Art of Characterization:

1-Troy Maxson:
The protagonist of Fences, a fifty-three-year-old, African American man who works for the
sanitation department, lifting garbage into trucks. who lives with his wife, Rose, and son,
Corey, in the Hill District of Pittsburgh. He works for the Sanitation Department as a garbage
collector. Troy's willingness to protest the unfair treatment of blacks in his workplace
(they’re only hired to carry garbage, while whites are exclusively hired to drive the trucks),
embodies a progressive view on the possibilities of race which mirrors the possibilities that
his sons see for the future of race relations.

Missing the Mark with Cory:

Troy's relationship with his son Cory is good example of how he misses the mark. Cory is
overjoyed because he's been selected for a college football scholarship. Like his father, Cory
loves sports, and this is his one chance to go to college. Troy, however, is dead-set against
Cory going off to play football. Troy wants Cory to work instead of playing which show the
male dominance. One of the greatest sources of disappointment in Troy's life is the fact that
he wasn't allowed to play pro baseball. Troy refuses to let his son play football, claiming that
he doesn't want Cory to suffer from the same sort of heartache. Everyone around Troy tries to
make him see that times have changed, and that Cory will have a better chance.

His wife Rose tells him, "They got lots of colored boys playing ball now. Baseball and
football". Troy can't acknowledge that times have changed. Instead of allowing his son to
pursue football and college, Troy destroys his son's dreams, refusing to sign the permission
paper and preventing the college recruiter from coming.

Troy as Hypocrite character:

Troy can’t see anything practical, or therefore worthwhile, in the professions (music and
baseball, respectively) to which his sons Lyons and Cory each aspire. But at the same time,
Troy’s affair with Alberta suggests that he’s perfectly willing to engage in something not
grounded in practicality, but rather in pure pleasure divorced from the needs of his family.
Similarly, Troy’s willingness to protest the unfair treatment of blacks in his workplace,
embodies a progressive view on the possibilities of race which mirrors the possibilities that
his sons see for the future of race relations. But, in Cory’s particular case, he sees such
possibilities as unrealistic.

Troy's Inner conflicts:

Troy’s inner conflict seems also to play out in the way he puts a fantastical spin on the reality
of his past, such as telling fanciful tales about encounters he’s had with a personified form
(the grim reaper or the devil) of death. These fantasies of Troy’s suggest that his past failures
and suffering have pushed his mind, perhaps as a kind of involuntary self-defense, to favor
imagination and fictional constructions over any consistent, constant consideration of his real
past.
Wilson shows how Troy is the product of historical, racist forces beyond his control; he
shows how Troy is a vehicle for these forces, for their reproduction and reinforcement on a
new generation.

2- Jim Bono: Troy's friend:

Jim Bono is usually called Bono or Mr. Bono by the characters in Fences. Bono is Troy's
best friend of over 30 years. Bono and Troy met in jail, Bono always admires Troy's
readership and responsibility. These two friends work together as garbage men and hang out
drinking every Friday night. Troy's always telling stories about devil and death. Bono mostly
sits around and nods. Bono admits that he always admired Troy and learned a lot by
following him. "You taught me a lot of things. You showed me how to not make same
mistakes to take life as it comes along and keep putting one foot in front of the other."

Bono and Troy relate stories of their childhood in south and tales of their relationships with
difficult Father. Bono describes his father as having. "The Walking blues," a condition that
pretend his father from staying in one place for so long and moving frequently from one
woman to the next.

Bono could barely recognize his father and knew little about him. Because of Bono's father's
unreliable personality, Bono choose not to father children, to ensure he would never abandon
a child Bono was opposite to his father. He was a family person. He's loyal in his friendship
and marriage too.

Bono was family-oriented person. He is married to Lucille. He is a devoted husband. In the

end of the play Bono and Troy don't really hang out anymore. It's because of Troy's affair
with Alberta. Bono tried to steer Troy from that lady, but Troy does not listen. The last time
we see two friends together. It's clear that they do not chill anymore. Troy's premotion to
driver has separated them at work. And troy betrayal of Rose has separated them on personal
level. Troy's affair damaged Bono's admiration of Troy. Bono's concern for Troy's marriage
takes precedent over his loyalty to their friendship.

