Tom's Illusions

Tom, a victim of emotional stress and abuse, often turns to his “illusions” of adventure to escape from the pain of his daily life. Some of the pain that Tom experiences is constant nagging from his mother, discontent with his job, all of these culminate to a dissatisfaction with his present life in general. Humans, in this case Tom, when dissatisfied with present conditions, turn inward and look to illusions to give them joy and comfort.
When Tom was younger, his father left his family leaving Tom as the head of the household. This unexpected stress is a major factor for Tom’s behavior during the story. Due to his father’s absence, Tom was left with the responsibility of paying for the bills and managing all of the household finances. His

Rise and Shine!" I say to myself, "How lucky dead people are!" But I get up. I go! For sixty-five dollars a month I give up all that I dream of doing and being ever! And you say self - self's all I ever think of. Why, listen, if self is what I thought of, Mother, I'd be where he is GONE!" Tom desperately needs to leave his current home. Tom’s mother realizes her son’s great discontent and gives Tom a window of escape. Tom’s window is to find his sister Laura a suitable husband and if he does he is able to leave and pursue his life of adventure. With this new option in mind, Tom has a revived purpose in his life and he pursues it. He returns to the dreaded shoe house factory and proceeds to ask his best friend Jim to come over for dinner. With a great deal of irony Jim was the one boy that Laura had liked during high school. As the night progressed Jim and Laura fall into conversation and Jim kisses Laura. At the climax, however, Jim reveals he is already engaged to another woman and proceeds to leave a heartbroken Laura and a shocked Jim and Amanda. Amanda then accuses Tom saying “You don’t know things anywhere! You live in a dream: you manufacture illusions.” This was the final straw, Tom left his home for