The Glass Menagerie and the two different worlds (reality and fiction) Research Paper

The Glass Menagerie and the two different worlds (reality and fiction) - Research Paper Example Laura is enrolled in a business school in order to start establishing her own life, but due to shyness, she drops out of school and secretly spends her time wandering in the city (Oliveira 1).Tom, who dislikes his shoe warehouse jobs, finds solace in alcohol, movies and literature. This surprised his mother (Oliveira 1).Amanda and Tom plot to get Laura a suitor at the warehouse, and Tom chooses Jim O’Connor who is his casual friend. A dinner is organized for Laura to meet Jim (Oliveira 1). Just before the dinner, Laura discovers that Jim, whom she had a crash on while in high school, is the suitor. Laura however refuses to eat dinner with the family and Jim and pretends she is ill (Kolin 66). Amanda, who was dressed in her youthful dress, ends up talking with Jim throughout the meal. Later after the dinner though, Laura opens up and confesses to Jim that she had a crash on him in high school(Oliveira 1).Jim reproaches her for being shy and having low self-esteem but also prais es her for being unique. Jim mentions that he has to leave and see his fiancà ©e (Kolin 34). It is therefore discovered that he is engaged. This leaves Amanda and Laura sad, and they blame Tom for not being attentive and for being selfish dreamer, because he is the one who brought Jim (Oliveira 2).Not long after Jim had visited, Tom gets fired from his shoe ware house job and leaves his home. As he travels, years later, he finds it very hard to forget and leave behind guilt memories of Laura (Kolin 23). Tennessee Williams, author of the play struggled with homosexuality which made him feel like an outsider in his society. This and other experiences made him feel empathetic to vulnerable people of the society (Oliveira 2).This play presents similarities between the dysfunctional Williams family and the play’s family, the Wingfield family. There are similarities between the fictional Wingfield family and Tennessee Williams’s own family (Kolin 23). The Glass