Paragraph 5

• Amanda telling Tom to go to the moon


  Was the final straw for him
• The theme of escapism and the burden of responsibility

  • Tom has felt obliged to provide for his ungrateful mother for so long with little in return
  • Now with him having had the motivation to leave his toxic household and dead-end job, he holds little guilt about abandoning Amanda
• The conflict between Tom and Amanda

  Have reached a point where they no longer hold a relationship
• Tom evacuating the situation


  Lessens the burden on Laura as she is no longer stuck in the middle of them fighting
• Tom evacuating the situation


  He may feel that in doing this he is rescuing her in a way he wished to be rescued himself
• The moon


  Used as a symbol of escaping Amanda's grasps and is used in reference to leaving his home out through the Fire-escape