Comparing 'The Glass Menagerie And Facing It'
Bangura 1
George Bangura
Ms. McKee
English 1102
16 April 2013
Illusion and Reality In life, things don’t always turn out like people want them to. Some people are lucky enough to have everything they need and want, whiles others wish their situations whether it be financial situations, health situations, family problems, relationships, sorrows …were different. It is therefore only natural for some people to sometimes fantasize about the things they most desire. In literary works like “The Things They Carried,” “The Glass Menagerie,” and
“Facing It,” the authors Tim O’Brien, Tennessee Williams, and Yusef Komunyakaa respectively, publicized their characters quest to change their situations. In “The Things They Carried,” the …show more content…
narrator expressed his wishful intentions to change his relationship with his friend Martha. In
“The Glass Menagerie,” the character Laura of the Wingfield family conveyed hopelessness and insecurity as a result from her illhealth circumstance, hindering her ability to socially function in life like any normal person, and forcing her to create a world of illusion as oppose to living in
reality.
In “Facing It,” the narrator longed to have a reconnection with his friends lost in war. The characters effort to pursue their desires by living in a world of fantasy conveyed by their thoughts and reflections, led them to constant struggles to differentiate and keep a balance between both worlds, resulting in the creation of two parallel worlds (a world of illusion in contrast to living in reality).
Bangura 2
Thoughts have been a significant medium through which the authors of all three literary works have demonstrated struggle between illusion and reality. In the story “The Things They
Carried,” author Tim O’Brien used the character Jimmy Cross’s thoughts to create a fantasy world. The story told of Jimmy Cross’s relationship with his friend back home Martha, with whom he communicates with on a regular basis. Furthermore, the author Tim O’Brien revealed
Jimmy Cross’s thoughts openly to the readers on his delusional thoughts towards Martha, which brought about his struggle to separate his fantasies from reality. For example, he would often retire his night wondering “if Martha was a virgin” (O’Brien 344). Other instances where he vividly described Martha from the pictures: “Her eyes were gray and neutral, her lips …show more content…
slightly open as she stared straighton at the camera…her legs, he thought, were almost certainly the legs of a virgin, dry and without hair” (O’Brien 345).
Other examples were times Lieutenant Cross would go back in time and reflect about some of the special moments he shared with Martha in the past before he departed for the war, like their movie date: “the movie was
Bonnie and Clyde
, during the final scene he touched her knew…he remembered kissing her good night at the dorm door” and how he wish he could have done things differently with Martha: “He should’ve carried her up the stairs to her room and tied her to the bed and touched that left knee all night long” (O’Brien 346). Truth about “Illusion vs.
Reality” themed in this story was in fact confirmed by the author himself Tim O’Brien in an interview where he was asked to give his reason on why he “blurred the line between fiction and nonfiction” (Smith). According to Mr. O’Brien, his first justification was that he wanted to
“compose a fiction with the texture, sound and authenticseeming weight of nonfiction… with an interesting, compelling, and fresh way of telling a story” (Smith). Mr. O’Brien’s second reason
Bangura 3
of why he told the story the way he did is because he wanted the readers to know that soldiers in war are not just cold hearted and programmed to fight, but they also experience normal, everyday activities like heartbreak – “Yes, there is a real war going, with real casualties and real horror, but at the same time those realities are being processed in a mix of memory and imagination” (Smith). Jimmy Cross’s fantasy to be loved so dearly by Martha separated him from the realities of war and being an efficient leader to his subordinates.
Likewise in the poem “Facing It,” the narrator uses reflection through the use of memories and flashbacks. In this poem, the author Yusef Komunyakaa like Tim O’Brien shared the reality of the Vietnam War. However, in the poem “Facing It,” the author who is also the narrator is not presently in the war like Tim O’Brien’s Jimmy Cross, but an exsoldier/veteran who is visiting the “Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C” (Marvin, para.1). The narrator’s visit to the memorial brought back unpleasant memories, feeling of guilt, and flashbacks of his past experiences which made it difficult for him to control his awareness of time and of what is real or not; the narrator was unable to differentiate the memories from his past to what was currently happening as he was in the Memorial. For example from line 1427, as the narrator go through the names of the soldiers lost in war, he said:
I go down the 58,022 names, half expecting to find my own in letters like smoke. I touch the name Andrew
Johnson; I see booby trap’s white flash…A plane in the
Bangura 4
sky. A white vet’s image floats closer to me, then his pale eyes look through mine.
