Act One Scene One
It is 1957. TROY and BONO enter the yard, engaged in conversation. TROY is fifty-three years old, a large man with thick, heavy hands; it is this largeness that he strives to fill out and make an accommodation with. Together with his blackness, his largeness informs his sensibilities and the choices he has made in his life.
Of the two men, BONO is obviously the follower. His commitment to their friendship of thirty-odd years is rooted in his admiration of TROY’s honesty, capacity for hard work, and his strength, which BONO seeks to emulate.
It is Friday night, payday, and the one night of the week the two men engage in a ritual of talk and drink. TROY is usually the most talkative and at times he can be crude and almost vulgar, though he is capable of rising to profound heights of expression. The men carry lunch buckets and wear or carry burlap aprons and are dressed in clothes suitable to their jobs as garbage collectors.
BONO Troy, you ought to stop that lying!
TROY I ain’t lying! The nigger had a watermelon this big.
(He indicates with his hands.)
— 4 —
Talking about . . . “What watermelon, Mr. Rand?” I liked to fell out! “What watermelon, Mr. Rand?” . . . And it sitting there big as life.
BONO What did Mr. Rand say?
TROY Ain’t said nothing. Figure if the nigger too dumb to know he carrying a watermelon, he wasn’t gonna get much sense out of him. Trying to hide that great big old watermelon under his coat. Afraid to let the white man see him carry it home.
BONO I’m like you . . . I ain’t got no time for them kind of people.
TROY Now what he look like getting mad cause he see the man fromt he union talking to Mr. Rand?Final Discussion: For this discussion, please write 1 full paragraph what text/s you found most thought provoking or which you connected with the most and why. Please use it from Fences readings. Please write a last sentence to this discussion to say my goodbye to other students and how great it was to participate in this class.
