pt the loneliness and poverty that surrounds her, but desperately clings to her romanticized version of her past "Eternally play those worn-out phonograph records your father left as a painful reminder of him". (1871) She lives in a glass menagerie, a world that is built on illusion and that can be easily broken. Symbolism makes it clearer that her memories are really illusions. The lives of Tom, Laura, and Amanda are all symbols of different types of glass figurines; different glass menageries.Amanda's world of illusion is shattered by the truth of her existence. She is an older woman with no gentleman callers, and neither of the Wingfield children are able to really escape from their past. Laura remains trapped in her world of glass animals, while Tom escapes from his mother and sister to become a sailor....