(Komunyakaa 651)
The narrator expressed his feeling of guilt when he revealed about expecting to find his name among the other soldiers who lost their lives in the war which might signify that he would have preferred dying an honorable death along with his friends in battle than be in a memorial honoring them. It almost seems like he didn’t want to deal with the fact that he was alive but his friends were not. When the narrator saw his friend’s name Andrew Johnson, he started having flashbacks about memories of his experience the war. According to Thomas Marvin, the memorial was the place where “past, present, and future meets,” where people came to rekindle their relationships with the dead (Marvin). The narrator’s ability to vividly remember the exact circumstance in which his comrades died reflects the overwhelming guilt that overshadows him.
The narrator’s inability to accept and come to terms with the truth and reality about the loss of his veteran friends led him to struggle with illusions about the war. In line 2931, the narrator said he saw “in the black mirror a woman trying to erase names,” but then moments later he realized that he was only looking at a woman “brushing a boy’s hair” (Komunyakaa 650). The narrator’s wishful hopes that the memorial will help him rekindle a form of relationship and communication with the dead, and his overpowering desire to resurrect his fallen companions led him to have illusionary visions and misinterpretation of reality.
Lastly, in the play “The Glass Menagerie,” the author Tennessee Williams also used reflections through the use of flashbacks to show the struggles the characters go through to
Bangura 5
differentiate the present from the past (Wang).
According to Qun Wang, Tennessee Williams has always been known to create literary works where the characters live in a world of fantasy, and struggle from “selfdeception” (Wang). To further on the topic of fantasy, in the play “The Glass
Menagerie,” the author’s use flash backs, selfdeception, and illusion was mostly centered on the character Laura. According to the play, Laura was the youngest of a family of three which included her mother Amanda, and her brother Tom Wingfield. The character Laura is said to be crippled since childhood, as a result of an illness. Laura’s disability has led her to build some sought of defense mechanism where she alienates herself from the outside world and reality.
According to the play, Laura took great interest in glass animals which she has a collection of, serving as distraction and excuse for her to face the real world. These hidden emotions of insecurity and confidence surfaced when she rekindled with her old school mate Jim. Jim
O’Connor was invited to the house one evening by Laura’s brother Tom who is also
Jim’s coworker at a warehouse, for dinner. Laura’s mother Amanda had underlying intentions for the dinner, which was for Jim to meet Lauran in hopes that they would be attracted to each other and spark a love connection (Williams 949973). Unknowingly to Wingfield family, Jim was Laura’s old high school crush (949973). Nevertheless, Jim and Laura had the chance to rekindle their relationship which brought about the flashbacks for Laura (949973). Laura starts to remind Jim of events that happened in high school, all of which Jim couldn’t even remember (949973). The fact that Jim couldn’t remember most of the claims Laura made of her high school memories with him reveals that Laura might have had problems socializing and miserable years in school because of her disability; hence her high school mates like Jim barely acknowledged her
Bangura 6
existence which strongly might have led to her alienation with the world. According to Qun
Wang, Laura’s disability increased her selfconsciousness:
She builds her fantasy she builds her own fantasy world with her glassanimal friends and many old records. Laura, however, is more than a prisoner of her own deformed consciousness. (Wang)
Personally, I agree with Mr. Wang that Laura’s insecurity and lack of confidence about her deformity has entrapped her into the fantasy world of her mind, imprisoning her from the reality of the outside world and what it entails like going to college, building a career, meeting new people and even finding love for herself as oppose to relying on her mother to find her a husband. The authors of the three literary works have portrayed the use of thoughts and reflections to display desires. Thoughts and reflections were expressed by the characters through flashbacks, fantasies, and holding on to the past; this resulted to the creation of illusionary worlds by the characters, as oppose to living in reality. In “The Things they Carried,” the main character
Jimmy fantasized about having a love relationship with his friend Martha, which led him to lose control and awareness of the reality (war) around him. In “Facing It,” the narrator held on to the past and had flashbacks because he desired to reconnect with his lost comrades, leading him to lose count of reality, and started seeing imaginary visions. Finally in “The Glass Menagerie,” the character Laura underlying desire to be normal led her to seclude herself from reality.
