Fences: Similes 1 key example

Troy compares his infidelity to "a little bush" that has grown into "a whole forest." This simile emphasizes his passivity. It is as though he did not choose to betray Rose, but rather found the betrayal growing all around him. There were some early signs that he might end up here (i.e. the little bush), but he never thought it would happen so quickly. Troy's excuses ring hollow. Still, there is something surprising and impactful about the idea that Troy has passively destroyed his marriage. This is a man who is always ready for a fight. He has fought and killed a man to put food on his family's table. He has never come to terms with defeat in his fight to play professional baseball. He fights constantly with his sons over their right to live their lives on their own terms. Most recently, he has fought for his workplace to be desegregated. He admits that his marriage is the one place where he has been passive. Instead of fighting for a more satisfying relationship for both him and Rose, he has drifted away from her. Now that Alberta is pregnant, he realizes what a mess he has made by failing to fight. He isn't sure what to do now.

Troy's simile here resonates with Rose's metaphor about marriage as a garden that she has faithfully tended for 18 years. Both comparisons draw on the processes by which plants grow. By comparing his love life to an out-of-control forest, Troy demonstrates that he understands how to live his life through a framework other than baseball. However, Rose's gardening metaphor gives her agency as the gardener, as she keeps tending the garden whether not it blooms. Troy's agency disappears from his forest simile. He knows how to go after his goals with aggression, speed, and single-mindedness (as in his baseball metaphor) or not at all. Patience, care, and presence may be what his marriage needs. Troy unfortunately does not know how to offer these things.