The statement is ironic in that she (herself a person without a clue of what role she plays in her own life) is sermoning Tom for not having a clear plan in mind for what he wants to do with his life. He, being the man of the family at this point, was expected to take care of both his mother and his sister. Although he is in fact a wanderer and has not yet set his feet on the ground, at least he does have an idea that he wants to get out of the rut in which he is stuck listening to his mother summoning her own past which now is long gone.
What makes it even more ironic is that here she is at the mercy of life. She is a woman who continuously denies her situation as a plain old dreamer still stuck in her Glorious Southern past and unable to let go of it. She, herself, has made of her daughter a tool of no importance for the overprotective and overbearing way she raises her. She has even gotten Tom out of his wits because of her meddling ways. So, if I were her, I would not be telling anyone but myself a sermon like that. And, eventually, Tom does leave them all behind, probably to his own credit.
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