Fences: Act 2: Scene 3 Summary & Analysis

The next scene occurs three days later, in the evening. Rose is inside the house, listening to the ball game, awaiting Troy. When Troy enters the yard, he’s carrying his newborn child (Raynell), and calls to Rose. She enters from the house, and stands on the porch. Egging her on to help him raise his child, Troy tells Rose that his daughter is motherless and doesn’t know anything about “grownups’ business,” meaning his own affair with Alberta. But Rose rejects him, and asks, “What you telling me for, Troy?” She then re-enters the house.

Troy then sits down on the porch with his infant daughter (Raynell), and says that he isn’t sorry for anything he’s done, since it felt right in his heart. He asks Raynell why she’s smiling, saying that he’s scared since they don’t have a home at the moment. Rose then enters from the house again, and Troy begs her to help him take care of Raynell. Rose agrees to help, since Raynell is innocent, and tells him “you can’t visit the sins of the father upon the child.” She then adds: “From right now . . . this child got a mother. But you a womanless man.”