Symbolism

The Glass Menagerie
by Tennessee Williams

As stated in the title, Laura's glass menagerie play a key role in the theme of the story.  The glass is small and frail.  Laura cares for the glass very much because it is like herself.  Laura is quiet and frail, but can have a subtle beauty, just like glass when it hits the right light.
The first time some glass is broken is when Tom and Amanda are having an argument and Tom shatters some glass pieces in his clumsy attempt to storm out.  "[The coat] strikes against the shelf of Laura's glass collection, there is a tinkling of shattered glass.  Laura cries out as if wounded" (Williams, 1248).  The glass is almost a part of her.  The shattered glass symbolizes how the innocent Laura is caught in between and harmed by the fights between her mother and brother.
Another example of the glass's symbolism is when Laura and Jim are talking about the little unicorn.  When Jim accidentally breaks the horn off the unicorn, Laura says, "Maybe it's a blessing in disguise...The horn was removed to make him feel less- freakish!" (Williams, 1282-3)  I see this as a symbol for how Jim made Laura feel less freakish.  That's why she let him keep it as a souvenir; she wanted him to remember how he helped her and that she cared for him as well.  Jim helped Laura come out of her shell a bit and develop an attachment toward a person over an attachment to glass.