Monday, February 27, 2012

The Glass Menagerie- Tom's Conflict

"My glass!...Drops awkwardly to his knees to collect the fallen glass" (1248)    

 Tom has been forced into a life which he despises. He has always wanted more for himself that working a factory job and because of his mom and sister, this is exactly what he gets stuck doing. He is torn between his love of his family and resentment that they are holding him back from going out and doing the adventures that he sees on the movie screen. In scene one this conflict is introduced immediately with Amanda nagging him about his breakfast. Characters in movies don't have to go through this kind of daily scrutiny, and tom can't stand when him mom treats him this way. However, he usually does what she tells him because she is still his mom and he loves her. If he didn't, he would have left long before. There is a different conflict with laura. He pities her more than amanda does, but he wants to see her happy. This relationship is far healthier than his relationship with amanda, because they understand each other far mor than they disagree. Like when Tom breaks one of the glass animal, laura is crushed, but understands that it was an accident.

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