The failure of technology in “The Glass Menagerie”

The failure of technology in “The Glass Menagerie”
Evan, Kayla, David, Abby

Thesis “A society intent on a future altered by technological development but one in which that the development fails to give ordinary people any significant progress” (Reynolds) Our analysis of this is; Tom’s family does not incorporate technology in their every day lives. However Tom uses technology as an excuse to escape his everyday life.

Main idea #1 Main Idea: “The prominent focus of the play is on personal levels of inadequacy--the fragile lives and conflicts of the Wingfieldfamily--rather then on a specific set of social, economic or political issues." Supporting claim: “Yet the only specific allusions to these events during the rest of the play are the incidental headline in Tom's newspaper about Spain, and Tom's narrated contrast between the Europe of Berchtesgaden, Chamberlain, and Guernica, and the St. Louis of the dance halls. Roger B. Stein sees in the allusions to the Depression and impending war a "note of social disaster [that] runs throughout the drama, fixing the lives of individuals against the larger canvas.” Analysis: The play was completely focused on the issues within the dynamics Wingfieldfamily; they appeared unaffected by the outside world.

Main Idea #2 Main Idea: "Williams does encourage us to place the play in some larger context." Supporting claim: "One pattern that looms in the background of the Wingfieldfamily is the way that changing economic and social modes can restrict the potential for happy and successful lives." Analysis: Tennessee Williams wanted the audience to look into and understand the Wingfield family and their experiences. Amanda grew up relatively unexposed to technology, as her exposure increased she lacked the capability to grasp the value offered by modern improvements.

Main Idea #3 Main Idea: "A specific agent for change that Williams alludes to time and again in the play is technology, one of the strongest forces to redirect society in the twentieth century.“ Supporting claim: “While one character, the ‘realist’ Jim O'Connor, sees the future of America as tied to progress in technology, the play consistently reiterates the failure of technology to achieve social or individual values--or, for that matter, even to function at a practical level.” Analysis: The rapid advancement that technology enables throughout the world spurred its popularity and peaked the curiosity of Tom. Even though the Wingfields’ were uneducated as to the demand for technology their lives were impacted by it in many ways.

Main Idea #4 Main Idea: "While many social upheavals have contributed to the Wingfields' personal situation, it is technology which confirms the hard boundary of elements beyond their control.“ Main Idea: "More explicitly, the ordinary technologies already taken for granted in American households by 1939 serve as markers that define within the play that limits the imposed on the Wingfields." Analysis: The telephone was a relatively commonplace piece of technology which the Wingfields were willing to embrace due to its perceived unobtrusiveness to their daily life. Yet the benefits of ease of communication were rapidly taken for granted in the reduction of previous tasks of letter writing or face-to-face communication.

Main Idea #5 Main Idea: “The entire Wingfieldfamily repeatedly demonstrates their failure under the new dispensation.” Supporting claim: “Amanda is vaguely aware of the central role technology ought to play in the world, but retreats to naïve faith when confronted by its complexity. Supporting claim: “Amanda comes from an agrarian Delta society, where her beaux are planters and sons of planters…” Analysis: Although the family is aware of technology; their lack of comfort in utilizing it prevents them from being able to depend on it forcing them to rely on age old practices.

Main Idea #5 (cont’d) Supporting claim: “Her lack of knowhow arises not from gender… but from dislocations of time and class in the history of her world.” In context: The author is talking about the lack of knowledge Amanda has when the lights flicker and go out. Supporting claim: “She is uninformed about the most basic practical level of controlling this domesticated manifestation of Edisonian* invention. *Edisonian invention meaning the lights

Main Idea #5 (cont’d) Supporting claim: “She is awed by scientific advances not on account of their practical value or the complexity of the theories that explain them, but the sense of “mystery” that surrounds them.” Analysis: Amanda’s has mental barrier for new technology, items that she is introduced to confound her understanding of the world, feeling foreign and create fear forcing her to label them as “mysterious”.

Main Idea #6 Main Idea: “Distant from both the practical and theoretical elements of technology, she [(Amanda)] is made its servant.” Supporting claim: “She earns cash through the telephone, an early telemarketing slave” Supporting claim: “Her opportunity is limited because her clients can control her by hanging up the phone.” Analysis: Amanda’s independence is completely dependent on technology; yet her fear of change prevents her from understanding anything about it.

