How the Great Depression affects "The Glass Menagerie"

Hey everyone!

Today, I thought I might post this. The essay is about a play, specifically, "The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams. I did this essay for another English assignment. "The Glass Menagerie" takes place during the Great Depression of the thirties, and is about a family's struggle for a better life, with each of the characters having a completely different translation of "a better life". This play does not really agree with my taste in the arts, but it does give a different perspective on life.

The topic of this essay: How does the Great Depression affect the situations and actions of the characters?

During the 30’s, America’s population saw, possibly, the hardest times it has ever seen, both financially and socially. The hardships of that time caused disturbances in the structure of many families, and such a scenario is evident in Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie”. On an individual scale, the Great Depression forced many people to make decisions that would affect the rest of their lives and those of their children. Such decisions were also made by the characters of “The Glass Menagerie”.

Tom, the narrator of “Glass Menagerie”, was faced with many of the problems not uncommon at the time. To be specific, he had to financially support his mother and sister, his father was of no help to the family, and he had a taste for adventure that he could not answer by working at a low wage job in a warehouse. In this play Tom had two main role models, his father and Malvolio the Magician. Malvolio represented an ideal character for Tom; one that could escape from a “coffin” (or in Tom’s case, a bad situation) without removing a single nail or destroying a plank. On the other hand, Tom’s father represented a more pragmatic character. He could escape from the coffin, though not as cleanly as Malvolio. Tom’s father ended up choosing the option of a “poor man’s divorce” (he left his family without warning). During the Great Depression such a method of escaping one’s duties was not uncommon, especially in the United States. We will see that Tom chooses to escape his duties like his father, but, unlike Malvolio, Tom cannot escape from his “coffin” without causing any damage. Tom’s biggest role model seems to be his father, not only because of his actions, but he is also quoted as saying, “I’m like my father. The bastard son of a bastard.” (p.62)

Another aspect of Tom that was affected by the general socio-economic state of the US at that time is the fact that Tom was interested in the arts, especially cinema and poetry. During time of hardship, the arts seem to receive much more attention, and are sometimes introduced to new concepts. For example, Blues music was invented during the Great Depression. The relationship between socio-economic problems and the arts can be explained by the fact that during times of economic hardship, when a vacation is not an option, the human brain still needs a rest. Not being able to afford a vacation, or taking a break from work leads to the use of creative ways of relieving stress, by relaxing music, poetry, or otherwise. It is therefore not improbable that Tom’s artistic side is a direct result of the stress he is in. Factually, there was a boom in the number of movie tickets sold during the Great Depression because people, like Tom, needed a stress-reliever.

Amanda, Tom’s mother, is a character in “The Glass Menagerie” that was heavily affected by the Great Depression. Not a rare thing at the time, Amanda depended on her son’s financial aid to keep the family surviving. She also worked for a magazine, but the amount of money that she made was little-to none. Amanda was abandoned by her husband, a fact that she became obsessed with as it developed in almost all of her conversations and was the reason behind much of her worries. Amanda’s decisions were very typical for a mother during the Great Depression. She wanted to be sure that her kids have a financially stable future. First she tried to stable a secure future for Laura by enrolling her in a business course. This failed horribly due to Laura’s shyness. Upon discovering that Laura had dropped out, Amanda began to look for a husband for Laura. While it may not seem like an important part of the play, Laura’s limited options ultimately represent a cultural restriction on women, much of which was still evident in the thirties. Today it may not be so; however, during the thirties the only way to ensure that a woman would live a financially stable life was to wed her to a rich man or to prepare her for an office job such as a typist.

Laura, Tom’s crippled sister, was the shyest character in this story. She was, arguably, the character that was hardest hit by the socio-economic state of the thirties. First of all, she was put into a typing class which she dropped out of because of her shyness. She had also dropped out of high school because she was embarrassed by her physical disability. The fact that she did not receive any support from the school or government, in terms of emotional stability, self-confidence, dealing with the psychological effects of a physical disability, are indirect indicators of a poor economy and social turmoil. Another effect that the Great Depression had on Laura’s situation was represented by the fact that she had to look for a husband, if she did not want to live off of Tom’s income forever. An explanation for the fact that women could not work all the same jobs as men during the thirties, could be that if the economy was in a good enough shape, people would be hired, regardless of gender. Unfortunately, there were not enough jobs for everyone, so not as many women worked as they do now.

Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie” takes place in the thirties, and it introduces us to some of the hardships of the Great Depression. The characters in this story each represent a group of society that has its own set of problems. Tom represents the restless youth that has to make its sacrifices. Laura represents disabled people and the young females that are faced with their set of problems. Amanda represents a single parent living with her adult children. At the end of the story, Tom has achieved his goal and Laura now has the self-esteem to achieve hers. Keeping all the problems and situations of the characters in mind, it is safe to say that the Great Depression greatly influenced the Wingfield family.

The Road to Savagery

Hi everyone! :)

This is an essay I did for my highschool English course. It's related to the book, Lord of the Flies (William Golding). Lord of the Flies is a book full of symbolism and allusion and I recommend that you read it. (If you have never read Lord of the Flies, this essay might not make much sense-there are many references to the book)
Here it is:

Topic: Compare the authoritarian and democratic power of Ralph and Jack with situations in our world today.

