Coflict

Tom’s conflict is with his mother Amanda on how she treats him and not being more supportive in his dreams. Tom has a job in warehouse which he dislikes but can’t leave so he could support his family. Throughout the play Tom tries to tell Amanda to stop being strict on him that he has his own dreams to follow and to stop controlling his life.   An example is on Scene 3 pg. 1447 when Amanda confiscates Tom’s books because she thinks the author Mr. Lawrence is insane. Even though Tom is supporting her and his sister she still treats him like a little kid. The kind of behavior that Amanda shows irritates Tom and on Act 3 their relationship deteriorates and it never fully recovers.    
Amanda loves her kids a lot and she always wants the best for them.   Amanda’s problem is that she is stuck in an illusion and never sees what the reality is. She thinks that Tom loves his job at the warehouse and refuses to acknowledge that he hates his job even when Tom tells her. Amanda also fails to acknowledge that Laura is not that kind of the girl that she imagines her to be.   She refuses to acknowledge her disabilities and try to help her to make her a life a little better or cheer her up.  
Laura conflict is that she needs to find a way to have her mother Amanda stop pushing her around and do what she wants. Amanda tries to find a gentleman caller for her even though Laura is not that interested and Amanda won’t listen. Instead of trying to bring Laura’s moral up she is instead putting her in situations that Laura has no chance to succeed.   An example of this is when Amanda makes Laura go to college against her will and in the end Laura fails and her self-esteem goes down even more.
The three conflicts experienced by Tom, Amanda and Laura are very similar in their own ways. All three of them want each other to show respects to each other. Tom tries to get his mother to respect him by trying to stop her from being so strict on him and to let him live his own life without having... [continues]

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