Bangura 7
Work Cited Page
Gardner Janet, et al.
Literature: A Portable Anthology
. Boston: Bedford ST. Martin’s, 2013.
Print.
Marvin, Thomas F. "Komunyakaa 's Facing It."
Explicator
61.4 (2003): 242245.
Literary
Reference Center
. Web. 2 Apr. 2013.
Smith, Jack. "The Things He Carries: For Tim O’Brien, The Vietnam War Has Remained A
Crucible In His Fiction, But The Power Of Imagination And Memory, And 'Our Elusive
Interior Worlds, ' Loom Large, Too."
Writer
123.7 (2010): 1647.
Literary Reference
Center
. Web. 2 Apr. 2013.
Wang, Qun. "The Glass Menagerie."
Masterplots II: Juvenile & Young Adult Literature Series,
Supplement
(1997): 12.
Literary Reference Center
. Web. 2 Apr. 2013.
Bangura 8
George Bangura
Ms. McKee
English 1102
16 April 2013
Illusion and Reality In life, things don’t always turn out like people want them to. Some people are lucky enough to have everything they need and want, whiles others wish their situations whether it be financial situations, health situations, family problems, relationships, sorrows …were different. It is therefore only natural for some people to sometimes fantasize about the things they most desire. In literary works like “The Things They Carried,” “The Glass Menagerie,” and
“Facing It,” the authors Tim O’Brien, Tennessee Williams, and Yusef Komunyakaa respectively, publicized their characters quest to change their situations. In “The Things They Carried,” the narrator expressed his wishful intentions to change his relationship with his friend Martha. In
Bangura 9
“The Glass Menagerie,” the character Laura of the Wingfield family conveyed hopelessness and insecurity as a result from her illhealth circumstance, hindering her ability to socially function in life like any normal person, and forcing her to create a world of illusion as oppose to living in reality. In “Facing It,” the narrator longed to have a reconnection with his friends lost in war. The characters effort to pursue their desires by living in a world of fantasy conveyed by their thoughts, and their constant struggles to differentiate and keep a balance between both worlds led to a creation of two parallel worlds (a world of illusion in contrast to living in reality).
Thoughts have been a significant medium through which the authors of all three literary works have demonstrated struggle between illusion and reality. Lieutenant Cross appeared to be delusional through is thoughts. Several instances were given from the story, instances where he would escape from war surrounding into his mind, and have fanciful, obsessive thoughts about
Martha. For example, he would often retire his night wondering “if Martha was a virgin”
(O’brien 344). Other instances where he vividly described Martha from the pictures: “Her eyes were gray and neutral, her lips slightly open as she stared straighton at the camera…her legs, he thought, were almost certainly the legs of a virgin, dry and without hair” (O’brien 345). Other examples were times Lieutenant Cross had thoughts about some of the special moments he shared with Martha before he departed for the war, like their movie date: “the movie was Bonnie and Clyde, during the final scene he touched her knew…he remembered kissing her good night at the dorm door” and how he wish he could have done things differently with Martha: “He should’ve carried her up the stairs to her room and tied her to the bed and touched that left knee all night long” (O’brien 346). Lieutenant Cross’s delusional fantasies and thoughts even
Bangura 10
emphasize his scary obsession with Ms. Martha. The amount of time Mr. Cross spends thinking about Ms. Martha in the story, one would never think he is in a war zone. Lieutenant Cross’s obsession and delusions towards his desire for Martha’s love led to his main struggle of this story – guilt. Mr. Cross spent most of his time dreaming about a perfect world where he and Martha were intimate, instead of being an effective Lieutenant governing his soldiers. It all came crashing for Lieutenant Cross when one of his soldiers under him Ted Lavender got killed. The death of Ted Lavender left Lieutenant Cross feeling “shame” and “hate” towards himself, feeling guilty that “he had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war” (O’brien 353). According to the story, all Lieutenant
Cross could do was “dig” (O’brien 353). Ted was dead, reality and guilt came rushing in, he didn’t have Martha’s love, “he realized she did not love him and never would” and he blamed himself for everything.
