“Oh. Laura, Laura, I tried to leave you behind, but I'm more loyal than I meant to be!” The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is a memory game that emphasizes the impossibility of true escape. From 1929 to 1939 the country suffered a recession when the stock market crashed and caused the Great Depression which affected everyone financially. In The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, he uses literary devices such as simile, symbolism, and imagery to reveal the impossibility of true escape. Tennessee Williams uses symbolism to show the impossibility of true escape. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay What is the poem full of? The Use of Imagery and Allegory Tennessee Williams uses symbolism to emphasize the impossibility of true escape, showing Tom spending a lot of time on the fire escape. “Tom enters, dressed as a merchant seaman, and heads for the fire escape. There he stops and lights a cigarette. Tom walking on the fire escape and spending a lot of time there smoking resembles the way Tom will try to escape, almost escapes and then runs away. Except he doesn't actually escape because he still has memories of Laura. Symbolism is used to show the impossibility of a true escape when Tom argues with his mother and goes to the movies. “Where are you going? I'm going to the movies!" It is clear that the symbolism is used to show that Tom wants to escape his reality but can't. Whenever things in his house become unbearable, he leaves the house and goes to the movies. To conclude Tennessee Williams uses the symbolism to convey the impossibility of true escape. Tennessee Williams uses allegory to show the impossibility of true escape. Tennessee Williams uses Allegory when Amanda talks about her husband referring to her past. “A little disadvantage like that, they cultivate other things to compensate develop charm, liveliness and charm! that's all you have to do! What your father had a lot of was charm! because she blames him for putting her in the position of being a single mother when she could have been married to a landowner This shows that Amanda never really runs away because she doesn't find another husband and is still stuck with Laura when Tom leaves. Tennessee Williams uses Allegory when Laura refers to her past when she was in high school and liked Jim O'Connor. Tennessee Williams uses Allegory when Laura refers to her past when she was in high school and liked Jim O'Connor. “I said pleurosis – He asked me what I had when I came back. I said pleurosis, he thought I said blue roses! that's why he's always called me that ever since. I didn't care about the girl he was dating Emily Meisenbach. Emily was the best dressed girl in Soldan.” This is an allegory because the lesson Laura learns when she references her past is that she was too shy around people. She states that she didn't care about the girl Jim was dating because she was too shy. Conclusions and Final Thoughts In conclusion, Tennessee Williams uses allegory to show the impossibility of true escape. Tennessee Williams uses imagery to show the impossibility of true escape. The author uses imagery when Laura describes her collection of glass menageries to Jim. “Small articles, they are above all ornaments! Most of them are glass animals, the smallest animals exist in the world. Mama calls them a glass menagerie! Oh, be careful: if you breathe, it breaks. This shows how Tennessee Williams uses imagery to show the impossibility of a real one.