What an Awful Analogy

In Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie, the main character and narrator, Tom, seems to resent his situation.  He constantly is at odds with his mother, Amanda, and doesn't seem to have anyone to help him deal with his feelings and emotions.  His sister, Laura, has the emotional capacity of a small child, and his best friend is a coworker he barely knows from high school.  His father, whose portrait hangs above the fireplace, left the family to explore the world.  Instead of resentment for his father, Tom actually seems to admire that course of action, and commonly contemplates and romanticizes excepting the house.  This is shown in the line, "You know it don't take much intelligence to get yourself into a nailed-up coffin, Laura.  But who in the hell ever got himself out of one with removing one nail? (As if in answer, the father's grinning photograph lights up.)" (Williams, 1249).  His sentence makes the coffin a symbol for his situation, as the one his father had once been in to a decree.  It is rather easy to get into a situation of unhappiness and resentment, but only an intelligent man can recognize they need to get out.  As if to show that Tom idealized his father's choice to leave, the light flips on after the comment was made.  This could also act as foreshadowing, as Tom may be inclined to follow his father's path.