workers on the truck says to him about the devil coming after him if Troy missed a payment quite literally and begins to think of the salesman as the devil. Fifteen years later, Troy is still living this illusion and paying the ten dollars at the start of each month and through this we can see that although a long period of time has passed and Troy has already payed back what he owed,
 * Troy's ignorance of the way things work in the modern world leads him to invent these fabulous tales about quite common occurrences.
 * Reference to the Klu Klutz Klan's clothing
 * To Troy, the devil also represents the racism that destroyed his dreams of becoming a baseball player in the Major League.
 * Because of this, racism is more personal for Troy than anybody else in the play which ultimately blinds him from noticing the improving status of African Americans all over the United States.
 * For example, when he and Cory had their conversation about baseball, Cory mentions how black players were now getting the same chances to play as the white players and gives numerous examples of black players that are all doing very well in the Major League.
 * Troy's response to all of this however was to just disregard it and just ignore what Cory said which further shows how blinded he is by his own personal injuries that he can't see how the world is changing for the better.

**"I ain't making up nothing. I'm telling you the facts of what happened. I wrestled with Death for three days and three nights and I'm standing here to tell you about it." (I.i. pg. 12)** ** "Death stood up, throwed on his robe... had him a white robe with a hood on it." (I.i pg. 12) ** **"The gal jumped up and runoff... 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." (I.iv. pg. 52)**
 * Struggle with the devil in this case is his struggle to stay alive and healthy.
 * Find out from Rose that Troy was in fact at a hospital because he had pneumonia.
 * This is one of the many examples of where Troy has had to overcome an obstacle in life and where he wins
 * Only instance where Troy's struggle with the devil is actually a fight for his life whereas the other struggles are against injustices in the world or abuses from other people
 * Racism one of the biggest struggles that Troy had to face
 * By portraying death as a KKK member, Troy's struggle with the devil is now one against racism and the injustices of the world.
 * Because he could not overcome the effects of racism when he was young and his dreams were destroyed because of it, Troy decides to not give up and not lose this fight against the devil or racism.
 * This is shown when he complains to the sanitation department about not having any black truck drivers and by doing so, Troy stands up against this injustice and overcomes racism when the sanitation department gives him the job.
 * Overcoming a harsh, suppressive and evil father
 * Troy's fight with his father signifies the point where Troy becomes a man and undergoes the transition from a child to an adult
 * Can also be seen as fight for justice since Troy's father had raped the girl that Troy was with right before which compelled Troy's inner sense of righteousness to do something
 * Parallel with Cory getting into a fight with Troy and leaving the house which is also the point where Cory becomes a man

III. Stories with devil used by Wilson to further emphasize Troy's hypocrisy
"Hey, Pop... why don't you buy a TV?" (I.iii. pg. 31) "I just stay with my music cause that's the only way I can find to live in the world. Otherwise there ain't no telling what I might do."** 
 * "Them numbers don't know nobody, I don't know why you fool with them. You and Lyons both." (I.ii. pg. 22)
 * All three are examples of Troy becoming practical and realistic when it isn't his dream: Rose and Lyons playing the lottery, Cory wanting a TV and Lyons wanting to become a musician
 * Troy shoots down all three of these dreams saying how Rose will probably never win anything from the lottery, how buying a TV is a waste of money which could be used to fix the roof, and of how Lyon's dream of becoming a musician is unpractical since he can't take care of himself and has to rely on Troy and Bonnie for financial support
 * All show Troy's hypocrisy because while Troy himself is allowed to dream about things such as his encounters and struggles with the devil, he will not allow other people to have dreams which is very hypocritical

IV. Images Explanations **KKK Robe**
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 * By portraying the devil as a member of the KKK, Wilson emphasizes Troy's intense hatred towards Racism since he is representing the prejudice against African Americans as perhaps the most evil figure in existence, the devil.
 * Hurdles**
 * Like jumping hurdles, Troy's struggles with the devil signify his struggle to overcome the obstacles in life
 * His struggles with the devil are all metaphors for obstructions he had to overcome in his life: death from pneumonia, an abusive father, and racism