The harsh realities of the glass menagerie
The Glass Menagerie is a play that is very important to modernliterature. Tennessee Williams describes four separate characters, theirdreams, and the harsh realities they faced in the modern world. Hissetting is in St. Louis during the Depression-Era. The story is about a loving family that is constantly in conflict. To convey his central theme,Williams uses symbols. He also expresses his theme through the characters'incapability of living in the present.The apartment that Amanda, Laura, and Tom Wingfield share is in themiddle of the city and is among many dark alleys with fire escapes. Tomand Laura do not like the dark atmosphere and their mother always tries tomake it as pleasant as possible. The two women do not get out much tosocialize. Amanda sometimes goes to D.A.R. (Daughters of the Revolution)meetings, but Laura does not like to socialize at all. She has a slightlimp and is extremely shy with people. When she does leave the apartment,she falls. She is unable to function in the outside world.As previously stated, symbols play an important role in The GlassMenagerie. Symbols are substitutions that are used to express a particulartheme, idea, or character. One symbol that is
The problem is that Jim, the caller, has not even met eitherof the two women yet. For Tom, itis a place where he can escape to. She has difficulty in facing the factthat she is a single mother with two children. The rainbows signifythe hope in the future. Tom's use of cigarette smoking is a symbol of his constant strivefor individualism. She can not bare to face those same facesagain the next day and decides to give up on going to her classes. In The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams wrote about thestruggles of an American family during the Depression-Era. When Jim accidentally bumps into the unicorn andbreaks it, the unicorn no longer looks unique. It was hisresponsibility to support his mother, his sister, and himself with his workat the warehouse. She gives him something of hers to take with him when heleaves and, in a way, he has left something with her. Laura is just as easily broken and hurt as the glass unicorn, andshe is just as unique. He is that link to the outside that the family needs. Thesame way she refuses to acknowledge Laura's handicap. She no longer feels that uniqueness she once shared with the unicorn, butbecomes more common like Jim. Jim is the only character in the play that still has a sense ofreality.
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