Troy Maxson: Distrust Of The White Man

Life has never been easy for Troy Maxson.  His father and mother did not care for him and he grows up to act in the same manner towards his wife and children.  He believes that the white man is always breathing down his back, waiting for him to slip up.  His tough exterior turns family members away from him and causes his departure from the world to be exactly like his arrival, lacking love.

Troy is a sanitation worker and he is convinced that the white men get the easier job of driving garbage trucks instead of lifting waste because of their skin color.  He later gets a job as a driver, but still sticks to his theory of having to work twice as hard to get ahead in the world because he is African-American.

When Troy’s son begins to look at playing sports in college, he tries to shoot him down immediately.  Even though a lot of time has passed since he was an athlete, he is adamant that his son will inevitably face rejection like he did.  At this point, African-American players have become more prominent; still, he will not hear of anything that the college recruiter or his own son has to say about playing football, regardless of his drive or talent.

Troy feels a great amount of guilt about taking Gabriel’s money to help with finances, so he always bails him out of the trouble he gets in.  Gabriel’s war injury caused him to contract mental problems which sometimes get the police’s attention and they charge him with disturbing the peace.  Troy pays the fines because he knows that Gabriel does not mean any harm and he thinks it would be cruel to lock him up after he selflessly gave his sanity to help the country.  Once again, he believes that the justice system is out for his money because he is a black man.

Racial Paranoia follows Troy to the grave.  Despite the love and support of his wife, he feels as though he cannot trust anyone.  He strives to make everybody else miserable because he hates seeing others happy.  Troy does not trust the white man and he dies with the only person he does trust, himself.