Tyler's story "Alice's Snazzy Pajamas", a poor, hard-working woman finds a silken treasure, a pair of barely used, expensive pajamas in the local Goodwill Thrift Store. These pajamas become her special escape, her window with a view, from her hard life into a glamorous world, like Hollywood, that she may never know. Sadly, her nephew spills juice on the pajamas and it becomes ruined. Alice still keeps the pajamas, and takes them out now and again, carefully arranging it so the stains are hidden. She never wears them again. Throughout the story, Tyler uses symbolism to show that there is always time for your dreams in spite of reality, even in the smallest things. .
In the beginning of the story, Alice is searching for cheap, functional sleepwear in a back corner of the store where she finds beauty instead. She finds a soft, magical piece of silk that can take her to another world, fulfill her dreams in a small way. She finds silk pajamas for only $3 that normally would have cost $220. "Alice had never owned anything like it. Never expected to. She was spellbound just looking at them"(3). With these pajamas, she feels like a movie star. "She felt like someone special"(4). She can pretend that tomorrow she doesn"t have to get up and slave away another day.
As soon as Alice gets off work, she looks forward to her pajamas. She has to fight to find a seat on the bus ride home. While she rides, she fantasizes about a life where you could have the best things without a struggle. "Her pajamas got her through four and a half months"(5). She treats her pajamas with the greatest of care, washing it in Ivory Snow, hang drying , ironing, and hanging it up in her doorway so she can see them. .
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They are so important to her, she only wears them "an hour or so every night after a shower and before going to bed"(5). When Alice wears her pajamas, she likes to "pose" in them, get even deeper into her fantasy of the "good life".