The Glass Menagerie: Tennessee Williams

Drinks are something socially shared, a favorite past time for many individuals. For the two characters Jordan Belfort and Tom Wingfield, drinks are something they indulge in daily. The characters come from two very different forms of expression. In Tennessee Williams’ play The Glass Menagerie Tom Wingfield recalls the struggles of his troubled family in St. Louis around 1937. Tom recalls the difficult times that his mother and sister go through, including the final moments when Tom leaves the two on their own so he can pursue his own artistic interests. In a different form of expression, Martin Scorsese’s movie The Wolf of Wall Street tells of Jordan Belfort’s rise to the top of Wall Street. Jordan experiences the hardships of working on Wall Street and overcomes the odds and is now recognized as one of the best sales trainers in today’s world. Both males share similar traits, other than the liver damaging pastimes; Jordan and Tom are both self-indulgent, desperate, and dissatisfied with their lives. The difference comes in how much they achieve in the end; Tom feels guilt for leaving his family, while Jordan is far from remorseful of his actions.

Specifically Tom’s self-indulgence is mostly his way of dealing with his home life. He often goes out to the movies and comes home drunk the next morning. Tom’s need for his books and poetry leads him into constant conflict with his home and at his job. Eventually his self-indulgence leads him to being fired from his job, due to him writing his poetry on the lids of shoe boxes. During a conversation with Jim, a friend at work, Tom mentions, “I paid my dues this month (to the Union of Merchant Seamen), instead of the light bill.” This is a clear example of his disregard for home, he ...

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... poverty. Revealing their self-serving nature, shows the amount of actions that are often dismissed by a blind eye.

Works Cited

Fordyce, William. "Tennessee Williams's Tom Wingfield and Georg Kaiser's Cashier: A Contextual Comparison." Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 3 Apr. 2014

Single, Lori Leathers. "Flying the Jolly Roger: Images of Escape and Selfhood in Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie." Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 3 Apr. 2014

Tischler, Nancy M. "Tom as a Man of Imagination." Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 3 Apr. 2014

The Wolf of Wall Street. Dir. Martin Scorsese. Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie. Paramount Pictures, 2013. Film

Williams, Tennessee . The Glass Menagerie. Literature: Craft & Voice, 2nd Ed. Nicholas Delbanco and Alan Cheuse. New York McGraw Hill: 2012. 1395 - 1434. Print.