Tommy Character Analysis in Black Diggers

A soldier who fights with Bertie at Pozieres. They watch another Indigenous soldier, Frank, get shot and cut a lock of his hair, knowing they cannot give him a traditional burial. Later, they both get buried alive for more than three days and return to Australia extremely traumatized. Back home, Tommy ends up a homeless and anonymous drunk, known only as “Tank Stand Tommy.” In a later scene, a minister gives his eulogy at a funeral that nobody attends. Tommy’s story shows how combat was an often life-shattering experience during World War One, which was only made worse by Australia’s failure to provide its Indigenous soldiers with the services they needed to cope with their trauma.

Tommy Quotes in Black Diggers

The Black Diggers quotes below are all either spoken by Tommy or refer to Tommy. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Australian Nationhood and Indigenous Dispossession Theme Icon

).

Your folks do something, over in the West? [BERTIE shrugs] I wouldn’t know where to begin. His you know, his soul will be stuck here. You know what I mean. With all these trees, they will grow here one day all these—what do you call them? Elms and oaks and all that. And all these hedges and the flowers and we don’t know the names of any of them. And when they burn the smoke is different and will lead him a different way.

Related Characters: Bertie (speaker), Tommy

Related Symbols: The Lock of Frank’s Hair

Page Number and Citation: 44

Explanation and Analysis: