"The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams shows the struggle of two
people to fit into society, Tom and Laura, and how society wouldn't accept them.
They were the dreamers that were unjustly kept out and you may even go as far as
to say persecuted into staying out and aloof like the other dreamers which are
forced to become outcasts and not contribute to the actions of all.
Tom and Laura, the two dreamers, were pushed by their mom, Amanda, to her
frame of mind and the thoughts of a hard working society. They both stumbled on
the fire escape which served as a gateway, physically and mentally. Tom had the
problem of fitting in at the warehouse were he worked, because is the warehouse
really a place for someone like him and his mind rebelled. Lastly you can see
how society forced them to change and Laura to lose her status in order to fit
in with Jim and that's shown by the horn breaking. Tom then realizes that and
leaves which causes him to change too. Tennessee Williams artfully depicted this.
The fire escape. A downtrodden red thing off the sides of buildings showing
societies ineffectual escape from itself. In this case it served as a passageway
between the real world and the dream one that Laura and Tom were living in at
home. Both somehow stumbled both physically and mentally. When Laura said “I'm
all right. I slipped but I'm all right”(47). She was trying to pass to the real
world to do a real job and couldn't because of societies “inability” to accept
her and her ways. She wasn't strong enough to make the trip by herself, but
needed the moral support of the other dreamer in the area, which was Tom who
came running out. Tom is the one who stumbles mentally in his inability to look
at t...
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...lizing that he was changing to
Amanda's way of thinking, so he left. upon his leaving he lost his dreaming
ability anyway. It was ironic how he no longer dreamed because he felt he was
seeing the dreams in real life, as society had again forced him out.
As you can see Tom and Laura were dreamers which were unaccepted into
society. Laura lost her dreaming when the unicorn lost it's horn and tom then
lost his upon doing the first thing he had dreamed about because he stayed that
way and didn't dream about going any higher. Ultimately Tennessee Wiliiams
message was that society was rigid and it forced those which did not fit the
mold to change into a from which was acceptable. That we killed the dreamers and
are till doing it at an even younger age. We have to Accept them with open arms
if ever we are able to make it far into the future and survive.
They go to Tyron’s Folly and they realizes that that is where the boat will pick up Martin. Once they leave Tryon’s Folly they hear that a runaway was captured so they go to see if it was Martin who was captured and luckily it wasn’t. But, there was a carriage that was stolen to help the captured slave escape and they realize that is was their carriage that was stolen. Later that evening when they went back home Bert is arrested because they slave catchers found it suspicious that is was Bert’s carriage that helped the slave escape is they take him. Laura tells Martin once the slave catcher leave and Martin tells Laura that they must leave today. Laura realizes that is it now her responsibility to take Martin to Tyron’s Folly, so they get everything ready and wait for the right moment to leave. Laura and Bert make to Tryon’s folly and Joel arrives right after them and Laura and Martin were relieved it wasn’t a slave catcher. Joel takes Martin and another runaway to the boat that was going to take them to The Promised Land. This is how Laura’s point of view changed completely. She started of being a Southerner that thought that slavery was ok to a Northerner to seeing the reality of
During the late 1800's and early 1900's hundreds of thousands of European immigrants migrated to the United States of America. They had aspirations of success, prosperity and their own conception of the American Dream. The majority of the immigrants believed that their lives would completely change for the better and the new world would bring nothing but happiness. Advertisements that appeared in Europe offered a bright future and economic stability to these naive and hopeful people. Jobs with excellent wages and working conditions, prime safety, and other benefits seemed like a chance in a lifetime to these struggling foreigners. Little did these people know that what they would confront would be the complete antithesis of what they dreamed of.
She was a teacher at a few schools, and when she was smaller in Walnut Grove for the second time, she ran errands for her mother and other town folk. When Laura first settled in De Smet, two brothers and their sister came to Laura’s house during the hard and cold winter, the Wilders. They agreed to help the Ingalls until summer and then went off to start their own settlements. After Laura started teaching, one of the brothers, Almonzo, started bringing her home from her job on the weekends, which was a long way. Almonzo had a team of fast driving horses and a buggy. On one of the rides, they talked about their names. Laura found the nickname Manly, and Almonza found the nic name Bessie, from her middle name Elizabeth. Soon the two were married and two miles north of her parents home Manly had built a home for the two of them to live in together. Like her parents, Manly started to farm on his new land. His crops failed, and they moved to Missouri, Mansfield in an area called the Ozarks. They bought some new land in a very rocky estate that came with a basket full of tree seeds for an orchard of fruit. Laura and Manly lived there for the rest of their lives. Laura then bore a baby girl, and even before the baby was born, Laura insisted it was a girl and that she would be named Rose. Her plans were carried out exactly. Many, Many years later, when their farm was developed and Manly and Laura were older, Laura decided to
The drive to keep jobs out of the hands of Mexicans had the highly undesirable result of forcing many families to depend on welfare to survive. Many Mexicans were forced to leave and rounded up by immigration officials, while others were intimidated by immigration practices and left voluntarily. While some left willingly because of the poor economic outlook, hoping things would be better in Mexico, others were deported even if they had come to the United States legally. One reporter called for an investigation of immigr...
