The universe is believed to consist of sexvigintillion observable atoms or 10^81, humans are one out of 8.7 million species on earth, and you are only one out of 7, 221,306,800 people on earth. With numbers such as these it becomes clear how your life is simply a struggle for existence. In the novel The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams Tom, an aspiring writer attempts to survive within the confines of his tiny apartment, and resist his urge to escape. Likewise hundreds of miles away, during a completely separate time a young entrepreneur, Jay Gatsby, struggles to exist within a world of wealth in the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Their battle for existence is evident through each authors use of characterization, …show more content…
Even more because he is trapped within his mother's home he is unable to experience life. Tom's desire for adventure can also be seen through his constant comparisons between his father and himself, and through his few jealous claims about his father's ability to just leave. Overall, Tom's inability to be independent, and his lack of expression also makes it impossible for Tom to be anyone, or to live because rather than seeing Tom as his own person, his mother views him as an asset. With this attitude Amanda forces Tom into the shadows, where he is unable to truly exist. From beginning to end, the story of Tom, Amanda, and Laura is very life-changing for them, and transformational for the viewers. Tom for example through William's use of characterization is able to separate himself from a position of submission to dominance. This promotion of sorts is what allows him to conquer his demons, and truly exist. Tom himself is able to do this by joining the Union of Merchant Seamen, which he plans to use as an escape from his mothers suffocating apartment, and his sister's glass menagerie. Also, through Toms leaving the audience is able to see that he has conquered not only his internal, but external conflicts. Amanda, his mother of course was Tom external conflict, constantly enacting her power, stress and inabilities upon Tom which was obviously the bigger of his many issues. Next Toms internal conflict was his
'The Great Gatsby' is set in the Jazz Age of the 1920's in New York,
| Tom wants his old life back prior to the accident and he sees the accident as the end of his life as he knew it. He loses his sense of identity and sense of family in particular.Feels guilty and ashamed about the irrevocable consequences his brother’s irresponsibility had for other people and their familiesRetreats into a depressed state which feels empty and black.
Tom never does anything without doing it to the fullest, good or bad. Tom has an overall extremely short temper, assertive,confident and aggressive nature. Tom’s wild, emotional, and uncaring attitude end up getting three people killed. Tom in the end is ultimately concerned with himself and his lavished ,intense, and high paced
The loss of her husband causes Amanda to develop a dependence on her children. She wants Tom and Laura to become successful. Amanda complains that Tom does not earn enough money at the shoe factory. She wants him to attend night school so he can attain a better career.
131 Tom doesn’t know the person his mother has become; low point as he has lost his own identity
There are no two people exactly alike in the world. Identical twins, the only people in the world who share the same fingerprints and genetic information, have different personalities, distinct strengths and diverse shortcomings. When comparing two people, parallels can be drawn between them, but crucial dissimilarities will be highlighted as well during the process. Such is the case when it comes to analyzing the protagonists of The Natural by Bernard Malamud and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Both Roy Hobbs and Jay Gatsby, the main characters of the two books respectively, are driven by money and their lust for women, and these factors lead to their eventual downfall; however, their character development is different in that Hobbs undergoes a change of heart and Gatsby suffers from a lack thereof. Although both books share many parallels such as problematic relationships, a key distinction of the two men is their ability to garner sympathy from the readers.
mind of who they want to be and how they want to lead their lives. These ideas are usually very different from the actual identity of a person. Throughout the novel The Great Gatsby , by F. Scott Fitzgerald the search for identity is continuos. The main characters are on a rollercoaster of uncertainty trying to protect the images that they have created for themselves.