Bangura 11
George Bangura
Ms. McKee
English 1102
16 April 2013
Illusion and Reality In life, things don’t always turn out like people want them to. Some people are lucky enough to have everything they need and want, whiles others wish their situations whether it be financial situations, health situations, family problems, relationships, sorrows …were different. It is therefore only natural for some people to sometimes fantasize about the things they most desire. In literary works like “The Things They Carried,” “The Glass Menagerie,” and
“Facing It,” the authors Tim O’Brien, Tennessee Williams, and Yusef Komunyakaa respectively, publicized their characters quest to change their situations. In “The Things They Carried,” the …show more content…
narrator expressed his wishful intentions to change his relationship with his friend Martha. In
“The Glass Menagerie,” the character Laura of the Wingfield family conveyed hopelessness and insecurity as a result from her illhealth circumstance, hindering her ability to socially function in life like any normal person, and forcing her to create a world of illusion as oppose to living in
reality.
In “Facing It,” the narrator longed to have a reconnection with his friends lost in war. The characters effort to pursue their desires by living in a world of fantasy conveyed by their thoughts and reflections, led them to constant struggles to differentiate and keep a balance between both worlds, resulting in the creation of two parallel worlds (a world of illusion in contrast to living in reality).
Bangura 2
Thoughts have been a significant medium through which the authors of all three literary works have demonstrated struggle between illusion and reality. In the story “The Things They
Carried,” author Tim O’Brien used the character Jimmy Cross’s thoughts to create a fantasy world. The story told of Jimmy Cross’s relationship with his friend back home Martha, with whom he communicates with on a regular basis. Furthermore, the author Tim O’Brien revealed
Jimmy Cross’s thoughts openly to the readers on his delusional thoughts towards Martha, which brought about his struggle to separate his fantasies from reality. For example, he would often retire his night wondering “if Martha was a virgin” (O’Brien 344). Other instances where he vividly described Martha from the pictures: “Her eyes were gray and neutral, her lips …show more content…
slightly open as she stared straighton at the camera…her legs, he thought, were almost certainly the legs of a virgin, dry and without hair” (O’Brien 345).
Other examples were times Lieutenant Cross would go back in time and reflect about some of the special moments he shared with Martha in the past before he departed for the war, like their movie date: “the movie was
Bonnie and Clyde
, during the final scene he touched her knew…he remembered kissing her good night at the dorm door” and how he wish he could have done things differently with Martha: “He should’ve carried her up the stairs to her room and tied her to the bed and touched that left knee all night long” (O’Brien 346). Truth about “Illusion vs.
Reality” themed in this story was in fact confirmed by the author himself Tim O’Brien in an interview where he was asked to give his reason on why he “blurred the line between fiction and nonfiction” (Smith). According to Mr. O’Brien, his first justification was that he wanted to
“compose a fiction with the texture, sound and authenticseeming weight of nonfiction… with an interesting, compelling, and fresh way of telling a story” (Smith). Mr. O’Brien’s second reason
Bangura 3
of why he told the story the way he did is because he wanted the readers to know that soldiers in war are not just cold hearted and programmed to fight, but they also experience normal, everyday activities like heartbreak – “Yes, there is a real war going, with real casualties and real horror, but at the same time those realities are being processed in a mix of memory and imagination” (Smith). Jimmy Cross’s fantasy to be loved so dearly by Martha separated him from the realities of war and being an efficient leader to his subordinates.
Likewise in the poem “Facing It,” the narrator uses reflection through the use of memories and flashbacks. In this poem, the author Yusef Komunyakaa like Tim O’Brien shared the reality of the Vietnam War. However, in the poem “Facing It,” the author who is also the narrator is not presently in the war like Tim O’Brien’s Jimmy Cross, but an exsoldier/veteran who is visiting the “Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C” (Marvin, para.1). The narrator’s visit to the memorial brought back unpleasant memories, feeling of guilt, and flashbacks of his past experiences which made it difficult for him to control his awareness of time and of what is real or not; the narrator was unable to differentiate the memories from his past to what was currently happening as he was in the Memorial. For example from line 1427, as the narrator go through the names of the soldiers lost in war, he said:
I go down the 58,022 names, half expecting to find my own in letters like smoke. I touch the name Andrew
Johnson; I see booby trap’s white flash…A plane in the
Bangura 4
sky. A white vet’s image floats closer to me, then his pale eyes look through mine.
