themes of The Glass Menagerie is the difficulty the characters have in accepting and relating to reality. Reality has by far the weakest grasp on Laura. The private world in which she lives is populated by glass animals objects that, like Laura’s inner life, are incredibly fanciful. Unlike his sister, Tom is capable of functioning in the real world, as we see in his holding down a job and talking to strangers. Amanda unlike her children, she is partial to real-world values and longs for social and financial success.