Glass menagerie 2

As the play The Glass Menagerie comes to a conclusion, I further analyzed the relationship between Amanda Wingfield, the mother, and her children, Tom and Laura. In my previous post, I wrote that Amanda is the main source of strife in the family, something that I still believe, but after finishing the play, I began to realize that she is not as bad as I painted her out to be.  She is constantly nagging Tom about life and how he needs to his sister because his “poor little sister has never received a single gentleman caller” (43). Though this causes the rift between her and Tom to widen and ultimately ends with Tom leaving the family; she means well. She is a product of a bygone age and is trying to enforce the old morals and values in a society that has no need for them. Her efforts to instill traditional values comes off as mocking and accusatory remarks. Such as when she states that “it seems extremely peculiar that you wouldn’t know your best friend was going to be married”(94). She fails to see that the world has changed and so have relationships. She is also not completely blind to her surroundings as she does that she knows how hopeless her situation is as a “deserted mother and a an unmarried sister [Laura] who is crippled with no job”(96).  Despite all of this she does truly care about her children as she would rather remain unmarried than the wife of a man who drinks, “old maids are better off than wives of drunkards” (44).

                After reading the play in its entirety, I have found a new sense of appreciation for Amanda. I fully understand where she comes from and why she acts so from my own personal experiences of being from a family of immigrants. Everybody desperately wants to hold onto old world values as much as possible and hope that the younger generation will carry them to their children. That way, even when they have nothing left, they can at least pass down the morals and traditions from the life they once had.

The Glass Menagire:acts 1-4

While reading the play The Glass Menagerie I cannot help but notice the obvious strife between the mother, Amanda, and her children, Tom and Laura. They live in “one of those vast hive-like conglomerations of cellular living units” which emphasizes their own misfortune and poverty; a key factor to the disconnect between Amanda and Tom (3).  Their mother is constantly trying to relive her glory days through her daughter, Laura. Amanda constantly insists that it’s “time for our [Laura’s] gentlemen callers to start arriving” but they never arrive (10).  Unfortunately Laura can never fulfill her mother’s hopes and dreams, leaving her to be viewed as a failure. Moreover, Amanda is in denial about her own daughters physical state, as she ignores the fact that her daughter is crippled and states” You’re not crippled, you just have a little defect- hardly noticeable, even” (17). Since Amanda cannot relive her glory days through her daughter, she continuously dwells on the past, even going as far to think as far back as a high school crush. Though Laura isn’t the only person who has a strained relationship. Since Tom is the only, if not the main, source of income of the house Tom obviously feels more entitled, but is constantly reminded by his mother that no such thing exists for him. It is because of his family that he stays at his job at the show factory, even though he would prefer “somebody pick up a crowbar and batter out my [Tom] brains” rather than return to work (23).

                The entire time reading the first four scenes, I was eerily reminded of a novella called Maggie: Girl of the Streets. They both show how poverty affects people and their behavior. It becomes apparent that the stress of taking care of his family single handedly is too much to cope with. Something that can easily be translated into the reality of the vicious cycle of poverty.

Tôi thích uống cà phê sữa đặc. Tôi cũng đặt câu hỏi về tình yêu của họ.

As I was finishing the book A Farewell to Arms a theme that could not be avoided was the lack of religion and love, throughout the entire novel. Although it may not have been as prominent in book two, it is revisited in the last chapters of the book. their entire relationship seems far too rushed and unrealistic.  Earlier they both blatantly state that they do not love each other, but at the end they have the gall to think that they are in love. Although it may sound odd, the child of Henry and Catherine symbolizes their relationship: it was never alive to begin with. Their child is the proof of their love for each other, but there was no love. When his very own son was born he “felt no feeling of fatherhood” (325).  Moreover he doesn’t act shocked at all, instead he seems more disappointed than sad, “poor little kid” (326). Not to mention when Catherine is on her death bed she says many contradicting things (not uncommon for her).  First she states that she doesn’t want Henry to touch her, but then follows up with  “you can touch me all you want”, further showing her contradicting personality. I theorize that her first response is her true feelings, but corrects herself for Henry’s sake with her second statement; showing the absence of true love, since she is not being honest with herself, she cannot be honest with Henry. .  Earlier in the novel Catherine describes how Henry is her religion and “all that I’ve got” since “I [Catherine] haven’t any religion” (116).  This is further implied when Henry desperately prays to God, or his old faith which he abandoned. As I said in an earlier post  religion acts as a safety net, and these two consider each other their “religion”; a net to catch them when things become grim or hopeless. When Catherine dies, Henry loses this net and has nothing left to hold onto, explaining the abrupt ending to the book. In his mind his life is over and as narrator that also includes his story.

