[Initial Moment] An Unusual Era

[Asia Economy Reporter Byunghee Park] Having worked at the Ministry of Culture for two years until last year, I still have a lingering attachment to it, so I often visit Daehangno recently. One of the plays I saw last month was "The Glass Menagerie."

"The Glass Menagerie" is the breakthrough work of American playwright Tennessee Williams (1911?1983). Williams, famous for "A Streetcar Named Desire," won the Pulitzer Prize twice.

There are four characters in the play: the mother "Amanda," the daughter "Laura," the son "Tom," and Jim, Tom's school friend and current coworker.

Tom is both a character and the narrator of the play. The play begins with Tom's narration. Tom's description of the play's historical background is interesting: "the peculiar 1930s."

The play depicts the daily life of an American family after the Great Depression (1929?1933). The mother only recalls her glamorous youth, the daughter does not go out due to a limp, and Tom suffers from the burden of having to support the family financially.

It is the image of a modest middle-class family struggling in the harsh social and economic environment following the Great Depression. Amanda, Laura, and Tom are all kind-hearted people who put their family first, but the bleak social and economic conditions unconsciously weigh heavily on them.

Photos from the Glass Menagerie performance [Photo by Geukgongjakso Mabangjin]

One can infer how devastated the era they lived in was by looking at the Dow Jones Industrial Average trends.

On September 3, 1929, the Dow closed at 381.17, marking an all-time high. About a month later, the Dow was swept into the vortex of the Great Depression. On October 28, it plunged 12.82%, and on October 29, 11.73%, heightening the sense of panic. The Dow recorded its all-time low closing price after the Great Depression on July 8, 1932, at 41.22, falling to the closing price of May 26, 1896, when the Dow was first traded (40.96).

In short, the Dow destroyed the tower it had built over 33 years from 1896 to 1929 in about three years. What kind of despair did people feel when stock prices that once approached 400 plummeted to 40?

Williams uses this devastated era as a backdrop to show how a small crack causes a family to break apart. Essentially, through a monotonous play that repeats scenes of the mother, son, and daughter eating together, it confirms how much the lives of those without financial leeway deteriorate when the economy is in crisis.

Wasn't the past year the most peculiar period for our generation? Who could have imagined last January that masks would become essential? News is pouring in that the economy is recovering faster than expected from the COVID-19 phase. However, this is likely just a superficial view confirmed by numbers.

When the economy fell into recession over the past year, how many people without financial cushion were pushed to the brink? Many worried about the widening wealth gap after COVID-19. As shown through Williams' "The Glass Menagerie," written in 1944, economic crises inflict greater pain on those who have nothing.

On April 28, U.S. President Joe Biden delivered his first joint session address since taking office. He declared, "The trickle-down effect does not work." This was a significant statement that could have considerable repercussions on the global economy. It seems he has correctly identified the direction to move forward. The key will be how far progress can be made despite strong resistance.