Illusion vs. Reality in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie
The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, contains multiple themes. While there are many themes, the theme that holds the piece together is illusion versus reality.
This theme is established very quickly, In fact, the first paragraph of the play describes the illusions to take place, "But I am the opposite of a stage musician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion" (1866). During Tom's monologue, he discusses the premise of the play; when it takes place, who the characters are, and how the play is to be perceived (as a memory). His reference to illusion is not used as to describe any of the plays specific events, but rather to subtly give weight to the plays ideas. Although the play itself is an illusion of reality, Tom says that there is truth behind the illusion. We use this as a sort of flashlight as we enter the play. We shine it around, looking for the truth Tom speaks of. We also seek the plays realities and illusions. Williams, by stating this idea in the beginning, focuses the readers mind into such a state that he will unconsciously look for what Williams knows is already there-- the conflict of reality versus illusion.
We will look at the characters one by one, determining each of their realities and illusions. This will help to establish why Williams chose this as a central theme, and what the resolution of these ideas are. Because Amanda plays such a large part in the play, we will start with her. Amanda's life is much illusion. She establishes this right away when she begins to reminisce of the south and her nume...
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The Cherokees lived in the valleys of rivers that drained the southern Appalachians (Perdue, 1). The British first came into Cherokee country in 1700. They came for two major reasons: deerskins and war captives. They brought guns and ammunition, metal knives, hoes, hatchets, fabrics, kettles, rum, and trinkets. They took the Cherokee and made them slaves. The British built two forts to protect the Cherokees while they were fighting the enemies of the British. The Cherokees entered the French and Indian War on the side of the British (Perdue, 6). Attacks on Cherokees by white frontiersmen and duplicity by colonial officials caused the Cherokees to shift their allegiance to the French. During the war, the British destroyed many Cherokee towns.
7. Starr, Emmet. History of the Cherokee Indians and Their Legends and Folk Lore. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Pub., 2003. Print.
The Cherokee lived along the eastern part of the Tennessee River thriving in the bottomlands from Virginia southward, and built their houses in villages, which were separated by daylong walks. Their houses were made of wood and stone, fields planted, nuts and berries gathered, game cured, and tobacco was smoked. The Cherokees predominantly relied upon hunting as their sole source of food, and lived peacefully with the Creek tribe, with whom they shared hunting grounds. Their hunting grounds extended from the Mississippi River to the Blue Ridge Mountains and from Central Georgia all the way north to Ohio River.
In The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, the glass menagerie is a clear and powerful metaphor for each of the four characters, Tom, Laura, Amanda, and the Gentleman Caller. It represents their lives, personality, emotions, and other important characteristics.
...rman guilty because they would have racially profiled Zimmerman guilty. Also according to Steven Mazie, he implies “But since these racial overtones were banned from the courtroom discourse, the jurors had no opportunity to consider them” (2). The jury couldn’t consider racial profiling in the case due to it being banned by the judge. The way the jury is chosen has a lot of effect on the trial.
The Cherokee were a tribe from the south east, they lived in present day Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The Cherokee were originally called the Aniyunwiya. They also spoke the language called Tsalagi Gawonihisdi, the man who created this language along with their alphabet was Sequoyah. The Cherokee were a tribe with different ways of living, instead of living in the common teepee the Cherokee lived in cabins that were made of logs, they lived in villages that consisted of thirty to fifty families. The Cherokee were a strong tribe, they consisted of small sections that were lead by chiefs. The Cherokee tribe lived off of farming, hunting, and gathering. They could farm vegetables such as corn, squash, and beans. They hunted animals like deer, rabbits, turkey, and sometimes even bears. They would cook foods for instance stew and cornbread. When the Cherokee had to travel to places, when getting wood, or getting food they would travel by foot or canoe. They would use trails so that let them travel threw villages, and their canoes were made by hollowing out large tree trunks. The Cherokee weren't all about hard labor and cooking they were also very religious. They believed in spirits. The Cherokee would perform ceremonies so they could ask spirit to help them. There were special ceremonies before battle, leaving on a hunt, and when sick tribe members needed healing. For these ceremonies they would dress up and dance to music. Their largest celebration was called the Green Corn Ceremony which thanked the spirits for the harvest of corn. In the Cherokee villages the men were responsible for the hunting and war, as for the woman they stayed home and cleaned, farmed, and took care of the family...
