Tennessee Willaims' play "The Glass Menagerie" describes the harsh realities people face in a modern world. In my opinion, The Glass Menagerie exposes the lost dreams of a southern family and their desperate struggle to escape reality. Williams' brilliant use of symbols adds depth to the play, allowing it to be interpreted on many levels. The glass menagerie itself is a symbol Williams' uses to represent the broken lives of Amanda, Laura, and Tom Wingfield and their inability to live in the present. The remembrance of Mr. Wingfield by the photograph being on the wall also represents the theme of escape. The glass menagerie symbolizes Amanda Wingfield's overwhelming need to cling to her past and her fulfilled fear of being alone. Amanda resents the fact that the poverty-stricken neighborhood in which she lives so much that she needs to escape from it by invented romance and self-deception mentally.
             The common theme of The Glass Menagerie is that inevitable disappointments follow hopeful aspirations. It is shown through the use of symbols and characters. "I have only one major theme for my work, which is the destructive impact of society on the sensitive individual." Symbols help to show the dreams and desires that the characters long for and also the restrictions that keep them from fulfilling those dreams. In The Glass Menagerie, the fire escape symbolizes the way for Amanda Wingfield to bring a man into the house to save her and her daughter. To Tom, the fire escape is a means of escape from the house that traps him- a path to the outside world. Rainbows in The Glass Menagerie symbolize hope and are associated with hopeful situations. When Tom Wingfield received the rainbow-colored scarf at the magic show, he is amazed at the fact it turned a bowl of goldfish into flying canaries. Just like the canaries, Tom hopes to fly away to escape his imprisonment.
             At the end of the play when Tom looks at the pieces of colored glass, like ...