Fences Death Of A Salesman
Marco Napier
English 101
March 15, 2015
Literary Analysis
Fences / Death of a Salesman
August Wilson’s Fences depicts the life of a former Negro League baseball player turned sanitation worker Troy Maxson and the relationships he has with the people around him. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman mainly focuses on the tragically unsuccessful life of Willy Loman and the impact he has on his family. In this essay I will examine these characters and their impacts on their loved ones. In the story Fences, Troy Maxson exemplifies an African American subjected to much wrongdoing and subsequently disgruntled by the “White Man”. He was a Negro League baseball player in his younger days, however, when the Major Leagues began accepting African Americans; he was too old to participate. He then becomes a sanitation worker as a garbage lifter and is also unsatisfied in this position because there are no African American garbage truck drivers and he feels he deserves to be promoted. Troy frequently criticizes the lives and choices of his family. Maxson repeatedly refuses to accept or even respect his son Lyons decision to become a jazz musician. He says that his wife’s (as well as his son’s) affinity for the lottery is simply “throwing your money away”. He even goes so far as to tell his son’s football coach that he can no longer play simply because he lied about working when he was actually at football practice. During all his criticism Troy remains indifferent to his own situation. He calls his son’s jazz “Chinese music” because he doesn’t understand it which only reveals (other than the obvious racial discrimination and disrespect) he is ignorant to facets of his own culture. He has recently been promoted to being a garbage truck driver; however, he doesn’t know how to drive. He speaks about the cost of his wife and son gambling by playing the lottery while he is making a gamble of his own by cheating on his wife. In Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman represents a man
English 101
March 15, 2015
Literary Analysis
Fences / Death of a Salesman
August Wilson’s Fences depicts the life of a former Negro League baseball player turned sanitation worker Troy Maxson and the relationships he has with the people around him. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman mainly focuses on the tragically unsuccessful life of Willy Loman and the impact he has on his family. In this essay I will examine these characters and their impacts on their loved ones. In the story Fences, Troy Maxson exemplifies an African American subjected to much wrongdoing and subsequently disgruntled by the “White Man”. He was a Negro League baseball player in his younger days, however, when the Major Leagues began accepting African Americans; he was too old to participate. He then becomes a sanitation worker as a garbage lifter and is also unsatisfied in this position because there are no African American garbage truck drivers and he feels he deserves to be promoted. Troy frequently criticizes the lives and choices of his family. Maxson repeatedly refuses to accept or even respect his son Lyons decision to become a jazz musician. He says that his wife’s (as well as his son’s) affinity for the lottery is simply “throwing your money away”. He even goes so far as to tell his son’s football coach that he can no longer play simply because he lied about working when he was actually at football practice. During all his criticism Troy remains indifferent to his own situation. He calls his son’s jazz “Chinese music” because he doesn’t understand it which only reveals (other than the obvious racial discrimination and disrespect) he is ignorant to facets of his own culture. He has recently been promoted to being a garbage truck driver; however, he doesn’t know how to drive. He speaks about the cost of his wife and son gambling by playing the lottery while he is making a gamble of his own by cheating on his wife. In Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman represents a man