The Many Sides of Tom - Book Report/Review Example

Tom longs for controversy. The demands of Amanda and the incessant needs of Laura were not enough for Tom. He treasured the edges of conflict that his father had inherited to him. Tom, ever in search of new horizons, looks beyond his dull household members and finds that his family arrangements fall short of his own social expectations. He pronounces, "Here there was only shouting and confusion and labor disturbances, sometimes violent, in otherwise peaceful cities." (11). With an emphasis on "only", Tom had read the news from Europe and was not above strapping his nuclear family with his own expectations.

In many ways, Tom views himself as a savior, and in doing so tries vainly to pass his troubled present off as some superior placement from the past. The dominating mother can know nothing of his complicated life, and his poor, dimwitted sister will never be able to taste the love for life that he has. As if rising above his own surroundings he tells Amanda, "Mother, Laura lives in a world of little glass animals. She plays old phonograph records - and that's about all" (39). His exit to the fire escape solidifies his sense of superiority as he has made clear that no one here can possibly have anything that will interest him.

His own world was so filled with self-promotion that when he remarks about Laura's suitor, Jim, He says, "I was valuable to Jim as someone who could remember his former glory" (41). Tom craves recognition, not only from his family but also from any contact they may have from the outside world. This is his world. His hardship. His play.Tom embodies the frustrating contradiction that is at the soul of every being human. Tom lives in his tormented present and reaches out for a future that does not exist.

Torn between the two, his self-serving sense of survival turns to the only path he has knows. The path of his father, driven by Amanda, becomes his escape route. Shallow and without regard for the misery he will leave behind he will forever remain haunted by his guilt. He is not driven by respect for Laura, love for Amanda, or even his own ideals. He is propelled forward by fear and guilt. Tom is a shallow man looking for a small sense of self in a world that has collapsed around him. Tom takes no responsibility for the doom he faces.

Tom will never realize a position that was better than his father, roaming the earth with guilt and self-loathing. He is doomed to repeat the process and in doing so perpetuates the generational curse inflicted on all of us.Trying to rise out of the ashes of the Great Depression and with nowhere to go, Williams painted Tom with a strikingly narrow brush. Self-absorbed and with an unrealistic sense of self-importance, Tom confronts the world. through poetry, movies, magic, and a simple escape trick.

Tom is a man with the hellfire of brimstone weighing him down and pulling him deeper into the pit of anxiety while his soul is reaching for higher ground. But for Tom, his temperament already molded by his father, there is no higher ground. There is only treading water in a world swelling with hardship, memories, and the need to make himself useful. Tom fails to resurrect his own situation and make his life with Amanda and Laura a safe place to be. Tom bailed out. Tom's failure was not only his failure, but also the failure of his father, his mother, and the world that had left him seeking solace on a simple fire escape. .