3- Rose: Troy's Wife:

Daisy, August Wilson's mother, too had a flower as her given name, and so did Rose, August Wilson's
daughter. Flowers, seeds, and planting make up a motif that Wilson uses in Fences to represent
nurturing, loving, and kind care because of the parallel qualities that these attributes share with all
living things that need nurturing to grow or change, such as love, patience, and forgiveness. Wilson
uses this motif to represent these concepts because he believes that all living things share these
parallel qualities.

In every single one of her relationships, but especially in the one she maintains with her children,
Rose Maxson demonstrates the characteristics of compassion. Rose, in contrast to Troy, is an
objective and unbiased judge of character. She has hope for a brighter future and places her faith in
her husband and children, but she does not complain about the stalemate that exists in the here and
now.
Rose is the most powerful dramatic character in Fences. She has her own ways of coping with and
enduring the layers of anxieties and suffering resulting from the racial discrimination and patriarchal
domination. Her ability to cope with her husband's anxieties, his betrayal and her response to
Raynell's arrival at her home and the way she tries to manipulate her son's sympathy and respect for
Troy are the elements in the play that present her as the most dramatic character.

The Maxson family is suffering because of the social discrimination practiced by whites. Within the
family, she suffers as a female. She is thus a victim of double oppression. Under such circumstances
her power to endure is remarkable. Her husband is not loyal to her. He has relation with others as
well. She has planted her hopes and dreams in him, but he has proved to be rocky and infertile.
Despite this, she doesn't desert him. She expresses her anger and pain openly but doesn't nurture any
bitterness. There is a spiritual side to her personality. She is a saint in human form.

Rose builds fences not for keeping people outside, but to have them near her. Fences in her case stand
for protection and love. She accepts Raynell though the baby is the outcome of her husband's betrayal.
The innocent baby has lost her mother, but she finds another mother in Rose. No woman can accept
her husband's illegitimate child. Therein lies her greatness. It is a great sacrifice that a married woman
can make Rose nurtures the baby because the innocent child stands for the hope of better future and
society.

“Jesus, be a fence all around me every day / Jesus, I want you to protect me as I
travel on my way. / Jesus, be a fence all around me every day.”

Given her husband's betrayal and deception, she should be punishing him severely and leaving him.
But no such things happen.

“We’re not talking about baseball! We’re talking about you going off to lay in
bed with another woman . . . and then bring it home to me. That’s what we’re
talking about. We ain’t talking about no baseball.”

Troy and Cory had always had a tensed relation. The father tries to mold his son the way he himself
was trained and conditioned. The son, too, cannot understand the father's point of view. He hates his
father and shows disrespect towards him. He is not even willing to attend his father's funeral. Rose
persuades her son to show respect for his father. After all, he is Cory's father and should respect him
and hold him in awe. Because of these virtues and ability for endurance she is the most powerful
dramatic character in the play.

4- Lyons: Troy's oldest son by previous marriage:

Lyons Maxson is Troy's son, fathered before Troy's time in jail with a woman Troy met
before Troy became a baseball player and before he met Rose. Lyons is an ambitious and
talented jazz musician. He grew up without Troy for much of his childhood because Troy was
in prison. Lyons, like most musicians, has a hard time making a living. For income, Lyons
mostly depends on his girlfriend, Bonnie whom we never see on stage. Lyons does not live
with Troy, Rose and Cory, but comes by the Maxson house frequently on Troy's payday to
ask for money. Lyons, like Rose, plays the numbers, or local lottery. Their activity in the
numbers game represents Rose and Lyons' belief in gambling for a better future. Lyons' jazz
playing appears to Troy as an unconventional and foolish occupation. Troy not allowing
Lyons to be a musician could be seen as a bad act by Troy, but it can also be seen as a good
act. Not allowing his son to achieve his dream was bad, but protecting his son from the
discrimination by society was good. This dilemma of not being able to decide absolute wrong
or right is a perfect post-modernist thought reflected in the play. Troy calls jazz, "Chinese
music," because he perceives the music as foreign and impractical. Lyons' humanity and
belief in himself garners respect from others. He hopes for a career as a musician and is
disinterested in any work that would interfere with his goal. He is much different from his
father.