Stephen King’s perception in “The Symbolic Language of Dreams” gave me a new, profound insight on dreams. On the other hand, his interpretations also made me realize how little is known about them and their significance to our lives.
when he realized it I feel that the paranoia set in. "For once he forgot his
She is a shy, quiet girl who keeps herself at a distance. She loves glass figurines and prides herself on them. To her brother, she is seen as crippled because she cannot walk well and is socially awkward. This results in Laura’s reality being different than the rest of the family’s because she closes herself off into a space where it is only her. Amanda wants the best for Laura, for her to have a husband or finish business school, because she wants Laura to get out of the house and get living. However, Laura does not want to live in that world, and it is shown when she skipped her business classes and through her interaction with Jim, her high school crush. Jim is the only person who is able to take Laura out of her own weird reality, and bring her into the reality of an ordinary girl. Laura breaks through her reality when she talks about the unicorn horn that Jim broke off her glass figurine, she tells Jim that, “It doesn’t matter. . . . [smiling] I’ll just imagine he had an operation. The horn was removed to make him feel less—freakish!” (Williams, 2009). Therefore, Laura being with Jim makes her feel a little less odd. This brings Laura out of her own reality for a bit, but then she retreats back into it when she finds out that Jim is engaged to someone else right after he kisses her. He broke her free of her own reality for a bit, just like how he broke the horn off of the
... he still feels guilt for leaving Laura behind. Tom cannot ignore his feelings towards Laura and accept letting her go. Tom is physically able to flee from his past and reality, but is unable to escape emotionally. Also, even a new life, filled with opportunities and self goals has troubles. Tom says that he does anything to keep busy so he can forget what he left behind. He is still not fully content with his life.
Immigration is a very important part of the history of the United States and continues to be today. Immigrants during the 1900’s had many hardships to face and sometimes the “golden land” was not so golden. Many immigrants had very high hopes about what their lives could have been like here in the U.S., and unfortunately only very few got to experience that great life. Although each of the readings had their differences, the theme of hardship seemed to prevail throughout.
...panic” as they slip “precipitously from his control”(125). He feels nothing constructive, but he feels panic, which is a typical reaction to being unable to cope with one's surroundings and situations. It is this moment which affords us most clearly a view of how Tom has been consumed by his ambitions.
It is said in the character description that Laura “[has] failed to establish contact with reality” (Glass 83). This illustrates how Laura is childlike and naive, in that, Williams literally says that she has not established contact with reality. Laura is naive because she refuses to face life and all that comes with it, she is also childlike because she has sheltered herself and is unaware of her surroundings much as a child would be. Early on in the play the reader discovers that Laura had affections towards Jim when they were in high school. This, of course, will prove to be part of Jim’s easy manipulation of Laura. Shortly after this discovery, Laura’s gentleman caller, Jim, is invited over for dinner with the family. After having completed their evening meal, Laura and Jim go to another room and being
From centuries ago, our society of melting pot coexisted with meanings of the American dream. It still held truth from generations ago, when immigration was a natural cause for immigrants to migrate to the land symbolized as freedom. Upon this, immigrating into the United States was not as complicated as it was today in terms of national immigration policies in place. Such examples concluded on Ellis Island when waves of immigration
The deep spiritual significance of the dream came to him when he was older and wiser.
Tom is a character many people in this generation can relate to. Although the play was written many years ago Tom is just like any other millennial from this day and age. He basically hates his job because it’s not fun. He can’t cope with the fact that he has to pick up all the slack his father left behind. He even seems to think that running away will fix everything. All of these things are very common in society today.
Tom and Huck plan to go to the graveyard that night, and Tom uses this as an excuse to sit next to Becky