The Glass Menagerie PDF

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The Glass Menagerie Reader-Response The Glass Menagerie is a memory play written by Tennessee Williams, it takes place in the Wingfield family’s apartment in St. Louis, 1937. The mother, Amanda strives to get her daughter, Laura to stay nice and pretty for her gentlemen callers. Laura does not believe she will ever have any gentlemen callers. Tom, Amanda’s son, is asked to find a gentleman caller for Laura. In the play Tom takes over the role as the man of the house to fill the void of his absent father. Laura explains to her mother that she has only ever liked one guy named Jim and she worries that she will let her mom down without having any gentlemen callers, “Mother’s afraid I’m going to be an old maid” (Williams 10). Laura feels as though she will never be as popular as her mother was and fears to let her down. The security of Laura’s future seems to be directly tied to the well being of her family's future, when Amanda finds out that Laura had stopped going to school she says “So what are we going to do for the rest of our lives? Stay home and watch the parades go by?....Is that the future that we’ve mapped out for ourselves?” (Williams 16). Amanda saying this shows Laura that her decisions decide their families' future. The principal tension in the Wingfield family is accountability. Amanda feels as though she needs to force Laura to find a husband as it is the only way she will make her family proud even if no one is accepting the reality of it. Reading this play and noticing how their family lived, really opened up my eyes to how grateful I am for a well structured family. Even when going through hard times I know that I always have my family to support me and be by my side every step of the way. It shows me that other people have it worse than I do and still manage to push through everyday and live with a scar that will never leave them. When my dad was younger his mom always bugged him about

getting a job, he had to get a job or he would be kicked out of his house. She was a very old fashioned european woman. This reminds me of Amanda trying to force Laura to find a husband. My grandpa passed away when my dad was young so he didn’t have that father figure, sort of like Laura and Tom. I see the pain in my father in his day to day life but I see it through a different perspective because it hasn’t happened to me, it made me realize how lucky I am and how thankful I should be because I would be lost without my dad. Even though I know my parents love me it doesn’t mean they aren’t hard on me and push me to be the best possible version of myself. The quote “Mother’s afraid I’m going to be an old maid” (Williams 10) relates to me by my mom always nagging me about university. My mom has always wanted the best for me but sometimes she doesn’t understand that it stresses me out. She has always wanted me to go to Waterloo because that is where she went and I don't believe I could ever reach her expectations. I am a hard worker in school but sometimes people are born with a better memory, better work habits, better studying skills and that has always been my mom and I am still adjusting to become better. When I applied for schools and Waterloo was not one of them I could tell how disappointed my mom was. I even had a full ride to North Carolina for soccer and she was happy, but you could tell she’d rather Waterloo for me and kept talking about it to carry down the family tradition. Just like Laura, I felt as though I was letting my mom, and family down.

From my personal experience with having your parents force something upon you because they think it is what’s best for you and your family and to have to feel guilty for it not working out is really upsetting and can take a big impact on you mentally. I find for parents, it can be really hard to accept reality and understand what your kids want because we are just as

guilty for keeping everything to ourselves. Amanda has a hard time facing reality as she cannot accept that she was a pampered lady with so many gentlemen callers and will not accept the fact that Laura isn’t, even if Laura doesn’t want to be. I really understand how Laura is feeling when her mom is telling her she needs to find a husband because that’s how I felt when my mom was trying to convince me that Waterloo was going to be the best experience of my life and I would love it, even though my heart was telling me otherwise. In this case Amanda might not notice it but in some ways she is responsible for the sorrows and flaws of her children....