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A STUDY OF TROY MAXSON
Troy Maxson’s life is all about recognizing responsibility. It’s that big word that turns his life around. It puts the brakes on his life of crime, gets him to find a decent job with the sanitation department, a decent home and a decent family. With all these in place, he forms very definite views on who owes what and to whom. The baseball team had owed him a place in it; his father had owed him care. His employer, Mr. Rand, owes him a driver’s job. Cory, his son, owes him obedience and Troy owes him responsibility, and finally, he even thinks he owes himself an affair. Where did it all go wrong for him? In his wife Rose’s words, “You always talking about what you give… and what you don’t have to give. But you take too. You take…and you don’t even knownobody’s giving !” (II, i; page 71)
Troy Maxson’s life is all about recognizing responsibility. It’s that big word that turns his life around. It puts the brakes on his life of crime, gets him to find a decent job with the sanitation department, a decent home and a decent family. With all these in place, he forms very definite views on who owes what and to whom. The baseball team had owed him a place in it; his father had owed him care. His employer, Mr. Rand, owes him a driver’s job. Cory, his son, owes him obedience and Troy owes him responsibility, and finally, he even thinks he owes himself an affair. Where did it all go wrong for him? In his wife Rose’s words, “You always talking about what you give… and what you don’t have to give. But you take too. You take…and you don’t even knownobody’s giving !” (II, i; page 71)
As long as he is battling racism, an outside enemy, the audience is proud to know Troy. His fight with the management and the subsequent promotion from a garbage lifter to a garbage truck driver (a position heretofore reserved for the whites) is the fulfillment of the Black American dream. They may have kept him out of the baseball leagues (although age more than race might have been a factor) but he sure bounces back with this victory. The audience is also proud of Troy for leaving a life of crime and for his firm views on duties and responsibilities. “I done learned my mistake and learned to do what’s right by it. You still trying to get something for nothing. Life don’t owe you nothing. You owe it to yourself”, he lectures his older son Lyons. (I,i; page18) The audience falls in love with his energy, vitality, his stories and his endearing family and friends. Troy jokingly claims he keeps the devil away by paying him ten dollars a month. That clinches the connection the audience has with him. Not only is he now an upright citizen he is also a god-fearing man doing the best he can to take care of his family.