"You and me is two different people, pop."

This line spoken by Lyons not only shows the difference between their personalities but also
the difference between idealism versus practicality and depicts more progressive but still
grossly regressive social atmosphere—as the two have different personal pasts than Troy. By
pitting Troy against Lyons, Wilson again shows us how white power not only separates itself
from blackness, but also separates and divides blacks themselves.

5- Gabriel Maxson; Troy's brother:

Troy’s brother, Gabriel is the victim of a brain-injury he received at war. As a result of the
injury, Gabe’s gone insane and lives trapped in the psychotic belief that he is St. Gabriel. He
therefore sings songs warning about judgment day, and frequently mentions that he’s
working to chase hellhounds (sinning demons) away; he even tells Troy that he’s personally
seen his name in St. Peter’s book of judgment. While Gabe insists that he’s in regular
association with renowned religious figures, he also considers himself to no longer be human,
and to have died and been spiritually reborn into his sainthood. In this chronic preoccupation
with his own immortality and spiritual destiny, Gabe is yet another avenue through which the
play’s portrayal of mortality finds a voice. Gabe’s obsession with the final day of judgment
resonates with the eventual death of Troy, whom Gabe subtly foreshadows through his
preoccupation with the end of the world.

6-Cory: Troy and Rose's son:

The teenage son of Troy and Rose Maxson. A senior in high school, Cory gets good grades
and college recruiters are coming to see him play football. Cory is a compassionate nephew
to his disabled Uncle Gabriel, and generally, a giving and enthusiastic person. An ambitious
young man who has the talent and determination to realize his dreams.

Cory embodies a hope for the future unmet by the pessimism of his father. When Cory seeks
love and compassion in his relationship with Troy, it’s met with a hardened toughness, as his
father believes that his relationship with his son is born out of sheer duty—not love. Raised in
an era where the racism Troy experienced in his youth has, to a rather small yet significant
extent, faded—and where opportunities for black lives have begun to open—Cory has an
optimism about his future. Troy, however, views Cory’s career aspirations as idealistic and
detached from the realities of a racist society where, for instance, he believes the white-
dominated sports world will not support his son’s ambition to become a football player.
August Wilson therefore casts Cory as an opposing force to Troy’s views and the values for
which Troy stands, and this clash drives the story at the core of Fences. Cory also undergoes
his own development over the course of the play, coming of age when he finally stands up to
his father and leaves home to join the Marines.

You ain’t never gave me nothing! You ain’t never done nothing but

Hold me back. Afraid I was gonna be better than you. All you ever did

Was try and make me scared of you. I used to tremble every time you

Called my name. Every time I heard your footsteps in the house.

Wondering all the time . . . what’s Papa gonna say if I do this? . . .

What’s he gonna say if I do that? . . . What’s Papa gonna say if I turn on

The radio? And Mama, too . . . she tries . . . but she’s scared of you.

Cory comes home from the Marines in the final scene of the play, attempting to defy Troy by
refusing to go to his funeral, but Cory changes his mind after sharing memories of his father
with Rose and Raynell.

In other words, Cory must learn to stand up to his father, but also to respect the struggle his
father faced that made him who he was.

Cory comes home from the Marines in the final scene of the play, attempting to defy Troy by
refusing to go to his funeral, but Cory changes his mind after sharing memories of his father
with Rose and Raynell.

7- Alberta:
Alberta is another character that helps reveal some of the complexities of Troy. Alberta is the
woman with whom Troy had an affair. She helped Troy escape from his everyday life
problems. When asked about Alberta,

Troy had replied, “She gives me a different understanding about myself. I can step out
of this house and get away from the pressures and problems…be a different man.”

When he is with Alberta he feels that he does not have anything to worry about. This is
shown when Troy says, “I ain’t got to wonder how I’m gonna pay the bills or get the roof
fixed. I can just be a part of myself I ain’t never been.” Alberta also helped Troy realize the
value of responsibility. When Alberta passed away, Troy was the only one who originally had
to take care of Raynell, until Rose said she would. Alberta was very important in this play.

