Tom's Unique Role as the Narrator

Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie is told from an extremely unique and unusual perspective.  He is an omniscient narrator, but in a mildly different respect.  Because this is a memory play, he is telling you a past event as it had happened too him, but has since past.  Because he is telling us the story, his memory has been altered and warped by certain thoughts and emotions.  He directly alludes to the fact that he is completely controlling the reader's view of the story when he said, "Yes, I have tricks in my pocket, I have things up my sleeve.  But I am the opposite of a stage magician.  He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth.  I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion." (Williams, 1236).  Oftentimes memory can be screwed, and not recalled exactly as it happened.  A situation sometimes seems more intense looking back, and as Tom says, many memories are accompanied with music.  This is likely because, and this principle is certainly applied in this story, memories are made to fit our context of them.  They may only include details that are favorable to the speaker's point, while never including the entire situation.  Some of the arguments that take place are likely exaggerated, and his sister's shyness may also be an object of strong embellishment.  Many other aspects of the story are likely also left out, in an attempt to justify this tale in Tom's mind.