The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams

“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 the escape, which would be his way out of the place. He was always losing his strength while out there smoking and looking out into the world. Recognizing the sounds and trying to connect but unable to. He was forced away and unable to bring up the strength inside himself to go out and leave and to stay strong as a dreamer. Forced by society to use it as a gateway instead of just keeping it the same and just a mode of transportation to go down.

Every night you hear Tom say, “I’m going to the movies” (42). He uses that as an escape of the imagination which is what made him a dreamer. As long as he went to the movies and stayed away from seeing and experiencing he could still dream. He wants to see them in person and adventure out but that would be what society wants him to do. Tom is probably content or made to seem content with the movies and sees his impending doom in being a dreamer so he becomes obsessed with trying to escape it. With “Yes, Movies! Look..... I’m tired of movies and I’m about to move”(79). Tom tells Jim of his plans to leave and see what he needs to, but Jim cannot realize the scope of the problem.

In the warehouse, for Tom and the school for Laura were the places in which dreamers do not fit in. Everyone is thinking of advancing themselves and the “American Dream” in the same breath. Tom was in the warehouse and it wasn’t a place for him. He attempted to rein in his wishes but was unable to do it. He still had to sneak off and write poems to show his thoughts. “He knew of .... on poems”(68), Was what Tom was saying towards Jim. Jim was one who didn’t care of what others did but just