73 pages • 2 hours read
August WilsonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Act I
Reading Check
1. Troy’s friend (I.1)
2. Troy’s son (I.1)
3. A fence (I.2)
4. He was injured during World War II. (I.2)
5. Selling fruits and vegetables people have thrown away and chasing “hellhounds” (I.2)
6. To work only weekends (I.3)
7. To tell Cory to go get his job back or find another one (I.3)
8. Alberta (I.4)
9. Rose tells Troy to let Cory meet with the college football recruiter. (I.4)
10. Troy and Bono meet in prison after Troy kills a man he tries to rob. (I.4)
Short Answer
1. Alberta is a woman “all the men flirt with.” Troy buys her a couple of drinks and talks crudely about her body. (I.1)
2. Troy is dismissive of Cory’s interest in football because Troy was a good baseball player who was unable to play in the major leagues because he is Black. (I.1)
3. Troy allegedly fights and beats Death when Troy is hospitalized with pneumonia for three days. (I.1)
4. Troy says a white Devil sold him furniture for $10 per month. Troy has been making payments for 15 years because he is afraid to stop the payments. (I.1)
5. Troy feels guilty with regard to Gabriel because Troy used Gabriel’s government settlement of $3000 to buy a house. (I.2)
6. Troy doesn’t want to put Gabriel in a hospital because Gabriel served his country and doesn’t deserve to be locked up. (I.2)
7. Gabriel no longer lives with Troy and Rose because he asked to move out. Gabriel worries that Troy is mad at him over the decision. (I.2)
8. Rose says Cory wants to play football to be like Troy, but Troy doesn’t want Cory to be anything like him. (I.3)
9. Troy wants Cory to learn a trade and get a job. Cory wants to go to college and plans to use football to get him there. (I.3)
10. Troy says he isn’t obligated to like Cory. Cory should stop worrying about being liked and focus on whether he is treated fairly. (I.3)
11. Troy says he feeds, houses, and clothes Cory. He has nothing, including respect, left to give. (I.3)
12. Troy views his father as the Devil because he beats Troy for having sex with a girl and then rapes the girl himself. (I.4)
13. Troy refuses to take Lyons’s money and to accept Lyons’s invitation to watch him play music in a club that evening. (I.4)
14. Cory arranges for his boss to hold his job at the A&P until football season ends. Troy tells Cory’s coach that Cory can’t play football any longer. (I.4)
Act II
Reading Check
1. For disturbing the peace (II.1)
2. Rose wants the fence to keep her family home and safe. (II.1)
3. Alberta is carrying his child. (II.1)
4. Pushing Troy when he tries to grab Rose (II.1)
5. The receipt of half of Gabriel’s government check (II.2)
6. Alberta dies during early childbirth. (II.2)
7. Assuming her family will take care of her now (II.2)
8. To raise his daughter (II.3)
9. As homeless (II.3)
10. She will be the child’s mother, but Troy will be a womanless man. (II.3)
11. Looking for a job (II.4)
12. Saying he isn’t afraid of Troy, who is living in a house bought with Gabriel’s money (II.4)
13. Cory fights with Troy and is kicked out of the house. (II.4)
14. At Troy’s death, Lyons is still playing music, Cory is in the military, and Raynell is being raised by Rose. (II.5)
15. At Troy’s death, Bono is single and doing time in a workhouse for writing bad checks. (II.5)
Short Answer
1. Troy’s motivation for his relationship with Alberta is to let go of feelings of responsibility for short periods of time. (II.1)
2. Rose accuses Troy of taking from her without knowing how much she has given. (II.1)
3. After Troy’s confession, he and Rose stay together in a silent marriage. (II.2)
4. Troy signs the papers to have Gabriel hospitalized, but he doesn’t sign the papers for Cory to go to college and play football. (II.2)
5. Troy tells Death he will build Rose’s fence to keep Death out. (II.2)
6. Rose is listening to a baseball game, which likely reminds her of an earlier version of Troy, since he was a baseball player. (II.3)
7. Like Troy’s father, Troy views the women in his life in relation to his needs. (II.3)
8. Troy convinces Rose to grant his favor by calling upon Raynell’s relation to Lyons and Cory and her innocence with regard to her father’s sins. (II.3)
9. After the birth of Raynell, Troy and Bono rarely see each other. They do not work together anymore, and Bono doesn’t stop by to visit as he once did. (II.4)
10. Troy and Cory are in conflict over whether the son will become his father or succeed beyond his father. (II.4)
11. Troy dies swinging a baseball bat in his yard, signaling Death has finally crossed the fence. (II.5)
12. Cory thinks Troy cast a shadow over Cory’s life, while Rose says that shadow was Cory growing into himself. (II.5)
13. Rose believes she gave up too much of herself to be with Troy. (II.5)
14. Gabriel celebrates Troy’s life by blowing his trumpet and asking St. Peter to open the gates of Heaven for Troy. (II.5)
By August Wilson