The Glass Menagerie - Trees Hate You

I'll be handling question 8 with this blog post: "To what extent does the play employ narration as a means of dramatic exposition?" Well I'll tell you, book. The narration of this play is kind of unique. The narrator is actually both a narrator who directly addresses the audience and breaks the fourth wall and a character who chills behind that fourth wall and directly partakes in the activities of the play itself. This allows Tom to do many things that would be otherwise impossible for just any simple character. Tom reveals many aspects of the play's backstory and symbolism. He illustrates the setting as America during the 1930's. He explains the meanings of many of the characters, including himself and his role as both narrator and character. And, potentially most important of all, he tells the audience about the fifth character who doesn't appear in the play: the father of the family, whose picture looks down on the entire play. Tom is able to introduce him and explain his significance to the play because he is able to act as a narrator. Furthermore, Tom's role as narrator allows the audience to recognize that he is the main character of the play, and that this memory illustrates Tom's memory. Ultimately, the use of Tom as a narrator aids the dramatic exposition in that he is able to explain and describe many things that help the audience understand the play.