Williams works often focuses on destruction and violence but one play that seems to garner the most attention is the Glass Menagerie.
One character worth mentioning is Jim, whose simple and kind nature make him unique in the play. He is optimistic and full of hope and this has the greatest affect on Laura. With her, Williams elevates him to become a positive influence to help her move beyond her extraordinary shyness. She needs this because the only other people she interacts with are her brother and mother, two people we would never consider to be positive influences. The short time he is with her, Jim helps Laura move away from her shyness. He encourages her to be more social and he tells her, "People are not so dreadful when you know them" (1013). He also says, "everybody has problems, not just you, but practically everybody has got some problems . . . just look around you and you will see lots of people just as disappointed as you are" (1013). For him, being "disappointed is one thing and being discouraged is something else. I am disappointed but I'm not discouraged" (1014). These are the kinds of things Laura never heard and they changed her life. The Glass Menagerie is about the despair of life because even though Laura does discover something about herself, her life does not improve because of it. The play takes us into the dark lives of these people and never offers any hope. This is the state of the world for so many people than and now. Hope is necessary and it is also work. Some people simply do not have what it takes to be hopeful enough to try and this is where the play leaves us.
Hughes and Williams' contributions to the literary world are monumental. Hughes seems more intent on the personal experience of oppression but both men see what humankind needs to survive. His work looks at the hope within the pain. Williams' work also sees the pain with the human experience...
In the Glass Menagerie, we find a bleak ending as Tom leaves the family. We feel a sense of relief for Laura but she is still on her own and she still must endure and find a way to survive along with her mother. Hughes brings people together through their experiences and through that connection, answers can be found. "Harlem" asks questions meant to be answered in an effort to find freedom although though concrete answers are offered. The men share the common desire to bring awareness to issues and hopefully open dialogue and work toward change of some sort. Both writers use their experiences with life itself to find meaning. They may not have the answers but they realize the important thing is to continue asking questions and seeking answers. We are all in the same boat and when we work together to make sense of the world, we make a difference. It is not always pretty and it is not always perfect but it is always real but it never wrong to simply ignore.
Works Cited
-. "Harlem." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. X.J. Kennedy and Dana
Gioia, eds. New York: Longman. 1999.
Johns, Sally. "Tennessee Williams." Twentieth-Century American Dramatists. Ed. John
MacNicholas. Detroit: Gale Literature Resource Center. Dictionary of Literary Biography
Vol. 7. Web. 20 May 2010. http://go.galegroup.com
Niemi, Robert. "The Poetry of Langston Hughes." Masterpieces of African-American Literature.
New York: Harper Collins.
Publishers. 1992.
Schmidt, Michael. The Lives of the Poets. New York: Alfred a. Knopf. 1999.
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. An Introduction to Literature. 8th ed. Barnett,
Sylvan, ed. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. 1985.
