Broken DreamsIn the 1930s, the American people just wanted to believe that there was still something greater to be accomplished. It was the time of the Great Depression and holding onto one's dreams helped people survive. The very idea of ​​the American Dream included wealth, freedom, power, and overall success. The American Dream believes that all Americans have an equal opportunity to succeed. At the time of the Great Depression, many people who believed in this dream also believed that money and materials could buy them happiness. Tennessee Williams, who was an American author, published his “memory play” entitled The Glass Menagerie”. This comedy is set in 1937, in the midst of the Great Depression. Williams creates real struggles through his characters who all believe that there could be something greater waiting for them if they continue to work for it, but because of the situation they are trapped in, they can never achieve the life of the ideal American dream. Tennessee Williams represents the pending American dream through the characters of Tom, Laura and Amanda Wingfield. Tom Wingfield, who is the narrator of the play, is a very unhappy young man. He has many dreams of going far away and becoming a famous writer, yet he seems tied to his home and this makes him unhappy. Tom doesn't get along with his mother and resents her, but he stays for his sister who he loves very much even though she stops him from living his dreams. He wants to have an important and successful future and live the ideal of the American dream, but he is so internally conflicted that he cannot. One symbol that represents his desperation to leave is the fire escape in Wingfield's apartment. He states: “(The city) was burned… middle of paper… its only hope for a stable future. Amanda dreams of her daughter getting married to a rich gentleman. After the truth about Jim O'Connor's boyfriend is discovered, Amanda is almost as heartbroken as Laura as she realizes how unachievable her dream truly is. Amanda says to herself, "Think not of us, abandoned mother, unmarried sister, crippled and jobless" (391). She gets so frustrated at failing time after time and takes it out on Tom, who she already has a lot of tension with. Tom is pushed over the edge and finally and unfortunately leaves them. Wingfield's apartment is like a prison that Amanda and Laura can never truly escape. Even if they believe in the American dream, especially Amanda, they will never be able to achieve it because they are trapped. Works Cited Williams, Tennessee. The glass menagerie. New York: New Directions, 1999. Print.