Jim Stark a young man in his senior year of highschool moves into a small town where to prove oneself they have to do a chicken run where its quite possible to die. Through all the hecticness of moving to a new town and going to a new school Jim is confused, frustrated, and he has to deal with being viewed upon as a rebel and an outcast.
To start off Jim and his dad have a very unusual relationship where Jim looks down on his dad for being to much of a mom instead of a strong male role model that he needs and probably needed growing up. The scene in the movie when Jim's dad spills the dinner he made for Jim's mom and he is frantically trying to clean up and looking at Jim, Jim's dad says "I gotta clean this up before she sees it" too which Jim responds "Stop do not clean it up let her see it, let her see it!" and Jim's dad just hangs his head in shame and continues to clean while Jim scowls down at him (Ray). Jim sees that as weakness in his dad when at this point he really needs someone strong to look up too, and this whole process confuses Jim on how a grown man should actually act. Psychologically the reason Jim is so confused could be that in his early years instead of admiring his mom and wanting his father out he might of actually admired his dad and wanting his mother out because of all his father motherly qualities, a sort of reverse Oedipus complex . This probably lead to Jim's confusion on gender roles in his own family, and Jim resenting his dad for being so weak and subservient. This is most likely why Jim is so confused.
Secondly Jim has a growing frustration over how it seems that no one not even his parents can understand some of the decisions he makes. For example in the movie when Jim decides to go to the cops and tell them that he was involved in the deadly chicken run that took Buzz's life.