Burke instills ellipsis here to show that tom has a disparaging attitude towards other individuals, and he is dismissing others, eliminating knowledge. However, when Tom begins to climb a literal and metaphorical "hill", he starts to experience individuality, and psychologically transform.
Like Tom Brennan, Beverly is faced with a confronting challenge. When she finds herself "knocked up" with Ray, she is faced with the raising of a child with him. Beverly emotionally expects a girl yet when she is delivering her child and told, "It's a boy" she has an instant disparaging reaction and shouts that, "I didn't have a boy, I had a girl," beginning to cry. When Beverly dismisses her situation by shouting at the nurse, her marginalized attitude towards having a child is highlighted. Furthermore, Marshall uses a close up shot of Beverly crying to magnify her mental incomprehension of reality and inability to venture to adulthood. In addition, there is a montage of movement shots where the audience sees Beverly attempting to; "study for the S.A.T's," exposure is placed on Beverly's inability to balance her priorities. She says, "Jason wont leave me alone," complementing is a non-diegetic score which increases in pace and volume throughout the sequence of medium and long shots to enforce the building tensions within Beverly. Jason tells Beverly, "you're supposed to be the mother and I'm supposed to be the kid," when Beverly devotes little time towards him. Marshall uses a low angle shot underneath Jason to empower his persona, as Beverly's inability to mother her child has resulted with Jason being forced to become independent .
Challenging psychological and social shifting of worlds have transformative effects on Tom when he begins to find individuality, and disregards his brother's derogatory ethical codes. As Tom begins to socialize with uncle Brendan, he starts to free himself from the metaphorical "long black tunnel" which originally represented his "stuck" and derogatory personality, and deals with the reality of his challenging new world.
