# data[].attributes.body
"We nailed him into a coffin and he got out of the coffin without removing one nail. . . . There is a trick that would come in handy for me—get me out of this two-by-four situation! . . . You know it don’t take much intelligence to get yourself into a nailed-up coffin, Laura. But who in hell ever got himself out of one without removing one nail?"

Tom wants to find a way to get out of what seems like his never ending situation without hurting himself or his loved ones which is almost impossible... like the coffin trick.

# data[].attributes.body
“Every time you come in yelling that God damn "Rise and Shine!" "Rise and Shine!" I say to myself, "How lucky dead people are!”

Tom takes out his anger induced by his mom by throwing a fit most of the time and definitely not acting calmly.

# data[].attributes.body
“I didn't go to the moon, I went much further—for time is the longest distance between two places”

Tom simply wants more separation from his family even more than moving thousands of miles away. He just wants time to himself to focus more often.

# data[].attributes.body
“You are the only young man that I know of who ignores the fact that the future becomes the present, the present the past, and the past turns into everlasting regret if you don't plan for it.”

Tom's Mom always lectures him about life because she feels like he's going to turn out like his dad.

# data[].attributes.body
“Yes, movies! Look at them — All of those glamorous people — having adventures — hogging it all, gobbling the whole thing up! You know what happens? People go to the movies instead of moving! Hollywood characters are supposed to have all the adventures for everybody in America, while everybody in America sits in a dark room and watches them have them! Yes, until there's a war. That's when adventure becomes available to the masses! Everyone's dish, not only Gable's! Then the people in the dark room come out of the dark room to have some adventures themselves — Goody, goody! — It's our turn now, to go to the south Sea Island — to make a safari — to be exotic, far-off! — But I'm not patient. I don't want to wait till then. I'm tired of the movies and I am about to move!”

Tom is a dreamer and wishes to act on his dreams, but his family has created somewhat of a burden on him. He copes by going to the movies, but it isn't enough anymore.

# data[].attributes.body
"The Wingfield apartment is in the rear of the building, one of those vast hive-like conglomerations of cellular living-units that flower as warty growths in over-crowded urban centers of lower middle-class population and are symptomatic of the impulse of this largest and fundamentally enslaved section of American society to avoid fluidity and differentiation and to exist and function as one inter-fused mass of automatism."

# data[].attributes.body
"The scene is memory and therefore non-realistic."

# data[].attributes.body
“I'm starting to boil inside. I know I seem dreamy, but inside-well, I'm boiling! Whenever I pick up a shoe, I shudder a little thinking how short life is and what I am doing!”

Tom is constantly busting his ass to take care of his poor family and he is a man, so he is bottling up his emotions instead of talking to someone about it and it's taking a toll on him.

# data[].attributes.body
“To begin with, I turn back time. I reverse it to that quaint period, the thirties, when the huge middle class of America was matriculating in a school for the blind. Their eyes had failed them, or they had failed their eyes, and so they were having their fingers pressed forcibly down on the fiery Braille alphabet of a dissolving economy.”

The thirties was when the largest stock market crash happened which lead to the Great Depression. Almost everyone in America was short on money or in debt.

# data[].attributes.body
"Tom enters, dressed as a merchant sailor, and strolls across to the fire escape. There he stops and lights a cigarette."

To deal with his stress, Tom smokes cigarettes constantly. We see this all throughout the play and I'm pretty sure he smokes a cigarette every scene that he's in.

# data[].attributes.body
"And  you - when I see you taking   after his  ways!  Staying out late -  and - well,  you had been drinking   the   night   you   were   in   that  -  terrifying   condition   !   Laura   says   that   you   hate   the  apartment   and   that   you   go   out   nights   to   get   away   from   it!   Is   that  true,  Tom?"

Amanda thinks it's a blatant lie whenever Tom says he's going to the movies, but he's telling the truth.  Interesting how she relies on him to take care of her, but is extremely obsessive when it comes to what Tom is doing in his free time.

# data[].attributes.body
"Comb your hair! You look so pretty when your hair is combed."

Tom doesn't usually take the time to clean up all the time. But he does frequently wear suits as we see throughout the play.

# data[].attributes.body
"Man   is   by   instinct   a   lover,  a   hunter,  a   fighter,  and   none   of   those   instincts  are   given   much  play   at   the   warehouse."

Tom dreams about living his life to the fullest without a standard 9-5 job that he hates. Throughout the novel, you can hear Tom crying for help through his teeth.