                I’ve noticed that in today’s culture many people consider themselves in madly love. Personally, I scorn people who think like this. To be truly in love, there must be equal ground and time invested. No one wants to be the person walking down the aisle with doubts in their mind. Though there is “faith” in today’s world, I do not agree with all of the “faiths” in modern day society. We have grown to be superficial and material based society, praising luxury goods and how they represent our status. Instead of traditional values of family, honor and integrity.

Episode II: The Nurse Strikes Back

While reading book two of A farewell to Arms I noticed a consistent theme of the lack of care toward people. At the beginning of this section Henry is being transferred to an American hospital. On the way there he politely asks the men carrying him to be gentle, who promptly respond with “Son of a bitch who isn’t gentle!” (82). The fact that then men mocked him for merely asking a question, shows obvious lack of concern on the part of the men and the fact that they are also medical staff makes matters even worse. The job and duty of someone involved in medical services is to aid the wounded, especially in time of war. Also later on Henry requests for a barber, so that someone could shave him. During the shave the barber was extremely hostile and Henry did not understand why until he was finished. As fate would have it, the barber had thought that Henry was an Austrian officer and was prepared to slit his throat. All of which the porter who had fetched the barber found hilarious and “was trying to keep from laughing” while explaining to Henry that he almost died (91).  Later that afternoon, his doctor finally arrives, but stops after extracting a few needles due to his “fragile delicacy” (144).  The following day Henry has his surgery to fix his knee. Later on he is diagnosed with jaundice which a nurse then accuses him of hurting himself to prevent going back to the front line after a heated exchange the nurse files a report to deny his extended leave, which ends with his leave being terminated. What shocked me was the lack of concern of Henry’s well being. He himself doesn’t seem to care too much about his health, as he drank so much that he developed jaundice and the nurse’s accusations do not help either.

Losing my Religion

While reading the novel A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (a surprisingly enjoyable book) I observed numerous themes and symbols, but the one that stood out the most was the soldier’s loss of faith. As soon as one opens the book, they are presented with a scene of a group of soldiers mocking a priest for his faith. They consistently challenge the poor man’s sexuality and loyalties by saying things like, “Priest not with girls. Priest never with girls.” and “The Pope wants the Austrians to win. He loves Franz Joseph” (7). The soldiers then go on stating that they are atheists and “all free thinking men are atheists”; insinuating those aligned with a religion are blind and not progressive (8). All of which is said in front of the priest, either to mock him, anger him or both. To add insult to injury when the soldiers are suggesting locations in Italy to visit on leave, they drown out him and out promptly state that they “must go [to the] whorehouse before it shuts”, ultimately ignoring the priest and offending him. These acts were not done because the people did not like his personality, but rather his faith toward his religion. This loss of religion symbolizes that the common man has abandon god and his faith, which would lead to a loss for a reason to live. Religion acts as a safety net for most people, so that if they fall their faith will catch them and save them. But if one does not have that safety net, then there is he can never be sure of what will happen when he falls. He could be fine in the end or damaged beyond repair; but without that net there will always be an air of uncertainty. Later on Catherine, Henry’s girlfriend gives him a necklace with Saint Anthony to help him. He later is wounded and promptly loses this necklace. This event symbolizes that not only has man abandoned their faith, but their faith had abandoned them.