First of all who is Tennessee Williams and what is
capitalism? Tennessee Williams is the author of the novel called The Glass Menagerie: and capitalism by definition is the trade and
exchange of wealth made by private individuals and corporations. Capitalism is
one of the causes of the great depression and Tennessee Williams addresses that
matter but towards the people. Tennessee Williams has an interesting way of
approaching this matter. He targets the people of the middle class rather than
putting the blame on a bigger element such as businesses. Some may say its
because he believes in change and the change starts in the people. However in
this quote, we see that Tennessee Williams is trying to make a point. But the
question is what is the point? “I reverse to the quaint period when the huge
middle class of America was matriculating in a school for the blind. Their eyes
had failed them or they have failed their eyes, and so they were having their
fingers pressed forcibly down on the fiery braille alphabet of a dissolving
economy.” Clearly we see that Williams doesn’t appoint a person to blame but he
focuses on the effects of the dissolving economy on the people. He states that
they are blind and their fingers are pressed forcibly down on the fiery braille
alphabet. Braille is the language of the blind and their fingers are pressed
forcibly meaning they didn’t choose to be put in that situation so they have to
deal with it. More importantly he states that it’s fiery, meaning painful. As
we’ve discussed in literature class one can conclude that Tennessee Williams believes
that there must be pain before gain. I find it interesting that Williams
chooses to target the people to make the change than the ones in charge of
government, because most people will choose to target government and politics.
