Reviews

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams

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meg_abe's review against another edition

3.0

The Glass Menagerie is about a mother who lives in the past, a daughter who lives in a fantasy world and a brother who is struggle to get by and support his family. Amanda Wingfield is the mother of two kids who can’t help but share all the wonderful stories of her past and all them men who called on her. Now she is a single mother of two whose husband left her. All she wants from life is for her daughter to find a gentleman of a young man and her son to be successful in his job. When Tom--the son--mentions there is a nice man he is friends with at work Amanda insists he invite his friend over for dinner. Hoping to make a match of this man and Laura. Painfully shy Laura--the daughter--makes herself sick worrying so much about the boy that is coming. This is a tragic story about the realities families face, the lack of money, the social awkwardness, the partying and drinking, the worried mother, etc. This play is a wonderful rendition of the struggles of life. Tennessee Williams is a phenomenal writer and this is a great work of his.

When looking at the ATOS® Reading Level it is about a 5.3. This means that students as young as third-fifth grade could read this play. I think some of the difficulties that they would face is the layout first of all, trying to understand that not everything written is said. THe idea that Tom is the narrator and a character so sometimes he's talking to the audience and other times he is in the play. Also some of the material would be hard to relate to and understand at that young of an age. The socially awkward Laura might be reachable but the fed-up, partying Tom would be a tough character for students so young to relate to or see his side of the story. I think this book would be better suited for high school students based off the content and the formatting being a play. I think anyone that has read A Streetcar Named Desire and enjoyed it should also read this play. Also if you like reading plays this would be a great recommendation. This book could be used as a whole class text to look at different family scenarios or to look at what life was like during a certain time and what was expected of you. I also this this would be a great novel to look at symbolism, word choice, reality vs. fantasy, and setting and how all these factors play a role or have an impact on the play.

Being that I had read A Streetcar Named Desire I was intrigued to read another play by Williams and it didn’t disappoint. He also incorporates that feel of fantasy/dream-like to mix with reality. There is always a character that isn’t fully stable in this world and prefers to live in their memories, the past or create a fictional world. The word choice/text wasn’t very difficult so that was simple and created for a quick read, there was tension that made me want to read faster but there were also things that slowed me down. Sometimes I didn’t always understand the setting or scene, something about the description would confuse me and the whole scene would therefore be hard to understand or picture in my mind creating a disconnect with the story and what is taking place.