Argument: Williams includes many symbols in his novels that make the novel the beat for the reader. Claim: The most dominant symbol in the novel is the dead end alleyway. Evidence: "Amanda, Tom, and Laura are all trapped, although in different ways, and each escapes into some kind of illusion. Laura, painfully shy because of her limp, spends much of her time with her glass animals (the menagerie of the title) and old phonograph records. Tom goes to the cinema and writes late into the night. Amanda, at a moment's notice, can escape into the past, forgetting in her reveries the brutal facts of her existence."

Argument: The apartment that the Wingfield's live in is a symbol and is alluded to throughout the play. Claim: The fire escape in their apartment can be contrasted to a place from their past. Evidence: "Williams contrasts the porch in Blue Mountain with the apartment's fire-escape landing, on which the family watches the moon rise over a delicatessen."