Troy's relationship with Alberta:

Alberta is the woman with whom Troy has an affair. At the beginning of the play, Troy and
Bono talk crudely about her attractive physique, and Bono questions Troy about his
involvement with her throughout the book. Eventually, Bono realizes that Troy is having an
affair with Alberta, and tells Troy that he must make everything right. Ultimately, Troy fails
at this: he impregnates Alberta (with Raynell), and as a result his eighteen-year-relationship
with Rose disintegrates.

Troy expresses to Rose that he spent time with Alberta to escape. Rose believes she has been
a good wife and mother and so Troy should have stayed with her. Troy selfishly conveys to
Rose that he used Alberta to get away from the pain of his stagnant career and life goals.

Conflict:

After Alberta dies in childbirth, Troy's wife Rose agrees to raise the child but declares that
she's no longer Troy's woman. All this instability at home leads to an all-out fight between
Troy and Cory. Troy wins the battle and kicks Cory out of the house for good.

Rose rejects Troy as her partner because she takes seriously the Biblical commandment that
decrees, "Thou Shalt Not Sin," but finds forgiveness for the child born to her sinful husband
because of her belief that "when the sins of our fathers visit us/we don't have to play host/we
can banish them with forgiveness.

8-Raynell Maxson: Troy's daughter:

Troy's illegitimate child, mothered by Alberta, who dies in childbirth which forces Rose to
take Troy back in order to help raise her. She is the only Maxson child who hasn't been hurt
by Troy.

▪️Raynell Symbolises Hope for future.

In August Wilson's play Fences, Raynell, who is seven years old, has planted a garden
(presumably with the help of Rose). On the day of her father's funeral, she is outside, poking
around in the garden, and when Rose calls her and asks what she is doing, she replies,
"Seeing if my garden growed." Rose tells her that it won't grow overnight, but Raynell is
impatient and doesn't think her garden will ever grow. She doesn't want to wait. Rose says
that she must "give it a chance" and assures her, "It'll grow."

Raynell and the garden both symbolize new life and a fresh start. Troy has passed away now,
and the family must move on without him. Life will be different, and it might take a while for
Rose, Raynell, Lyons, Cory, and Gabriel to adjust to Troy's absence. They will have to wait
for their grief to fade and to see what changes will come, but they still have hope. Life goes
on, and the family will start fresh, even though they will still feel the effects of Troy in their
lives. In time, they will grow together and bear fruit just like their new garden.

Raynell is probably the only character in the play who has not been deeply affected by Troy
and all his hang-ups. She is still too young to be overly touched by her father. She shows the
impatience of a child who is engaged in life and ready to meet new experiences head on. She
wants her garden to grow right now, and she is not wise enough to understand that it takes
time. She is young and excited and ready to plunge into life, and she symbolizes her family's
hope for the future.

Like the flowers in the story, Raynell and the garden bring beauty into the world. Raynell is a
beautiful little girl, and her family clearly loves her dearly. She is bright and loveable and
sweet. The garden, too, as it grows, will bring beauty to the Maxson family's little corner of
the world, and it will be a place where they can work together and grow together.

Conclusion:

Art of characterization is an art of presenting people who popular story. They are heart and
soul of the story. We can tell what kind of a person eacj character is by things he does. In
story Fences Troy’s character is conflicted and flawed which is obvious through his actions
For example, he works hard as garbage collector to support his family yet he kicks out his son
from house and cheats on his wife.Rose ( Her kind and nurturing nature is obvious when she
does things like she takes in Troy’s love child, RaynellTroy’s brother , we find him insane
because he runs around all day chasing hell hounds and talking about how he knows about St.
Peter.

2.Names of characters seems to be having deeper meanings.

For example Rose she is named after a flower she is always kind and nurturing.

Maxson in Troy’complete name is a combination of two words “Mason” & “Dixson” Mason
and Dixson was imaginary line that divides North from South. Which many African
American crossed in the hope of escaping poverty and racial descrimination. Troy left his
home in Pittsburgh and lives in North he still is haunted by ghosts of southern upbringing. He
is the boarder of two different worlds.