In The Glass Menagerie, how does self- deception, as Tom says, illustrate as "truth" about life?

To a great extent, Tom makes the argument that everyone
engages in self- deception in order to get through life and being in the world.  This
might be valid, but it also might be his own justification for his own self- deception. 
If it is to be taken as valid, Amanda's own nostalgia for her past and the belief that
she was "something" at one point in time as a way to dull the pain of the present would
be one element that Tom would use.  At the same time, Laura's fascination with her glass
figurines and the time she spends at the zoo could be seen as another way to advance her
own self- deception.  Tom is not absolved from this as his desire to escape, spend time
at the movies, and eventually leave his family in hopes of finding that elusive sense of
"happiness" all reflect self- deception.  In the end, all of the family members,
including Jim O'Connor, need deception to endure their own
lives:

readability="11">

The inability of each character to
function beyond a manufactured world is a direct result of self-deception. As the play
ends, the outcome of each Wingfield is left in question. Tom aimlessly wanders the
country, Laura is unable to leave the sheltered world that she has created for herself
among her glass animals, and Amanda realizes that she has two adult children whom she
has failed to bring into a functioning relationship with the
world.

If there is
a "truth" present, it is that the pain of being in the world is one in which self-
deception is engaged in order to escape such a condition.