In the novel, Lord of the Flies, Golding portrays a society of English schoolboys, who have crash landed into an uninhabited island. They must fend for themselves and must learn to stay together. Golding shows how they develop a democratic society at first, probably because of the conditioning of the society from which they originated. Slowly, however, their society turns to dictatorship, violence and savagery. To compare Golding’s group of schoolboys to a society in our world today would indicate some interesting connections. To be fair, one must compare the schoolboys to a society that has had democracy to start with, but is gradually advancing in the path of dictatorship.

The most obvious example of a society that laid its foundation on the concept of democracy is the United States of America. The second sentence of the Declaration of Independence is clear proof of this democratic mindset; “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. Slowly, but surely, the rights of the American people are fading. In Lord of the Flies, one can recognize that gradually, Jack’s group retrogressed to killing members of their own group. Ethical deterioration such as this is also evident in many of today’s countries, including the USA. Recently, the Obama administration gave itself the authority to assassinate any Americans which it deemed to be a threat. This includes the American public and since “threat” was not defined, anyone could be killed.   

In the beginning of the novel, Jack and some of his followers chose to be the “hunters”. The hunters showed little interest in keeping the fire lit (hence they had little interest in being saved), and instead pursued their own interest of killing pigs. Since the book constantly refers to the fruits on the island, Jack’s group had no reasonable excuses to waste their time on hunting. Jack’s followers were in the early stages of becoming power-hungry savages, who thought that by killing pigs, they became more powerful. Clear evidence of this is seen in parts of the book such as, “knowledge that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink”, and “'Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!” The mentality of being powerful, and abusing that power to impose your will on others or to sacrifice the weak, is a mentality that exists in our world today, and evident in American politics. At first, the idea of Manifest Destiny was proposed, which means that a strong union between individual states used to fulfil the common “destiny” which is expanding the borders of the US to consume weaker countries. And even today we see that some politicians push for the taking over (killing) of weaker countries (pigs). An indicator of this is the fact that after the Haiti earthquake, the United States sent more soldiers to Haiti than Humanitarian Aid, while such a weak and small country does not need an army trained to kill, but food and supplies to survive.

 Golding’s novel raises some questions about the fundamentals of human nature and politics. Among these questions, one is, “Why do democracies slowly fade to authoritarianism?” To answer this, one must realize that the unification of a nation to fight a common enemy is not a bad idea in itself, but when the leaders of a society create the non-existent enemy to instil fear into the hearts of their own citizens for selfish reasons such as power and authority, that is an evil concept. We realized, in Lord of the Flies, that the idea of “the Beast” was raised by a small child, but Jack, realizing the potential that the concept provides, used it to gain absolute power. We can see that, while in reality the Beast was only existent in the hearts of the boys, they made it real by sacrificing meat to it and constantly exaggerating it. When Jack realized that the Beast was a way to gain power, he explained that “The beast is a hunter... we couldn't kill it” thereby protecting his own status as supreme leader. Some politicians in the United States have done just that; created enemies such as Cuba and Iraq, and used it to gain money and power. For example when we look at the situation in Iraq, we can see that the only reasonable excuse to continue the war at the cost of, not only 2 trillion dollars of tax-payer money, but the lives of soldiers and civilians, is for the corrupt officials to gain power.

The Lord of the Flies, while being a tale of fiction, represents very real aspects of human psychology, politics, and the devolution of people into savagery. One may even apply the basic plot of the story to all societies which are on the road from democracy to authoritarianism. The story starts out with a group that is organized into smaller groups each with a purpose and order. The smaller groups slowly lose their sense of unity and order, and civil war begins. One group overpowers another, and eliminates almost all opposition, until a saviour comes and stops the cruelty. Unlike the story, however, real societies must remember that the saviour is not going to appear miraculously, but must be one of the citizens of the society itself. The people of the USA cannot wait for a naval officer to save them from the situation they are in. The only way to save such a society is to raise leaders like Abraham Lincoln, who re-enlightened the fire which is the freedom as promised by the founding laws of the USA. If such leader were present in Lord of the Flies, the conch would not have been destroyed, and murder would not have happened.  

The Story of Lord of the Flies portrays a society and how such a society deteriorates from democracy to authoritarianism. An example of a society that is similar to the schoolboys in Lord of the Flies is the United States. One similarity is the fact that both societies have created enemies for themselves. Another similarity is the idea of taking over smaller societies for the pure enjoyment of imposing your will. Both the schoolboys’ society and the United States have given themselves the right to murder a member of their own population. If any social order sees itself turning to authoritarianism and fitting into the plot of Lord of the Flies, it must look for a savior to protect its own democratic future, because democracy is a constant struggle for freedom.  

Intro

Hey everyone!
First, let me list my reasons for creating this blog:

#1)To improve my writing
#2)To communicate my ideas, views, etc
#3) To develop the habit of blogging

Second, I strongly encourage you to leave comments. Remember, however, that racist, profane, or otherwise offensive comments are not tolerated here.

Finally, I will tell you that this blog is about a wide variety of topics. They range from my opinions on famous books or movies, to conspiracy theories, to random ideas.

And that's pretty much it.