The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams.

Essay by KloseKall December 2003

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Looking into Tom

In Tennessee Williams's "The Glass Menagerie," he depicts a family that uses deceptions and protectiveness to gain insight in their lives. The play shows how the family lives life by deceiving each other. The character of Tom Wingfield is described as a hard worker, a protector of his love ones, and a fulfiller of his adventurous dreams.

In the play, the character of Tom Wingfield is a brilliant young man that is taking care of his mother and sister because of his dead-beat father that left his family alone. Tom often feels the need to be away from the pressure that is upon him at a young age because he has all the responsibility as the man of the house. Tom uses the excuses to go to the movies whenever he needs to think and get away from his over-bearing mother. I believe that Tom has a love for movies and poetry and he finds comfort in these things.

"Tom haunts the movie houses to escape that life and scribble poetry in the warehouse where he works," (McHugh, 384). When Tom says that he is going to the movies in the play I believe that the author is trying to say that Tom is going to try and get comforted by thinking of something that he loves and appreciates. As an individual when a person is dealing with a vast amount of stress they need to find a stress reliever and I believe that Tom has found his stress reliever in his passion for literature artwork. Tom's trips to the movies symbolizes that he needs to escape from a world that he is not happy in or maybe he believes that he needs to follow in the footsteps of his father and escape from his family...