TGM Adaptation Review

The glass of menagerie starts with Tom’s narrator who tells the main introduction to the story. He hates his life for working in a factory, instead, he loves adventure. However, since he has to take place for his father and support his mom Amanda and elder sister Laura, he could not get the freedom to achieve his dream as a writer. Inside his heart, he would like to leave as his father did, but Laura’s exits as a burden of him lead him to stay. Amanda is a mother whose husband leaves the house. It causes a huge influence on her since everything has changed in her life. So she keeps memorizing her past. But she has no choice for finding a job or marriage due to her age. As a result, she keeps nagging at her children a lot and talks about her seventeen gentleman callers a lot about her past. She is kind of living her own world which she thinks she always does the right things for her children. However, her determinations lead her to fight with Tom almost every day because of little things. Also, she is worried about their future, and she puts all of her hope on her daughter Laura, she asks her to stay clean and pretty to get a gentleman caller. Her marriage might change their life situation. However, Laura is such a different girl with others who stay in her own world and plays with her glass. One of her favorite glasses, the unicorn one could be a symbol of herself. She stays away from the world and seldom communicates with others. Because of these, he drops from the high school and quit the business school. She does not except the gentleman caller at all. The guy named Jim that Laura had a crush before in the high school becomes the gentleman caller in their house, but he gets engaged with others already. The truth not only breaks Laura’s heat as well as the way he broke her unicorn but also break all Amanda’s hope for life.

At the beginning of the movie version, Tom as the person who tells the whole background story is smoking on the street. His deep voice by reading the peom and slow melody background music create a sad and depressing feeling for the movie. The peom connects with the further plots which Tom is rotten into literature. The peom represents his sad emotion. At the same time, Also, his imagination of his sister occurs when the background music raises up. It is foreshadowing the ending that he gets out of the house and leave his sister alone. He always thinks about his sister Laura which implies that he might be guilty because of his leave. When the background music ends, Amanda's voice raises up. It could be described that Amanda is the person who always interrupts Tom when he is missing his sister. Also, she is also the person who interrupts his whole life. Amanda keeps talking and gagging to her children in the table. Her loud and quick speed of voice makes people feel she is kind of annoying. And then, she starts to memorize her past with seventeen gentleman callers. The screen becomes narrow and close to her face. Then, only her face is included on the screen. It kinds of foreshadowing that Amanda lives in her own world which is both in the realistic and imaginative world. Her memorize which only exists in her memory compare with her life right now, it leads us to understand why she keeps mentioning the gentleman callers, again and again, it is because of her anxious for her life. Then, she goes to the kitchen room, Laura stays on the table due to her mother's request for staying clean and pretty. However, the slow melody background music raises up to create a sad feeling when Laura said " I'm not popular. " She is inferiority and pessimism for herself which could be observed from the sentences. Since she is so different from others that sometimes her mom could not accept the truth. That makes her feels guilty to the house that she is not only the burden for Tom, but also she could not reach her mother Amanda's request to find a gentleman caller. 

When Laura plays with her glass, the brisk music best implies when she lives in her own world with glasses, she really enjoys and be happy and peaceful. Also, the background music kinds of magical and dreamy, it seems like that she lives in a dream world with her glass. However, the background music story by Amanda's coming into the house. The stands side by side. When she starts to talk about Laura's business school, she is so disappointed because of her ficial experiment such as frown. When Laura tells the truth that she just walks alone in the park with the crying voice. Then, she turns on the music at the same time. It is a kind of slow music with the happy melody which is kind of abrupt. I think it is a way to show that she is different from others. For normal people, they might not think about turning on the music when someone points out their fault and they feel guilty because of that. They comfort each other and then sit down on the sofa. Then, their sitting action is totally different from others when Laura I talking about her crash in high school. Laura is sitting there by holding hands with smiling on her face, she is memorizing her past memorize about Jim. She sits in front of Amanda which all the lights focus on her to create a feeling that she lives in her magical world. On the contrary, Amanda is sitting behind her in the shadow, she is sitting there without strong emotion. It is appearing that she is not that except about the high school crash since it has been passed for a long time. However, when Laura talks about that she had a crash with a guy before, she looks really excited about the story. The comparison explains her inside emotion that she would like Laura to find a gentleman caller right now. 

After Tom comes from the movie when he talks with Laura, the background music raises again and his voice becomes lower and more gentle. They become closer and talk about the deep thoughts in their mind. It shows appear about their relationship that they are really close. Then, she helps her take off his shoes and he gives her a gift. They simile with each other to create a cozy and warm environment. However, comparing with Amanda, she looks rude since she speaks loudly in an annoying way. Before Tom apologizes to her, they sit in the different directions on the desk. Amanda sits at the back of the desk. It seems like she does not want to communicate with Tom at all, she closes herself in her own world. Their body language and position create an awkward situation and at the same time, it foreshadowing that Tom will do something to change the situation since he is trying to apologize to her. 

We could understand more about Amanda's personality when Jim come to the dinner since she shows that she wants to show all of her advantages to others. She speaks extremely a lot in the beginning of the dinner. And most of them are useless. She even talks about the weather just like we start a conversation in an awkward way. At the ending part, when Jim and Laura are dancing, the lights and the background music creates a romantic feeling which shows that Laura falls in love in that moment. The music from the theater raises up and becomes their background music. It is slow and romantic. The lights move by their moving. When they turn around, the lights follow them. Everything seems like to be so romantic until Jim breaks Laura's unicorn. The unicorn which is a symbol of Laura loses its horn and becomes a normal house. It foreshadowing that Laura's life will have a large change since her brother Tom will leave as his father did. 

The movie version uses a lot of light and background music to show the emotion and the situation. I learned more from the movie version which I could develop my personal movie, just like the vampire version. Sometimes the background music will be extra if we put a lot into the movie.Also, it will influence the audience feeling about the movie. That's what I learn from the movie. I hope I could have more choice to learm from the movie and think about the direactor thoughts for creating the emotion. Thank you for the first semester, Ms. Guarino.