Shattered DreamsIn the 1930s, the American people just wanted to believe that there was something greater yet to be achieved. It was the time of the Great Depression and holding on to your dreams helped people survive. The very idea of ​​the American dream included wealth, freedom, power, and overall success. The American Dream believes that equal opportunity is provided to all Americans to succeed. During the time of the Great Depression, so many people who believed in this dream also believed that money and materials could bring them happiness. Tennessee Williams, who was an American author, published his "memory game" called The Glass Menagerie. This play takes place in 1937, at the height 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 due to the situation they are trapped in, they cannot never truly achieve the ideal American dream life. Tennessee Williams represents the American dream in the making 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 dreams so much of going far away and becoming a famous writer, but he seems tied to his home and that makes him unhappy. Tom doesn't get along well with his mother and resents her, but remains for his sister whom he loves very much even if she prevents him from living his dreams. He wants to have a big, prosperous future and live that ideal American dream, but he's so internally conflicted that he can't. A symbol that represents his desperation to leave is the fire escape of the Wingfield apartment. He states: “(The city) was burned... middle of paper... its only hope for a stable future. Amanda dreams of her daughter marrying a rich gentleman. After the truth about Jim O'Connor's fiancé is revealed, Amanda is almost as heartbroken as Laura as she realizes how unattainable her dream is. Amanda says to herself, “Don’t think of us, an abandoned mother, a crippled, unemployed single sister” (391). She's so frustrated with failing over and over again and she takes it out on Tom, with whom she already has a lot of tension. Tom is pushed to the limit and finally and unfortunately leaves them. Wingfield's apartment is like a prison that Amanda and Laura can never truly escape from. Although they believe in the American dream, Amanda in particular, they can never achieve it because they are trapped. Works Cited in Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. New York: New Directions, 1999. Print.