(Komunyakaa 651)
The narrator expressed his feeling of guilt when he revealed about expecting to find his name among the other soldiers who lost their lives in the war which might signify that he would have preferred dying an honorable death along with his friends in battle than be in a memorial honoring them. It almost seems like he didn’t want to deal with the fact that he was alive but his friends were not. When the narrator saw his friend’s name Andrew Johnson, he started having flashbacks about memories of his experience the war. According to Thomas Marvin, the memorial was the place where “past, present, and future meets,” where people came to rekindle their relationships with the dead (Marvin). The narrator’s ability to vividly remember the exact circumstance in which his comrades died reflects the overwhelming guilt that overshadows him.
The narrator’s inability to accept and come to terms with the truth and reality about the loss of his veteran friends led him to struggle with illusions about the war. In line 2931, the narrator said he saw “in the black mirror a woman trying to erase names,” but then moments later he realized that he was only looking at a woman “brushing a boy’s hair” (Komunyakaa 650). The narrator’s wishful hopes that the memorial will help him rekindle a form of relationship and communication with the dead, and his overpowering desire to resurrect his fallen companions led him to have illusionary visions and misinterpretation of reality.
Lastly, in the play “The Glass Menagerie,” the author Tennessee Williams also used reflections through the use of flashbacks to show the struggles the characters go through to
Bangura 5
differentiate the present from the past (Wang).
According to Qun Wang, Tennessee Williams has always been known to create literary works where the characters live in a world of fantasy, and struggle from “selfdeception” (Wang). To further on the topic of fantasy, in the play “The Glass
Menagerie,” the author’s use flash backs, selfdeception, and illusion was mostly centered on the character Laura. According to the play, Laura was the youngest of a family of three which included her mother Amanda, and her brother Tom Wingfield. The character Laura is said to be crippled since childhood, as a result of an illness. Laura’s disability has led her to build some sought of defense mechanism where she alienates herself from the outside world and reality.
According to the play, Laura took great interest in glass animals which she has a collection of, serving as distraction and excuse for her to face the real world. These hidden emotions of insecurity and confidence surfaced when she rekindled with her old school mate Jim. Jim
O’Connor was invited to the house one evening by Laura’s brother Tom who is also
Jim’s coworker at a warehouse, for dinner. Laura’s mother Amanda had underlying intentions for the dinner, which was for Jim to meet Lauran in hopes that they would be attracted to each other and spark a love connection (Williams 949973). Unknowingly to Wingfield family, Jim was Laura’s old high school crush (949973). Nevertheless, Jim and Laura had the chance to rekindle their relationship which brought about the flashbacks for Laura (949973). Laura starts to remind Jim of events that happened in high school, all of which Jim couldn’t even remember (949973). The fact that Jim couldn’t remember most of the claims Laura made of her high school memories with him reveals that Laura might have had problems socializing and miserable years in school because of her disability; hence her high school mates like Jim barely acknowledged her
Bangura 6
existence which strongly might have led to her alienation with the world. According to Qun
Wang, Laura’s disability increased her selfconsciousness:
She builds her fantasy she builds her own fantasy world with her glassanimal friends and many old records. Laura, however, is more than a prisoner of her own deformed consciousness. (Wang)
Personally, I agree with Mr. Wang that Laura’s insecurity and lack of confidence about her deformity has entrapped her into the fantasy world of her mind, imprisoning her from the reality of the outside world and what it entails like going to college, building a career, meeting new people and even finding love for herself as oppose to relying on her mother to find her a husband. The authors of the three literary works have portrayed the use of thoughts and reflections to display desires. Thoughts and reflections were expressed by the characters through flashbacks, fantasies, and holding on to the past; this resulted to the creation of illusionary worlds by the characters, as oppose to living in reality. In “The Things they Carried,” the main character
Jimmy fantasized about having a love relationship with his friend Martha, which led him to lose control and awareness of the reality (war) around him. In “Facing It,” the narrator held on to the past and had flashbacks because he desired to reconnect with his lost comrades, leading him to lose count of reality, and started seeing imaginary visions. Finally in “The Glass Menagerie,” the character Laura underlying desire to be normal led her to seclude herself from reality.
