Good Man is hard to find: theme essay

The Illusion of Dreams I think that when Amanda’s says “you live in a dream; you manufacture illusions.” Is true for each character. I believe this statement goes for each character because each of them do have dreams and they do want these dreams to come true and have tried but yet have succeeded in that. They each also live in an illusion and I am going to give examples and support on why I believe Amanda’s statement to be true for all the characters in “The Glass Menagerie”. First we have Amanda a single mother abandoned by her husband years before the play, Amanda is older and dreams of her days as a southern belle, when she does this she feels comfort in living in the illusion of being a young southern belle. Amanda also yearns for the illusion that her children will have the same comforts. But, her devotion to them as she admits has made her “hateful’ towards them. Then there’s Amanda’s son’s Tom who dreams of one day becoming a poet. Tom struggles to write and escapes from reality through nightly excursions, apparently to the movies and or bars. Tom also dreams of leaving his life as a shoe maker behind to run off to be a movie star. Laura is Amanda’s Daughter and oldest child. A childhood illness has left her with a limp, she has a mental fragility that has isolated her from the outside world. She has created a world of her own symbolized by her glass figurines. Then we Have Jim, although Jim comes in near the end of the play he too has dreams and illusions, Jim has a dream to shine once again as he did when he was younger. His hope to shine again is conveyed by his public speaking and ideas of self-improvement. At last we have Mr.Wingfield Amanda’s Absentee Husband. Although he is not in the play onstage he is referred as the picture on the wall. All these characters have dreams and illusions which they manufacture with their own imaginations, these dreams and illusions comforts each and every one of these characters and give them some sense of