Comparing A & P And The Glass Menagerie

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Tennessee William’s “The Glass Menagerie” and John Updike’s “A&P” are both stories of anguishing confinement and the wish to escape. Tom and Sammy are trapped in a place where they work away their lives, unable to leave from their miserable situations because of their families. Both have jobs which are stable, however, they wish to do otherwise to pressure what they really want. Their families rely on them mostly for their income, and neither Sammy nor Tom wants to let down those who depend on him. The men have ambition to become independent. Sammy achieved his freedom, however; Tom is free yet left with the memory of his sister Laura. One of the main reasons Sammy and Tom feel so trapped in their situations is the pressure to help support …show more content…

He informs his mother in exasperation that “man is by instinct a lover, a hunter, a fighter, and none of those instincts are given much play at the warehouse” (Williams 1180). Amanda laughs at his argument and demands that he continue with the job he has secured at the warehouse. He realizes that his job at the warehouse is much more stable than a job as a writer would be, but it is the very unchanging nature of his work that leaves him feeling sad and unaccomplished. Sammy and Tom are chasing dreams that lie beyond their lives, so they run as far from the occupations as they can in order to achieve a level of personal contentment with their lifestyle. The girls’ humiliating treatment by the manager of A&P sparks Sammy’s protest, giving him the push he needs to quit his job to search for a better one. Tom was fired for writing a poem on the lid of a shoe-box. He thinks of this as a chance to leave his family and the town for good. Able to leave at last, the two men find their own form of freedom despite the disagreement of their families and in Sammy’s case, the disapproval of his manager. Tom does not, however, find the same feeling that Sammy does. At first, Sammy is worried about what is to come, for he describes his boss’s reaction to his exit, saying “his face was dark gray and his back stiff, as if he’s just had an injection of iron, and my stomach kind of fell as I thought how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter” (Updike

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