" (p.15) but his father cannot stop criticizing his son, even the way Tommy eats and looks at the breakfast table. Just like the camera was critical of Tommy, so is the unsparing gaze of his father. His father continues to call him by his old name, Wilky, which Tommy has rejected. Tommy, once attractive enough to solicit the attention of a Hollywood scout, has become overweight and lethargic, and has trouble breathing because of the great, oppressive weight of the past that is now pressing down upon him. Rather than being reborn anew, Tommy is drowning in the sea of misery he has created for himself.

Erasing his father by changing his name, fleeing back to his father -- nothing works. Tommy says that he fears he will spend "second half" of "life recovering from the mistakes of the first half," but really this attempt to start anew is...
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