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The Glass Menagerie Essay

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In The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams showed that when Jim and Laura are

together, they bring out the best of each other. In Laura’s case she did not have any gentleman

callers, someone to connect to and express her concerns with. Until Jim, who was invited over by

Laura’s brother Tim for dinner and shared an intimate moment with Laura in the living room.

With Jim, people from high school expected him to be a huge success in life but he wasn’t, he

ended up working at the same place as Laura’s brother. Laura reminded Jim about high school

and how popular he was and that gave Jim confidence in himself. But Jim’s action of kissing

Laura and then telling her he had a girlfriend had negative as well as positive effects on her. It

broke her out of her shell …show more content…

However, Laura knew when Jim was popular and

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liked him, and still likes him when everyone forgot about him. That showed Jim that Laura

didn’t care if he was popular or unpopular, she like him for who he really is, an intelligent person

with great talents. Laura could’ve simply pretended she didn’t know who Jim was and save

herself from him remembering her tough years in high school always being late for classes but

she didn’t. That met a lot to Jim because she wasn’t ashamed of who she was and that encourage

Jim to not be ashame of what he have become.

After Jim kissed Laura then mentioned his girlfriend to Laura, she gave a souvenir to Jim,

giving him a broken part of a glass unicorn from her collection of glass menagerie.

[ She carefully places the unicorn in the palm of his hand,

then pushes his fingers closed upon it.]

Jim: What are you – doing that for? You want me to

have him? – Laura? [she nods] what for?

Laura: A – souvenir

(Williams)

A souvenir represents a reminder of the past by giving him that can represent a broken part of

her that she wants him to keep. Another reason for Laura to give him a souvenir can be that

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