Previous
Chapter 9: Birthday Boy
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Good Night, Mr. Tom, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Biological Family vs. Chosen Family
Civilians in Wartime
Grief and Healing
Talent and Community
Religion
Summary
Analysis
About two months pass. Several of Little Weirwold’s young men go to war, including Mr. Fletcher’s teenage son Michael and the postman Matthew Parfitt, whose job May Thorne offers to take over. The government has asked the parents of evacuees to contribute money to the children’s upkeep; many parents who miss their children and can’t really pay the upkeep take them home again. Tom has kept teaching Willie writing and reading to him. Sometimes, Emilia Thorne comes by and teaches Willie poems and vocabulary. Willie, Zach, George, Carrie, and Ginnie continue playing together.
Since the novel begins in early September, this passage is presumably narrating the events of September and October into early November 1939. Men from Little Weirwold begin going to war, which shows the encroachment of wartime violence on Little Weirwold’s rural community. Meanwhile, Tom and Miss Thorne’s efforts to teach Willie to read show both Tom’s growing affection for Willie and the support that the Little Weirwold community is showing Willie.
Themes
One drizzly afternoon, Zach, Willie, George, Carrie, and Ginnie convene at the Littles’. Tom arrives with a suitcase for them and tells Willie he’ll come back for him later. The suitcase is covered in stickers with town and country names on them. When George asks whether Zach has visited these places, Zach explains that mostly his parents have, as they’re traveling performers. When Willie says that his mother told him theaters and cinemas were “dens of sin,” Zach announces that he was “breast-fed” in theaters and he’s fine. Willie, blushing, tells Zach he just swore.
Willie’s mother has taught him to shun theaters and cinemas as “dens of sin,” yet another detail emphasizing her punitive, fearful religiosity. When Willie blushes and claims that Zach has cursed after Zach says “breast-fed,” it furthermore suggests that Willie’s mother has taught him to shun anatomical vocabulary and any discussion that even remotely alludes to sex.
Themes
Zach opens the suitcase. Inside he finds a letter from his parents, chocolate and homemade cakes, and books. George reads one title (The Complete Works of William Shakespeare) and makes a disgusted noise. Zach, offended, explains to Willie that William Shakespeare is “one of our greatest playwrights.” Willie is interested to learn that he shares a first name with a famous person. Then Zach removes some tap shoes. When George asks what they are, Zach alludes to Fred Astaire—only to learn that the other children haven’t heard of him, not even Willie, who has lived in London. Zach demonstrates what the shoes can do with a vigorous tap dance. The others applaud.
William Shakespeare (c. 1564–1616) is England’s most famous playwright and is widely considered one of the “greatest” writers ever to have written in English. That Willie hasn’t heard of him emphasizes what a poor education he received in London. The care package that Zach receives from his parents, in contrast to Willie’s mother’s failure to send Willie anything for his birthday, indicates that Zach comes from a much more loving home than Willie does.
Themes
Nancy Little, holding a piece of ceiling plaster, enters the room. When Zach starts apologizing for the damage, Nancy interrupts, telling him to keep it down. After she leaves, Zach removes the tap shoes and complains that staying inside all the time is cramping their style. Yet when Willie praises Zach’s dance, Zach smiles sunnily. George encourages Zach to open the final package. Inside is a multicolored jersey. Though George, Carrie, and Ginnie tease him about its brightness, Willie thinks its red collar and cuffs suit him and praises it.
Willie praises Zach’s dance just as Zach has praised Willie’s drawing, showing that the friends mutually support each other in their creative endeavors. When Willie dares to praise Zach’s red-collared jersey—although Willie’s mother has taught him that red is a sinful color—it shows how Zach’s friendship is making Willie bolder and helping him heal from his mother’s abuse.
Themes
Get the entire Good Night, Mr. Tom LitChart as a printable PDF.
Zach passes around homemade cakes, and the group talks about where to meet next. The Littles have too many meetings, George’s house is crowded, and Carrie and Ginnie have a nosy younger sister. Willie worries that if he invites the others over, they’ll discover that he wets the bed—but he volunteers to ask Tom if they can meet in his room. The children talk about what to play next. When Zach suggests Sherlock Holmes, the others know that Willie will end up his sidekick Watson, George will be evil Moriarty, Carrie will be an evil minion, and Ginnie will be a damsel in distress—so George suggests that instead, they investigate Spooky Cott, a cottage rumored to be haunted. They agree to meet on Friday, and George, Carrie, and Ginnie leave.
Willie tentatively invites his new friends over to his room even though he’s afraid they’ll learn he still wets the bed. This invitation shows how he is becoming braver under the influence of Tom’s affection and the other children’s friendship. Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930), while Professor Moriarty is Sherlock Holmes’s criminal mastermind nemesis. The allocation of roles that the children anticipate from Zach suggests that Zach always casts himself as the hero in their games.
Themes
When Willie and Zach are alone in Zach’s room, Zach asks Willie whether he minds if Zach reads the letter from his parents now. Willie says no: he’s still shocked and happy to have become Zach’s best friend. Zach appreciates Willie being “sensitive,” rather than calling him a “sissie.” Yet watching Zach read his long letter, Willie recalls that his own mother has sent him just one letter in the two months since he left London—and he’s sure that Tom omitted parts of that letter when reading it aloud to Willie.
Willie appreciates Zach’s friendship and support: Zach interprets Willie’s shy temperament positively—he sees views him as “sensitive” rather than a “sissie,” which has a negative connotation. Yet the contrast Willie notices between Zach’s parents’ long letter and his own mother’s brief message hints that he still wishes for affection and support from his mother specifically. Meanwhile, Willie’s suspicion that Tom decided not to read aloud parts of Willie’s mother’s letter hints that parts of her message were cruel or threatening.
Themes
Tom collects Willie from the Littles’. They struggle through the windy night back to the cottage. At home, Willie feeds Sammy—one of his special chores—and begs Tom to let him practice writing for just ten minutes before bed. Tom agrees. As Tom makes them both tea, he notes how he has put written labels up everywhere in the house to help Willie read, including T and W letter labels on their tea mugs. He’s trying to get Willie moved up to Mrs. Hartridge’s class before she goes on maternity leave, as it has just been announced that she is pregnant with her first child.
Tom puts up labels all over his house to help Willie learn. The effort Tom is expending on Willie’s behalf shows his paternal affection for Willie. It also reflects Tom’s belief that a child needs to learn and flourish.
Themes
At bedtime, Willie is looking thoughtful and worried, so Tom asks him what’s wrong. Anxiously, Willie asks whether he can invite Zach, George, Carrie, and Ginnie over. Tom tells him yes: Willie can do what he likes with his own bedroom, but if they make a mess, Willie must clean it up. Tom has just said good night to Willie when Willie blurts that his friends don’t know about his bed-wetting. Tom promises to remake Willie’s bed before his friends arrive so that the rubber sheet won’t be visible. Tom says good night again, and Willie falls peacefully asleep.
Tom gives Willie freedom but also sets reasonable boundaries and expectations—here, for instance, he insists that Willie and his friends clean up any messes they make. Tom also agrees to help Willie conceal his bed-wetting from his friends, another example of Tom’s affectionate support making Willie braver and less socially anxious. Tom’s good parenting in this scene implicitly contrasts with that of Willie’s mother’s abusive, neglectful parenting.
Themes
