Fences

Troy has made his stance on Lyons's life choices clear: he thinks his eldest son is living "the fast life" and relying on him to work hard and pay for it. The line about Lyons's mother is ostensibly a compliment, but it is clearly backhanded. Troy can't see eye-to-eye with Lyons, and he blames Lyons's mother for turning him into an idealist while Troy was away in prison.

It is ironic that Troy blames Lyons's mother for his faults, given that Troy himself was absent for all of Lyons's childhood. No matter what kind of parenting Lyons received from his mother, she was the parent who stayed with him. Lyons objects to Troy's accusations that he is making irresponsible choices, indirectly calling out Troy's hypocrisy by insisting that without music "there ain't no telling what I might do." Without so many words, Lyons implies that Troy might never have killed a man and gone to prison if he had had something like music in his life; music, art, or some other form of joy could have kept Troy's temper in check and kept their family together all those years ago. From Lyons's perspective, Troy is so stubbornly allergic to idleness and joy that he is rejecting yet another opportunity to take care of his son by giving him a loan. Troy's idea that everything must be hard is a self-fulfilling prophecy that is continuing to hurt both of them.

Troy sees things differently. He believes the world is a hard place that requires hard work because that has been his reality. He left an abusive household and struck out on his own when he was very young. He could not come ask anyone for money. When Lyons was a baby, Troy only killed a man because a robbery went wrong. The robbery was not an impulsive response to his dissatisfaction with life, as Lyons implies. He resorted to robbery because he was desperate for money to feed his family. From this perspective, Troy's absenteeism in Lyons's childhood was a terrible sacrifice he made in service of his son's survival. He would like them to have a better relationship, but he feels just as misunderstood and devalued as Lyons.

Lyons immediately clocks that 200 miles is an absurd distance to walk. His first assumption is that Troy is lying, a suspicion that is founded in reason. After all, the very first line in the play is Bono's admonition that, "Troy, you ought to stop that lying!" Lying for dramatic effect is part of Troy's personality. It takes Bono's confirmation that "That's the only way you got anywhere back in them days" to convince Lyons that Troy did in fact escape his father's abusive household at 14 by walking 200 miles to Mobile to start over. The absurdity is not Troy's claim, but rather the fact that he had to endure such hardship when he was so young.

Troy often uses humorous exaggeration as an emotional shield. Bragging and fibbing can give him a kind of swagger within a life that is more modest than he wants for himself. He may collect garbage instead of playing professional baseball, but he can enjoy telling everyone that he would have been better than all the rest if he had only been allowed into the league. In this moment, however, his unreliability as a narrator makes him all the more tragic. Lyons and the audience both need Bono to confirm the real tribulation that he endured when he was young. Without an intermediary to back him up, the assumption even Troy's son defaults to is that the man is making himself out to be more special and heroic than he actually is. Troy's tendency to self-aggrandize thus backfires on him, destroying his son's chance to know or respect him on his own merits.

Alberta, Raynell's mother, has died in childbirth. Troy knows that he cannot raise Raynell on his own, and he has come to Rose begging her to help. This request on its own is ironic. Raynell's very existence is evidence that Troy felt that Rose was not enough. The baby ought to make him realize that Rose owes him nothing. If anything, he owes her. Instead, the harsh reality of a new baby convinces Troy that Rose is everything he needs.

At this point, Rose is understandably past her breaking point. She has been interminably patient with Troy, waiting years for him to build a fence and stop spending all his time searching for something more fulfilling than the family he has with her. Now that he has irrevocably betrayed her, she does not want to be his wife anymore. Troy's pleading demonstrates that he is afraid Rose will say no to his request that she raise Raynell. The audience is primed for her to say no and may in fact be hoping that she will stand up for herself by refusing. After all, they have watched Troy dismiss her and take her for granted for an act and a half. Just two scenes ago, she had a satisfying monologue in which she finally held Troy accountable for his mistakes. His audacity is an opportunity for another cathartic monologue.

What Rose does instead is startling and highly effective. She tells Troy that she will raise the baby but that he is now "a womanless man." This is not only an extraordinary act of kindness toward Raynell, but it is also a major moment of character growth for Rose. She has always wanted multiple children with one man. For her, the fence around the yard symbolizes the attainment and protection of the nuclear family she never had growing up. There are several reasons why this nuclear family has turned into a pipe dream, including but not limited to Troy's infidelity. For one thing, Rose and Troy never had more than one child together. For another, Troy already had one son when they met. When Rose takes in Raynell and rejects Troy, she makes the extraordinary choice to take what life is offering her instead of rejecting it because it does not look exactly like the thing she has always wanted. Wilson ends the scene on this line to let the audience take in her powerful decision to do what Troy has never been able to do.