"The Glass Menagerie"~Tennessee Williams

Before beginning "The Glass Menagerie," I was not aware that it was a play.  It started out slow and I could not submerge myself in the story.  However, the second half was more of something I could relate to.  The younger female character, Laura, has been set up to have a gentleman caller over for dinner with her family.  She is a very nervous girl, as am I, so I could relate to her apprehension of having the man over.   The conversation between Laura and her mother, Amanda, on page 55 reminded me very much of my mother and me.  We have gone through her old yearbooks countless times, reflecting on her old boyfriends and how she thought they were so cool back then.

Another part of the second half of the play that stood out to me was Tom's quote on page 61, "...People go to the movies instead of moving! Hollywood characters are supposed to have all the adventures for everybody in America, while everybody in America sits in a dark room and watches them have them!"  I had never thought about this concept before and it struck me as so true, that our lives have been consumed by the media and its outright display of fame and the importance in celebrities lives.  I actually find it quite ridiculous that we have illuminated celebrity life so much, when they are truly human beings just as we are.

Lastly, the final scene, during which Laura finds out her gentleman caller, Jim, has a fiance struck me all too familiarly.  It seems as though many boys will never learn the lesson of honesty or faithfulness.  Too many times I have given advice to friends whose boyfriends have cheated on them, or lied about something in their relationship, and this scene seems to display a similar situation.  Jim may not have been unfaithful, but he was sneaky enough to lead Laura to believe that he was there at that dinner because he was interested in her.  Unfortunately, he ends up telling her that he is going steady with another woman and Laura is crushed.

Vocabulary I was not familiar with:

Jonquils: a narcissus flower with long leaves, and usually white or yellow petals.

Tumult: a noisy commotion, outbreak, riot.

Jalopy: an old, worn out automobile