Texts discussed: Scenes I-IV of Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie
HW: Thesis due on essay prompt (click here for prompt)
Everyone should know nowadays, the unimportance of the photographic in art; that truth, life, or reality is an organic thing which the poetic imagination can represent or suggest, in essence, only through transformation, through changing into other forms, those which were merely present in appearance.
Tom: Yes, I have tricks in my pocket, I have things up my sleeve. But I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion.
1. What does William mean that a photograph cannot represent truth? How can one give truth is the disguise of illusion? What is he trying to say?
2. Regarding Amanda’s long monologue near the end of scene I, to what extent is Amanda a gold digger? Under what circumstances is that ok for a woman?
He was a telephone man who fell in love with long distances
3. Compare and contrast Laura and Tom’s use of popular media (music and movies). What is the significance?
You are the only young man that I know of who ignores the fact that the future becomes the present, the present the past, and the past turns into everlasting regret if you don’t plan for it!
Have fun!
BrainTacos 