Authors always have to make choices when writing literature. Thus, in The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee William chooses to create Amanda as a character to serve the purpose of preparing her children, Tom and Laura, for what the future may bring, in hopes of preventing the same shock that her life has caused her. Amanda¡s character brings out one of the most prominent and urgent themes of The Glass Menagerie, which is the difficulty people have in accepting and relating to reality.
             The members of the Wingfield family are all unable to overcome that difficulty, and each, as a result, withdraws into a private world of illusion where he or she finds the comfort and meaning that the real world does not seem to offer. Like her children, Amanda withdraws from reality into fantasy. However, she is convinced that she is not doing so and, consequently, makes efforts to engage with people and the world outside her family. Amanda tried to prepare Tom for this personal sacrifice of postponing his dream for his family by telling him ¡§the world is full of young men employed in warehouses and offices and factories¡ who find ¡§adventure in their careers¡ (27). Amanda also focuses on convincing her daughter, Laura that she is not crippled, and for Tom to find a nice young friend from the factory for her. As a result of Amanda¡s past, she was not prepared for what the future was to bring either because of her luxurious carefree Southern genteel life.
             Amanda was deceived by her past and by her husband, but now convinced not to be taken again. Being from a prominent Southern family, Amanda received a traditional upbringing with luxuries and an abundance of gentlemen callers at her feet, which caused her to be taken by surprise when the harsh reality came of having to support a family on her own. Amanda has a hard time coming to terms with their new status in society and, indeed, with modern society, which disrega...