Blog #9

Tom:

“I go to the movies because—I like adventure. Adventure is something I don’t have much of at work, so I go to the movies.” (Page 30 Scene 5)

This is a quote that is taken from the middle of Amanda and Tom’s argument about Tom leaving house every night. Amanda is afraid that Tom will run away from the family as what his father did. She becomes clingy because she does not want to lose the control of Tom, he will leave the family, just as her husband has. Tom feels stressed both at home and at work, so he seeks adventure through other methods. So, he went to the movies, the movies allow Tom to have the freedom, even if that freedom is fake. Just as Tom seeks adventure at the movies, think about the audiences, there might be people who have the same emotion with Tom who also wants to seek adventure from the play.

Amanda:

“Resume your seat. Resume your seat. You keep yourself fresh and pretty for the gentleman callers.” (Page 19 Scene 1)

This quote is taken from the dinner scene where Tom gets out of the table and Laura does not want to stay with Amanda alone. So, Laura tries to make an excuse for getting coffee. But, Amanda says she is going to get it and ask Laura to sit back down. This sentence shows that Amanda isn’t appreciating Laura for helping to do things, Amanda asked Laura to listen to her even like a little thing. Amanda said “gentlemen callers” to Laura is not because Laura wants them, but because Amanda wants Laura to re-live her youth. We know from the book that Amanda wants Laura to find a man and married to him, in order to live in a “good life”.

Laura:

“I went in the art museum and the bird-houses at the Zoo.I visited the penguins every day! Sometimes I did without lunch and went the movies. Lately, I’ve been spending most of my afternoons in the Jewel-box, that big glass house where they raise the tropical flowers.” (Page 17~18 Scene 2)

Laura spends her days to escape from reality. The art museum and the Jewel-box are symbols of the glass menagerie that Laura collects in the room. Laura likes glass menageries and likes to go to the art museum is because being touch with others and to talk to the world day in and day out is too hard for her. Instead, Laura decides to keep herself in her beautiful, delicate, and false idea of the world.