Week 4 - (Extra Credit)

The Glass MenagerieConsider the issue of loyalty, one that certainly arises in The Glass Menagerie. The saying “blood is thicker than water”, clichéd as it may be, has a place here. How does the play treat this old adage? Does it support it? Reject it? Simply explore it? Be sure to use textual examples to support your point.One of the questions in the text asks whether the play is realistic or exaggerated. “Adjusting” to the time period in question (obviously, certain things wouldn’t appear realistic to us, now, but could/might have been then), discuss this question. It’s possible you find some parts realistic and others heightened for dramatic effect.“Critics are divided over Williams’ motivation in this play. Is he trying to get rid of Laura’s memory (based on his sister Rose who went mad and whom Williams deserted), or is he replaying the traumatic leaving?” If you are invested in authorial intent, this is a good question for you.
Answer: In the play, “The Glass Menagerie”, the saying “blood is thicker than water”, is rejected and his loyalty to his mother (Amanda) and his sister (Laura) is taking its toll. After his mother found out that Jim was not “available” and started nagging, he finally broke loose after Amanda told him to go to the movies. But instead he said, “…The more you shout about my selfishness to me the quicker I’ll go, and I won’t go to the movies”. Even though how loyal a son or daughter is to his or her family, there come a time that a child would leave the house especially when the child feels he or she being nagged by the parents or other factors for that matter. This is a memory play. Tom is being haunted by his memories. Everywhere he goes; there are things that remind him of Laura. As seen on page 392, “Tiny transparent bottles in delicate colors, like bits of a shattered rainbow…Oh, Laura, Laura, I tried to leave you behind me, but I am…” This is a play that is drawn by memory of the narrator.

“Forgiving My Father”Characterize the father in Lucille Clifton’s verse – who was he? What habits/values/beliefs/shortcomings do you identify? (Use the text to explain your ideas).Clifton uses “financial” metaphors and images throughout. How do these work? (Each use, of course, does not literally refer to the father’s money management). A conflict somewhat similar to Plath’s is here raised – what is it? Does the poem “resolve” this tension by its conclusion? Explain. (This, too, is the hallmark of New Criticism; New Critics identify all worth literature as made up of various tensions (often a main or “central” tension that, they say, are resolved, thus forming an “organic unity”).
Answer: The father in Lucille Clifton’s verse is about a father, who is deceased (“you have stood in my dreams like a ghost – line 3&4) irresponsible (asking for more time – line 3) liar (old liar – line 10) and lived a life of poverty (daddy old pauper- line 20).
Clifton uses financial metaphors and images. One “financial” metaphor is the mention of “payday” in the text. The word “payday” does not literally mean the day he is paid but this word indicates the losses they have incurred through the debts that the father has left behind.
The speaker has a lot of anger towards her parents and especially towards her father. She also shows her loyalty towards her mom as seen on paragraph 1 (my mother’s hand opens in her early grave and I hold it out like a good daughter).
On paragraph 2, the speaker speaks in a different mood. She mentions “daddy” twice (second and third paragraphs) but more as an insult than as a term of endearment. She says “…daddy old lecher, old liar” and “daddy old pauper old prisoner, old dead man “. On the same paragraph, she realizes that her father was “the son of a needy father, the father of a needy son”. That she has no control over of her father’s life before her birth. The father inherited a vicious cycle of having to live a “bad” life, following the footsteps of his own father.
“Payday” is mentioned here but this word does not reflect the literal meaning. To me, the speaker went to her parent’s grave for the last time and to tell them that it is time for her to leave all the “misfortunes” behind her. It is just a way of saying “it is payback time”.
Although the speaker shows her loyalty towards her mom, she also blames her mother live a “miserable” life. When she said, “you were each other’s bad bargain, not mine”, she meant that they deserve each other. They both bargained the life they had for each other. It is in the 3rd paragraph when she acknowledges that she was born into that family and she had no choice. She said that “you lie side by side in debtor’s boxes” meaning, her parents are “history” and just like the bills of debtor all piled up in box where it just stays, inside the box.
This poem is short and simple. No hard words or sentences that is very hard to understand. It is a poem of mixed emotions and feelings of an angry daughter towards her parents and who finally found a place in her heart to forgive her parents and actually feeling sorry for them.