Tom's Escape In The Fire Escape

Tom fears that his own kind will be overrun by others, such as dreamers like Gatsby. Tom hides “behind his wealth” (Pidgeon 179) and “leave others to clean up [his] messes” (Pidgeon 180). Tom’s arrogance and racism help create his character and establish his place in the society. Tom’s personality depicts his cruel ways of protecting the old money’s ways of life from the new money people. He considers himself above of everyone else.

| Tom wants his old life back prior to the accident and he sees the accident as the end of his life as he knew it. He loses his sense of identity and sense of family in particular.Feels guilty and ashamed about the irrevocable consequences his brother’s irresponsibility had for other people and their familiesRetreats into a depressed state which feels empty and black.

Tom is the most important character, yet he is not a flawless figure. Tom is irritated and annoyed easily, impatient and ignorant. His anger is clearly displayed in scenes with Gwen who expresses illiterate and disrespectful comments towards Tom’s family. Tom develops to acquire his own appealing death, during the course of the play. He has been hesitant to speak about his death, as he ignores Meg’s attempt to begin a conversation on the matter: “Are you afraid? / You coming to the concert tonight?”. Gow signifies Tom’s acceptance by giving him King Lear’s lines about crawling towards death.

Once joyful and passionate, Tom becomes a mere shadow of who he once was, completely shutting down with only his conscience to keep him company. Steinbeck describes him as “high and prim” (409) after Dessie’s funeral, demonstrating the extent to which he has removed himself from the world of the living. One would expect him to be hysterical after accidentally killing his sister, but his grief takes the form of dangerous dissociation and he is left unable to cope with the consequences of his well-intentioned actions. It is this dissociation that marks Tom’s transition from lively to brooding, his mental state deteriorating as he spends a short yet torturous time alone in his family’s ranch home. The suicide itself is scarcely described, leaving the reader only with the idea that Tom was a “gallant gentleman” (410). Steinbeck’s tacit explanation carries with it some irony, as most would consider running away from one’s problems neither gallant nor gentlemanly. Tom is so absorbed in his shortcomings that he sees fit to end his life as a means to end his suffering without regard to how suicide will affect his family and

The scene gave a sense of that beautiful room, where daisy was lying on the couch. This scene clearly indicated money, how the white curtains were in air, all those servants doing their chores. Only wealthy people can afford all those servants out there for all their needs and jobs to be done. Daisy was just lying there and gave this breathless entry in the movie. After all this Daisy, Tom & Nick had dinner and chit chat with each other. Throughout the movie, it gives the sense that rich people don’t care, they think money is everything. The next entry was made my George Wilson; he is a garage owner and married to Myrtle Wilson. Myrtle is a mistress to Tom. This scene shows how Tom shows his arrogance, his wealth causing him to be careless when he comes by Wilson and ask about his business, and they were talking about selling a car, and this response of Tom was so rude to Wilson. Tom says “Maybe I better sell it somewhere else” he said this only cause Wilson said “Their only works pretty slow, don’t it.” Clearly shows a wealthy man couldn’t stand the comment a garage owner passed on about selling the car, and he showed that attitude, he will sell his car somewhere else, but not to you. Tom had kept an apartment for Myrtle, hidden from Daisy, where he would take her and fulfill his sexual desires. Money, once again money, it was all about money, Tom used to take Myrtle there, and she was enjoyed it as well, because the

Tom’s journey towards resolution of the mental trauma associated with the anxiety of his inevitable death requires a change in scene in order for him to understand and accept certain decease. At the beginning of “Away” Tom is well aware of his Fate and illustrates confusion and feeling of forfeit. In Scene 2 Act 4 Tom is desperate as he knows his pending death, he personally confronts Meg about having a “happy ending” before he dies. This is a focal point for Tom as it is the first time he openly expresses his grief about his diminishing time this scene also creates contrast in justifying Tom’s anxiousness as his death draws closer from the beginning of the play when he saw meg for much more than a sexual item, Tom begins to recognise what he has become and hastily changes subject and humours Meg. The play then closes with Gow creating Shakespearian allusion with Tom reading the lines from “King Lear”, “While we unburdened crawl towards death”. Which is used symbolically with Tom’s state, the pillar in

Tom’s initial perspective of on his transition he and his family must undertake is on of despair and reluctance. This despair is emphasised through the emotive language that is used throughout the prologue such as ‘groan,’ ‘dump,’ and ‘shuffling.’ Tom’s despair also creates a sense of tension throughout the family as for the line, ‘no one spoke,’ the line reinforces the tension and their reluctance to face the new change in their life. The line ‘down, down we glided in silence,’ could be interpreted metaphorically.

Tom’s neglecting manner of Daisy brings out his supercilious manner of feeling superior to others. In another instance, Tom’s supercilious manner is shown once again. In fact, we find out a little secret about Tom’s life. Tom describes a man, named Wilson as, “Wilson? He thinks she goes to see her sister in New York.

Another means of Tom’s escape are his outings to the movie, which are aided by the fire escape. Tom goes to the movies for several reasons; to satisfy his need for alcohol, to escape his home life, and to experience some adventure. Walter is a black man in the 1950’s supporting himself, his wife, son, sister and mother in a small apartment in Chicago. He and Tom are both treated less than what a human is worth.

Response: This quote characterizes Tom as a man who takes pride in what others think of him and his family. Even though he will probably never see the truck driver again, Tom feels the need to clarify that both he and his father are literate. Although it would appear that he and his father are not close because they haven't exchanged letters, Tom is quick to defend his father so he must care for him.

Tom escapes reality in many different ways. The first and most obvious is the fire escape that leads him away from his unhappy home. He also escapes into his world of poetry writing and movies. The more Amanda nags, the more Tom seems to need his movie escapes. They take him to

The moral of this story is “Can life events cause us to change our priorities?” and the answer to this is yes. All of Tom’s life was change when he got stuck outside the window trying to get a piece of paper. A piece of paper that had 2 months’ work on it. After he gets in, he decides to go find his wife and watch the movie with her. Which I thought was amazing after what happened to tom that

The way Tom acts on the difficulties and challenges that he faces at home not only affect him but his family as well. He escapes his troubles from home, due to the pressure, by going to the movies. Finally, his mother realizes and

Tom had a double role in the play as both the narrator and a main character that lived through a recollection of what life was like living with his mother and sister before he abandoned them to seek adventure. Tom’s behavior in the play could lead to question if his memory is truly accurate. SparkNotes comments, “…But at the same time, he demonstrates real and sometimes juvenile emotions as he takes part in the play’s action. This duality can frustrate our understanding of Tom, as it is hard to decide whether he is a character whose assessments should be trusted or one who allows his emotions to affect his judgment” (SparkNotes.com). Through his behavior a person is reminded that memory can be flawed by emotions or time elapsing, this would need to be taken into account when analysis of such a character is done. Tom is full of contradictions as he reads literature, writes poetry, and dreams of an escape; however he also felt bound by duty to his sister and mother. Another contradiction was that while he professed to care about his sister as seen in his ending comments in the play, “…I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I intended to be!...” (Williams), Tom never went back to reconnect with his sister. This could be because of the great shame he felt for abandoning his sister or because of another reason. He stated that he had been in several cities over the years but never speaks of going back to St. Louis, making it unclear if he

Tennessee Williams gives us no indication that Tom's escape from his father, Amanda, Laura, and Jim ever happens - what is most compelling about the play is that Tom passes to the reader and the audience the responsibility of making meaning out of his life.