Lyons points out that Troy was never around when he was a kid. We learn later on in the play that Lyons is Troy's son from a previous marriage. Troy wasn't around for Lyons because he was in prison for killing a man while attempting to rob him.
Lyons spent his entire childhood growing up with only one parent, his mother, while Troy was in jail.
Troy believes Lyons optimism to be blindness and that difference in beliefs further wedges a gap between the son and father relationship. Troy's distrust in society creates a barrier between his relationship with Lyons and pushes him away.
Troy has died from a heart attack when he was swinging a bat at the baseball that hangs from a tree in their yard.
Troy left his home when he was fourteen, because his father was abusive toward him. His father found him after his initial escape, and the two got into a brutal physical altercation over a girl. Troy then traveled to Pittsburgh, where he began stealing to feed himself.
He left home when he was 14 after a confrontation with his abusive father. Troy fathered his first son, Lyons, and then spent 15 years in prison after a killing someone during a robbery. When the play opens in 1957, Troy is 53 years old and working as a garbage collector.
Before Rose responds, Troy muses that he cheated on his wife because he has felt restrained and worn out due to “standing in the same place for eighteen years” (Wilson 2.1).
Troy is a good father because he takes care of his family financially. He has a steady job, which allows him to feed and clothe his children.
Troy resents Lyons's requests for money, since they result from Lyons's refusal to get a “real” job.
Why doesn't Troy accept the $10 Lyons promised to return? He thinks Lyon shouldn't get the gratification of keeping his promise (paying back Troy), and also he thinks Lyon will come back again to borrow it.
Troy had Lyons when he was still homeless and squatting in a shack by the river. Lyons's mother moved on to another man while Troy was in prison, so Troy has never been much of a father to Lyons. Pretty much all Troy contributes to Lyons's life is the occasional ten dollars that Lyons comes to bum on Troy's payday.
Troy talks about the day he left home. He was 14 and had started to take an interest in Joe Canewell's daughter. His daddy had told him to go plow a field with a mule named Greyboy.
The dialogue shows the generational conflict between Troy and his son, as Troy wants Cory to work and provide for the family, while Cory wants to follow his dreams. The generational difference makes them have a conflict as Cory sees his father as old-fashioned and does not believe in what his father believes in.
For Troy Maxson and his father, Troy could only become a man by either usurping his father or leaving home. His father saw that Troy was becoming a threat when he discovered his son having sex at the age of 14.
Lyons Maxson
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.
Stage directions tell us that Lyons is Troy's son from a previous marriage. Troy suggests that Lyons only came by to get some money. Lyons replies that he just came by to say hello, since he was in the neighborhood. Troy thinks his son was in the neighborhood because he knows Troy got paid today.
Troy Maxson is a classically drawn tragic-hero. He begins the play loved, admired and getting away with his secret affair. But eventually, Troy's death leaves many negative attributes as an inheritance for his family to sort out and accept.
Troy's tragic flaw was his failure to effectively use the metaphoric fence. Rose used a fence to bring people together and to keep them safe as she did by accepting Raynell as her own child.
Rose tries to get Troy to admit that he was too old to play for the Major Leagues and that times have changed since the years Troy was prohibited from the Major Leagues because of the color of his skin.
Antenor was the Trojan hero who betrayed Troy to the Greeks.
In northwestern Turkey, Heinrich Schliemann excavated the site believed to be Troy in 1870. Schliemann was a German adventurer and con-man who took sole credit for the discovery, even though he was digging at the site, called Hisarlik, at the behest of British archaeologist Frank Calvert.
The phone rings and Rose goes to answer it. She comes back out and tells Troy that it was the hospital calling. Alberta has had the child but died in the process.
Denzel Washington and Viola Davis play Troy and Rose Maxson, a couple who have been together for 18 years. Rose, who is loyal to Troy despite his past infidelity, is helping to raise his illegitimate daughter, Raynell.
Months later, the baby is born, but Alberta unfortunately dies during childbirth. Troy brings his baby daughter Raynell home, and Rose agrees to raise her as her own, but refuses to accept him back into her life.
The play reaches its climax when Troy's affair is revealed, and his wife Rose and son Cory must decide between forgiveness or resentment. Rose forgives Tory and raises his mistresses's baby as her own, while Cory struggles to forgive his father for his multiple infractions.