Look Back in Anger centers on Jimmy’s preoccupation with death and loss. While these concerns are rooted in his childhood loss of his father, Jimmy harbors anger through his inability to free himself from the burden of the past. Instead, he has come to believe that his perspective is the normal one and that others are misguided or blind to for such issues. Rather than empathize with Alison over the loss of their unborn child, he asserts that this experience is necessary for her to fully understand humanity. The Church becomes a symbol of inequality, as its wealth and preoccupation with empty ritual take precedence over social concerns. Jimmy lambasts Cliff as an apologist who supports the establishment by his complacency, and he resents Cliff’s support of Alison.
The reason for Jimmy's anger against people and the Church is that when he was a young boy, he sat...
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with his father to keep him company while he was dying. It took six months for his father to die and Jimmy was there with him daily. This is explained in Act II after Jimmy Helena and Alison get ready for church and Jimmy plays the trumpet before discussing Hugh's mother who gave the money to start the candy store, an ironic choice of business for someone as bitter and soured on life as Jimmy.
The reason Jimmy has outbursts of anger toward Alison is because of what he calls her "fence-sitting." She was born and raised in the upper classes and she isn't interested in ridiculing and changing class distinctions like Jimmy is. He thinks of this lack of ill will toward upper classes as "fence-sitting," an inability to understand and take a strong position against injustice.
Jimmy is angry at the Church because it is part of the Establishment power structure that is set up by the upper class people and controlled by them. Jimmy hates all things that depend upon social class distinctions and have power over people from the lower classes. Cliff doesn't fit into this upper class hatred, Jimmy truly likes him, but Jimmy still gets angry at him and insults cruelly because Cliff somehow isn't good enough.