Tennessee William's The Glass Menagerie?

Question:"In Spain there was Guernica. Here there were disturbances of labour, sometimes pretty violent, in otherwise peaceful cities such as Chicago, Cleveland, St Louis...."

"In memory everything seems to happen to music. That explains the fiddle in the wings"

Can anyone explain these lines please? Thanks.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: "In Spain there was Guernica. Here there were disturbances of labour, sometimes pretty violent, in otherwise peaceful cities such as Chicago, Cleveland, St Louis...."

"In memory everything seems to happen to music. That explains the fiddle in the wings"

Can anyone explain these lines please? Thanks.

In these lines, Tom is talking about world events at the time of the play. Guernica was a town in Spain that was destroyed by the Spanish Revolution when Franco deposed the Spanish monarchy. Many many men women and children were killed. The world was approaching World War II, and was in The Great Depression. Men and women who had jobs joined labor unions and entered into strikes for more money. The poor, which was almost everyone, in the cities of America, rioted or at least demonstrated in the streets wanting work, needing food and shelter.

The last lines are pretty much just what Tom says. There is supposed to be some background violin music. Tom breaks the fourth wall to explain why it is there.