Often the people that are closer to each other are the first to know of an individual's personal dissatisfaction with life, and can often become the object or the target of the loathing that it can bring into the relationship. The picture that is given of Sam's relationship with his family is not one of a man with a somewhat firm grip on the environment in which he lives. Sam has a steady job, a wife and two daughters, and pretty much the picture of what a modern family is composed of. In the beginning of the story, Sam is described as wanting to "free himself of envy... he would like to love more; specifically he would like to love his wife more, and to love his two daughters without the tormenting if nonetheless irremediable vexation that they closet his life in the dusty web of domestic responsibilities and drudging for money" (Mailer, 126). This paragraph captures the feeling that Sam has dealing with the duality of his present life and the life that perhaps he had always pictured himself having. Sam refers to his wife as "She", embodying her as a plaguing or an opposing element in his life (128). In Sam's case, "The grass is always greener on the other side", when it comes to the path that his life has taken. If he had been allowed to chase his dreams it is very likely that he would long for the chance to be a "family man" again.
In the case of Sam's relationships dealing with his friends,