Idk how you missed so much. Cory says that he isn't going to the funeral. Then his mother breaks it down for him. Then the have a moment when Troy appears when the sun shines down on them. That's when Cory realizes what his father did for him. Troy failed at a criminal life, then as a baseball player. He makes a modest living as a garbage man. He pushes Cory to get ahead in the work forces so that he would not have the same fate he did. Troy did not have a male figure in his life. He tries the best way he can to mode Cory into a man because he failed with his first son. It was common in those times for a man to illegitimate children across town. The cheating was unfortunate, but in the 1950s that was a common reality for black woman. Rose is symbol of what strong black women were in those days Troy did what he set out to do. He provided for his family, in spite of racism. He was not perfect but he did not fail his family.