In the novel ‘The Great Gatsby’ and ‘Of Mice and Men’ F Scott Fitzgerald and John Steinbeck respectively explore the complex perspective of the true outcome of the American Dream. Although set within different eras of American society, the extensive failure of dreams throughout both texts shows how the American Dream is destined for annihilation despite the intention of hope and happiness. In its original form the American Dream encapsulated the ideal that ‘equality of opportunity is available to any American allowing the highest aspirations and goals to be achieved’. ’The Great Gatsby’ follows its protagonist Jay Gatsby who sets his life around his desire of reuniting Daisy Buchanan, the lost love of his life, through the eyes of Nick
In our society today we all identify as unique individuals with different dream,perspectives,personalities, etc. But how are characters in books identities represented like ours? Usually authors that produce characters use character development which is the building of a character 's personality,,attitude,society, or maybe they way they were raised or born. All these key factors play a role is how a character acts around people in the book, how he sees the world, and also his/her attitude toward other charters.
Along with the character transformation in “A Doll’s House”, Tom, from “The Glass Menagerie”, also goes through some character changes. Throughout the entire play, Tom was working in a warehouse trying to support his family. While working there, he was struggling with his dreams of becoming a merchant marine. Towards the end of the play, when Tom introduces his friend Jim O’Connor to his sister Laura, his mother hopes that this could be a man that Laura could settle down with and someday marry. When Amanda finds out that Jim is already engaged, she blames Tom. She is furious that Tom brought a gentleman caller over
F. Scott Fitzgerald 's novel, "The Incomparable Gatsby", is one of only a handful couple of books he wrote in 1925. The novel happens amid the 1920 's after the first World War. It is composed around a young fellow named Scratch, from the east he moved toward the west to find out about the bond business. He winds up moving beside a strange man named Gatsby who winds up giving him the sore of his life.
Tom was not responsible in the beginning of the book and he know it. He made others do his work like how he made another kid wash the fence as he crunched on a apple. By the end of the book tom was doing things on his own. Tom went out of his way to find a way out of the cave and save Becky.
Tom describes his current situation as imprisonment, and his frequent smoking on the fire escape are about as coincidental as Laura’s similarity to her glass collection. He also uses the movies to experience vicariously what he longs to have in his own life. Tom reveals at the end of the play that he feels guilty for having left her behind. Tom recognizes that Laura is special and he very deeply cares for her, shown by how struck with guilt and self-hatred he is when he breaks her glass animals with his coat. Tom’s escape comes when he and Amanda fight about Jim and Amanda tells him to “go to the moon,” and calls him a “selfish dreamer”. She thinks that Tom purposely invited Jim, knowing he was engaged, just to shut her up, even though Tom had no idea. Tom finally goes off on his adventure, after Amanda drives him away once and for all. Everywhere he goes, Laura haunts him and he feels as though he has betrayed her by
In Tennessee William's The Glass Menagerie and in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, the characters endure similar crises. In Death of a Salesman, the protagonist, Willy Loman, is in a crisis of interrelated events: he is a salesman who has lost his wage and is not making enough off of commision to pay his bills, he has an unhealthy relationship with his son, Biff, and he is regretful of the decision he has made in the past to have an affair. Similarly, in The Glass Menagerie, the protagonist, Tom, finds himself in a conflict with his family, as he is not allowed the freedom he wishes even though he has to pay the rent. His sister, Laura, escapes from her problems and does not confront her mother when she drops out of business college, instead she pretends to go, escaping to places of entertainment. In both plays, it is revealed that the characters wish to escape from these conflicts: in Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman escapes by daydreaming and in the end for good by committing suicide. In The Glass Menagerie, Tom escapes by going to the movies, and in the end by leaving his family. In both plays the characters are placed in situations of crisis, and their crises are revealed through their continual attempts to escape, and through their interactions with other characters.
The author Tennesse Williams, tells the story from Tom's point of view rather than from any of the other characters, or from it taking place live because Williams wants the viewers to catch Tom's realism. Tom is the only character that has realistic goals. Moreover, Amanda wants her daughter to be popular, yet, her daughter is mentally handicapped around people, specifically, strangers. As a matter of fact, Laura is so inadequate socially that