The Glass Menagerie Research Paper

Amanda continually reminds Tom and Laura of their traditional responsibilities, she also has them bound and imposes her social morays into their conscience, ill-fitting as it is, and out of place in the present era, Amanda not only castigates Tom and Laura repeatedly as she worries that Tom will turn out like his father (1621), and that it is improper and unacceptable for Laura to become an “old maid”. Her self-righteous attitude brings her to a point where she realizes her sacrifices have made her children disrespectful to her (1621). Tom and Laura continually seek escape from Amanda’s suppressive nature, each has constructed their own respective menagerie’s, (1618-1645), both acting out their responsibility to themselves to escape.

Consumed by the desire to spend his evenings away from the menagerie by going to the movies, Tom is filled with aspirations which may never be realized. Further evidence of his own departure from reality comes to light when Amanda and Laura are berated by his assertion that he has joined a criminal element (1618). Amanda’s worst fears concerning Tom’s questionable future are realized when he declares that he is just like his father (1636). Jim the doer, enjoys a better position at the shoe factory and makes a substantially higher salary than Tom (1628), a man who is realizing his goals by being enrolled in night courses, (1635), we further learn that he was thought to have a very prominent future after High School (1643). Jim also possesses the innate ability to see past the veil of Laura’s shy and guarded demeanor and accurately pinpoints the underlying cause (1645), which is characteristic of a more positive, grounded, individual whose outlook on life is based in reality, not

Neither party capitulates, loses ground, nor gains an inch more of it. Even during the course of a simple meal (1610), Amanda continually tries to instill in her adult children, (de facto products of the modern era), an appreciation for the “Southern Gentry, and the gentility and social grace of the “Southern Belle”, which Tom takes great pleasure in satirizing (1611). A beacon of “Southern Virtue,” Amanda inhabits a “decorum menagerie”, as she remains dauntless in the face of any and all insurrectionists who display a weakened sense of morality or vulgarity (1611), she is a tireless veteran of the confederacy (having chosen to enlist in the D.A.R.) , still embroiled in a battle to the last man (deception, deception, 1613). The north is charmed and falls to the south (1637). Amanda welcomes Jim to the cotillion at the plantation. Tom continually collides with the reality wherein he views others as enjoying the adventures he feels destined to navigate on his own, eccentric terms (1636). The more time he invests at the movies, further incapacitates his ability to deal with reality, and to seek reasonable alternatives to attain his dreams and