Main Idea #7 Main Idea: “In their dual symbolic roles, film and phonograph bind together the levels of the play.” Analysis: These technologies bring together the personal and background levels of the play. Supporting claim: “These two devices serve Williams’ dramaturgy as symbols of the world of illusion which Tom and Laura escape to, symbols as strongly relevant… as the eponymous collection of glass animals.” Analysis: Tom and Laura rely on technologies to escape from their daily life.

Main Idea #8 Main Idea: “Louis Dupre… notes that the German philosopher attributes the “antisocial quality [of the division of labor] to the dominance of technology over human activity.” Analysis: Technology provides humans access to antisocial aspects in many of their activities. Supporting Claim: “We see Tom escaping from the warehouse… by retreating to the movies, a world of adventure.” Analysis: Tom escapes the drudgery of his job and mundane life, to the excitement and fantasy of his dream world captured in the movies. Supporting Claim: “The movies were the nation’s escape mechanism throughout the Depression and on into the war years”

Main Idea #9 Main Idea: “For Laura, the phonograph provides similar escape from the pressures of earning a living in a commercial world, relentless memorizing of charts to serve business interests.” Supporting claim: “Unlike the type writer, the mechanics of which are so alien to her temper that she throws up in class, the phonograph is soothing.” Analysis: Laura yearns for the simplicity of the traditional role in life as a southern woman, and would much rather take comfort in the simple joys of her glass menagerie.

Main Idea #10 Main Idea: “Technology ‘succeeds’ in providing escape from hard realities of life rather then easing the economical, political, and social problems of the time.” (Reynolds) Supporting claim: “For Tom, movies are analogous to drinking, and for Laura, the phonograph is the machinery that enables her withdrawal from the world.” (Reynolds) Analysis: Instead of the traditional excuse of a “southern man” of going to the bar to escape; technology and the advent of movies gives him a new escape severing the relationship between Amanda and Laura. Laura yearns for the simplicity of the traditional role in life as a southern woman, and would much rather take comfort in the simple joys of her glass menagerie.

Main Idea #11 Main Idea: “He (Jim) is also the potential entrepreneur of technological capitalism. ‘Knowledge’ means inventing new technologies and capitalizing on their financial success, which in turn gives the system power over those without technology.” Supporting claim: “I believe in the future of television . . . all that remains is for the industry itself to get under way! Full steam--(His eyes are starry) Knowledge--Zzzzzp! Money--Zzzzzzp!--Power!” Analysis: Jim plays a significant role in bringing the Wingfield family (due to Laura’s obsession with him) out of the dark into the new age of technological wonder. Had it not been for Laura’s infatuation with Jim, the Wingfield family would have avoided technology all together.

Main Idea #12 Main Idea: In the story “The Glass Menagerie” the character Jim is described by Ivan Pavlov as “Another member of the blind American middle class [who] just doesn't realize that men's destinies under capitalism are not shaped by personal virtues and self-perfection but by the operation of the ruthless economic laws of capitalist development.” Supporting claim: “…Jim’s more specific comments on progress and invention suggest a severely limited conception of what technology is about.” Analysis: Although Jim does not fully understand the “in’s and out’s” of technology; however, he does understand the projected growth and the expected financial gain in supporting the sale of technology. Jim’s interests lie solely in his personal gain, not the well being of others.

Main Idea #13 “Those without access to the real power of technology are limited as mere users unable to understand or control it.” Supporting claim: “They remain outside the sphere created by larger forces that place technology not as the servant of humanity but as a venture for capital investment, nationalistic rivalries, and costly toys.” Analysis: In Tom’s case, he cannot control the movie’s being shown at the time, the subject of the movie, the cost of the movie, or how it is made; however, the movie’s draws him in daily as an escape from reality. Even though Tom supports his mother and sister, technology has driven him to work for the escape.

Most Persuasive Claims The play mainly focuses upon the personal shortfalls that occur in a changing world Provides counterargument Gives clear examples from the text Technology illustrates the characters’ limited lives Goes into detail about Amanda’s naïve and mystical view of technology while also being dependent upon its use Uses quotes Explains how technology doesn’t alleviate Tom and Laura’s problems but instead provides an escape

Least Persuasive Claims The play’s use of household technologies seems to show that technology cannot satisfy society’s needs Doesn’t provide much support for this claim The use of technology does provide funds

Screen Projections in the Play “It is ironic that Williams depends on technological innovations for staging the play...” Within the play technology is used to illustrate the restricted lives of the Wingfields and also fails to assist individuals The screen projections are a type of technology used to stage the play – they provide the audience with insight into the themes and assist the play Could suggest a contradiction

The failure of technology in “The Glass Menagerie”