The Glass Menagerie Illusion vs Reality

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The Glass Menagerie, a Tennessee Williams play, truly begins with showing the dysfunctional life of the Wringfield family. The mother, Amanda, and her two children, Tom and Laura, create this awkward family that is simply trying to get through with life. Each character has their own characteristics but they all tie up with each other and create this family life in which really is more of an illusion rather than reality. They struggle to effectively communicate with each other about their difficult situations which results in them creating illusions in their heads, trying to figure things out on their own. Children need their mother to give them the right advice and in this case Amanda seems to be pushing them in a direction where they really do not want to listen to what she has to say. Tom and Laura both are both very abnormal because of the way they have been raised by their mother. Laura is crippled and her mother Amanda wants to do the best she can to keep her safe but is trying to brainwasher her to do things she had not been able to do when she was her age. Tom is the more rebellious one of the family; he disobeys his mother and tries to find his place in the world without much of her help. While Amanda, Tom, and Laura all live in their own fantasy world, another character in this story seems to be the reality part of it all. Jim O’Connor is the young gentleman who Laura once had a big crush on in high school and the one whom Tom works with. He symbolizes the reality in this play by portraying him as the more normal one, “the high school hero who didn’t do very well after high school, but still likes to give free advice as though he knew all the answers” (Nilda Joven 53). They each play an important role in showing how they live in this fantasy world instead of facing reality. Starting off with the mother Amanda, we see that “She lives in the past in her
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