Bangura 7
Work Cited Page
Gardner Janet, et al.
Literature: A Portable Anthology
. Boston: Bedford ST. Martin’s, 2013.
Print.
Marvin, Thomas F. "Komunyakaa 's Facing It."
Explicator
61.4 (2003): 242245.
Literary
Reference Center
. Web. 2 Apr. 2013.
Smith, Jack. "The Things He Carries: For Tim O’Brien, The Vietnam War Has Remained A
Crucible In His Fiction, But The Power Of Imagination And Memory, And 'Our Elusive
Interior Worlds, ' Loom Large, Too."
Writer
123.7 (2010): 1647.
Literary Reference
Center
. Web. 2 Apr. 2013.
Wang, Qun. "The Glass Menagerie."
Masterplots II: Juvenile & Young Adult Literature Series,
Supplement
(1997): 12.
Literary Reference Center
. Web. 2 Apr. 2013.
Bangura 8
George Bangura
Ms. McKee
English 1102
16 April 2013
Illusion and Reality In life, things don’t always turn out like people want them to. Some people are lucky enough to have everything they need and want, whiles others wish their situations whether it be financial situations, health situations, family problems, relationships, sorrows …were different. It is therefore only natural for some people to sometimes fantasize about the things they most desire. In literary works like “The Things They Carried,” “The Glass Menagerie,” and
“Facing It,” the authors Tim O’Brien, Tennessee Williams, and Yusef Komunyakaa respectively, publicized their characters quest to change their situations. In “The Things They Carried,” the narrator expressed his wishful intentions to change his relationship with his friend Martha. In
Bangura 9
“The Glass Menagerie,” the character Laura of the Wingfield family conveyed hopelessness and insecurity as a result from her illhealth circumstance, hindering her ability to socially function in life like any normal person, and forcing her to create a world of illusion as oppose to living in reality. In “Facing It,” the narrator longed to have a reconnection with his friends lost in war. The characters effort to pursue their desires by living in a world of fantasy conveyed by their thoughts, and their constant struggles to differentiate and keep a balance between both worlds led to a creation of two parallel worlds (a world of illusion in contrast to living in reality).
Thoughts have been a significant medium through which the authors of all three literary works have demonstrated struggle between illusion and reality. Lieutenant Cross appeared to be delusional through is thoughts. Several instances were given from the story, instances where he would escape from war surrounding into his mind, and have fanciful, obsessive thoughts about
Martha. For example, he would often retire his night wondering “if Martha was a virgin”
(O’brien 344). Other instances where he vividly described Martha from the pictures: “Her eyes were gray and neutral, her lips slightly open as she stared straighton at the camera…her legs, he thought, were almost certainly the legs of a virgin, dry and without hair” (O’brien 345). Other examples were times Lieutenant Cross had thoughts about some of the special moments he shared with Martha before he departed for the war, like their movie date: “the movie was Bonnie and Clyde, during the final scene he touched her knew…he remembered kissing her good night at the dorm door” and how he wish he could have done things differently with Martha: “He should’ve carried her up the stairs to her room and tied her to the bed and touched that left knee all night long” (O’brien 346). Lieutenant Cross’s delusional fantasies and thoughts even
Bangura 10
emphasize his scary obsession with Ms. Martha. The amount of time Mr. Cross spends thinking about Ms. Martha in the story, one would never think he is in a war zone. Lieutenant Cross’s obsession and delusions towards his desire for Martha’s love led to his main struggle of this story – guilt. Mr. Cross spent most of his time dreaming about a perfect world where he and Martha were intimate, instead of being an effective Lieutenant governing his soldiers. It all came crashing for Lieutenant Cross when one of his soldiers under him Ted Lavender got killed. The death of Ted Lavender left Lieutenant Cross feeling “shame” and “hate” towards himself, feeling guilty that “he had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war” (O’brien 353). According to the story, all Lieutenant
Cross could do was “dig” (O’brien 353). Ted was dead, reality and guilt came rushing in, he didn’t have Martha’s love, “he realized she did not love him and never would” and he blamed himself for everything.
Bangura 11