Glass_Menagerie

Glass Menagerie Amanda seems to be accustomed to her past which causes her to attempt to make it present. Her need to make her past present is so strong she offers to restore it at the expense of her children's desires. Amanda continues to control and manipulate Tom and Laura's life, which contributes to the demise of the family and the departure of Tom. For example, in scene one, Tom walks in for dinner and begins to eat. The second thing Amanda utters is: “Honey, don’t push with your fingers. If you have to push with something,the thing to push is the crust of bread. And chew--chew!”(p.6) She constantly criticizes him and tries to produce him into someone he is not. Amanda, subconsciously, wants to create a life that she does not have. She wants things to be the way they use to be when Tom’s father was home. There is evidence of this when she speaks to Tom. “Amanda: What right have you got to jeopardize your job' Jeopardize the security of us all' How do you think we’d manage if your were--”(p.23) It is very clear in the speech glass, menagerie, amanda, tom, laura, go, tries, just, father, way, things, one, know, going, control, business, about, smoke, should, right, push, person, past, out, never, life, interested, husband, hair, controlling, worse, work, walking, amanda, walking, very, untidy, tom’s, thing, speaks, shown, seems, school, says, respect, relationship, really, present, play, picture, passage, once