Archeologists say that the Cherokee Indians migrated south from the Great Lakes region around the 15th century. The Cherokee tribe was one of the largest Native American tribes eventually settling and occupying the southeast portion of what was to become the United States. The Cherokee tribe was highly religious and spiritual. They considered warfare to be a polluting act and warriors were required to go thru a purification by a priest before reentering the Cherokee village. Yet in 1830, the Cherokee Indians were forcibly removed from their homeland by the very government the Cherokee Indians had supported during the Revolutionary War. This journey was later called the Trail of Tears.
The Cherokee Indians were one of the many civilized tribes in the United States. The Cherokee settled in the southeastern part of the U.S, which includes the northern parts of Georgia and Alabama, the western parts of North and South Carolina, and southwest Virginia from 1000 A.D. to 1500 A.D. and their development took place in two stages. First was the Pisgah stage which took place from 1300 A.D. to 1540 A.D. Second was the Qualla which took place 1540 A.D. to 1750 A.D. As well as in the past the Cherokees are still around today, residing around the U.S. on Indian reservations. The main focus will be Cherokee life including marriage, daily life, government, and war.
The process of using behavioral evidence left at a crime scene to make inferences about the offender, including inferences about personality characteristics and psychopathology is called criminal profiling. Around the country, several agencies rely on the minds of criminal psychologists to lead them in the right direction to finding the correct offender. Criminal profiling provides investigators with knowledge of the appearance and behavior of a potential criminal.
“To do what nobody else will do, a way that nobody else can do, in spite of all we go through; is to be a nurse,” said Rawsi Williams, a registered RN. This quote completely captures the duties and responsibilities it takes to be in a healthcare profession. Like many health care occupations, nurse practitioners provide ‘patient-centered, accessible, high-quality health care’ (NP Public Awareness). They learn their roles by practicing in education facilities before heading out to the real world where everything they have learned help to save people’s lives. Now achieving doctorate degrees, nurse practitioners are slowly widening the professional field for nurses everywhere by continuing to maintain contact with
In the years before adventurers set foot on the soil of the “New World” looking for uncharted lands to settle, Cherokee tribes had already “occupied an area of almost 40,000
The Cherokee Nation was the largest of Five Civilized Tribes of the southeast. They are a people of Iroquois descent. The Cherokee who were known as "Ani'-Yun'wiya" or "principal people" migrated to the southeast from the Great Lakes region. They held more than 40,000 square miles of land in the south by 1650 with a population estimated at well over 30,000. Similar to other Native Americans of the southeast, their nation was a confederacy of towns each under the rule of a supreme chief. In short, the Cherokee culture and society thrived and prospered in the Americas prior to contact with the Europeans. No society has ever made a more dramatic cultural shift then that of the Cherokee. This, a culture that had suffered pronounced side effects of Europe even prior to the introduction to European man. With the introduction of man onto the Americas also came something unknown to them, disease. Unable to counter these viruses many of the Cherokee were wiped out. Reports state that between 40 and 50% of their culture died from diseases such as: smallpox, typhus, and measles. With the sudden lose of population, there is no doubt that this population also lost leadership and knowledge through these deaths. Once the obstacle of disease had been passed came the addition of a new opponent: the European man.
Tennessee Williams’ play, “The Glass Menagerie”, depicts the life of an odd yet intriguing character: Laura. Because she is affected by a slight disability in her leg, she lacks the confidence as well as the desire to socialize with people outside her family. Refusing to be constrained to reality, she often escapes to her own world, which consists of her records and collection of glass animals. This glass menagerie holds a great deal of significance throughout the play (as the title implies) and is representative of several different aspects of Laura’s personality. Because the glass menagerie symbolizes more than one feature, its imagery can be considered both consistent and fluctuating.
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. In Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing, 4th ed. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995. 1519-1568.
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. In Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing, 4th ed. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995. 1519-1568.