Good Night, Mr. Tom: Chapter 15: Home Summary & Analysis

Tom and Willie ride into town. Though Tom asked Willie’s mother to come to Little Weirwold, she insisted that Willie come to her. Tom talked to the Billeting Officer about it, but Willie’s mother has a “legal right” to him. At the rail station, Tom asks Willie to write and warns him that his mother may want to keep him. As the train arrives, Tom tells Willie to keep drawing and let Tom know if he needs pencils. They admit they’ll miss each other.

A young soldier on the train tells Tom they’ll take care of Willie. On the train, the soldier asks Willie his name and destination. When Willie says he’s going to London, the soldier realizes he’s an evacuee and asks whether he missed home. Willie shrugs. When the soldier asks whether the old man at the station was Willie’s grandfather, Willie says the man was “Mister Tom” and looks as though he might cry. The soldier, knowing to change the subject, asks after Willie’s parents. When Willie shares that he has no father, the solider asks what Willie’s mother is like. All Willie can really remember about his mother is her dark hair.

The soldier asks what Willie has in his bags. Willie says he has gifts, books, and things for drawing. The soldier, noting Willie’s happy look at the thought of drawing, asks to see his work. Willie hands over his sketch pad. The soldier exclaims at Willie’s skill and says that Willie’s mother must be proud. When Willie admits that his mother hasn’t seen his drawings, the soldier assures him that she will be proud when she does. Willie tries to imagine his mother but ends up picturing a hybrid of Mrs. Fletcher and Mrs. Hartridge. Then, remembering his mother’s illness, he imagines her professing love for and pride in him on her deathbed. Exhausted, he falls asleep. 

The soldier wakes Willie when the train stops in London. A ticket man asks for Willie’s address—and is caught off guard when Willie shows it to him. Willie explains that he’s visiting his sick mother. The ticket man asks whether she or the warden will pick him up. When Willie admits he doesn’t know, the ticket man suggests they look for the warden. Suddenly, Willie sees a very thin woman and recognizes his mother. He runs to her, yelling “Mum.” At first, not recognizing him, she tells him that she won’t give him any money—but then, shocked, she realizes this healthy-looking, well-dressed boy is her son.

Willie tells his mother that he’s glad to see her and mentions his drawings. She is perturbed by his strong voice and his “peculiar mixture of accents.” When she mentions that she wasn’t expecting him to have changed, Willie is surprised: he feels like himself, whereas she seems different. Noticing a bag at her feet, he offers to carry it and reaches for it. She knocks his hand away, saying she’ll tell him if she wants him to do something. He apologizes. Hopelessly, he starts to think about Mrs. Fletcher’s kindness but stops himself.

Willie’s mother, Mrs. Beech, decides to go easy on Willie for now. She tells him that he can take his bag and suggests they get tea. When he thanks her and smiles, she’s alarmed. He has never smiled at her before. It feels like a challenge to “her authority.” In a café, they drink tea, and Willie explains that the villagers sent her presents. When Mrs. Beech says that she doesn’t need charity, Willie says it isn’t charity but gifts for healing, like warm clothes and food.

When Willie mentions that Nancy Little sent “tonic wine,” Mrs. Beech expresses horror, asking whether Willie has been drinking. Willie explains that tonic wine has iron in it, for strength, and that Nancy is married to Dr. Little. Mrs. Beech suggests that Dr. Little isn’t a “real doctor.” When Willie insists that he is, Mrs. Beech is utterly shocked that he’s disagreed with her. She says it appears Tom hasn’t “frighten[ed] some goodness” into Willie as she’d hoped.

Fearfully, Mrs. Beech asks whether Tom is really religious. Willie reminds her that he wrote in his letters that Tom took care of church grounds. She accuses Willie of lying, saying that the letters weren’t from him. When Willie says he has learned to write, with help from Tom and Miss Thorne, Mrs. Beech suggests that Willie must have wasted many people’s time and that the villagers are probably happy he’s gone. After hesitating, Willie asserts that the villagers like him—an assertion that makes him feel better. She tells him that the villagers were only being polite: believing otherwise is “the sin of pride.” Willie feels baffled, as if he’s losing touch with reality.

Mrs. Beech, calling her son “Willie,” suggests that they stop the conversation rather than fight on Willie’s first night back. Willie agrees but realizes that the villagers have only called him “Will” or William” for the past six months. He feels as though he is both “Willie” and “Will,” but his mother will reject the latter part of him. When she calls him “Willie,” he doesn’t “feel real.” She gives Willie a frightening fake smile and says she has a surprise for him—but no one can see him enter her house. When he asks why, her smile wavers. Then she tells him that’s part of the surprise. Willie nods, insisting to himself that he isn’t nauseated—he’s not sick, she is.

Willie and Mrs. Beech exit the café and catch a bus. The bus conductress—the first woman Willie has ever seen working on a bus—asks Willie whether he missed London while he was in the country. Then she asks Mrs. Beech whether she missed her son. Mrs. Beech fakes a smile, puts an arm around Willie and says that he’s “all [she’s] got.” The conductress says that she hasn’t sent her own children away, as the war hasn’t seemed to touch London. Willie, sickened by his mother’s touch, wonders whether he really is evil.

Willie and Mrs. Beech disembark. She sneaks him into the apartment, which reeks. Willie sees a baby girl in a box. Mrs. Beech says the baby is the surprise. Willie whispers “why,” and he notes the tape over the baby’s mouth. Mrs. Beech says that the tape prevents noise: the baby is a secret, a gift from Jesus. Willie realizes it’s the baby that reeks. When she cries, Willie tries to pick her up. Mrs. Beech orders him not to, claiming she’s seeking attention and needs “discipline.” When Willie protests that she’s a baby, Mrs. Beech yells at him. He asks whether the baby has a name. Mrs. Beech says no and threatens to belt him for questioning her. 

Mrs. Beech asks what’s in Willie’s bags. He takes out his clothes and Bible. She asks whether he’s kept studying his Bible. When he says yes, she orders him to recite Exodus 1:1–6. When he explains that he’s been learning the stories, not memorizing verses, she says that she’s not interested in stories. Then she orders him to open his second bag and asks whether he stole his new clothes. He says no, but she claims he must have begged for them. He offers her her presents, and she tells him he must have begged for those too.

Willie pulls out his own gift for Mrs. Beech: a drawing of the church and graveyard. She asks whether he stole it. When he explains that he drew it, she calls him a liar. He tries to show her his sketchpad, but she says she has no time for drawings and tells him she hopes no one discovers his crime. When he insists again that he made the drawings, she hits the table and demands his silence, thinking that she’ll have to expend much effort on forcing his “obedience.”

Mrs. Beech asks how he could suppose she’d believe strangers would give him presents. Willie protests that they’re his friends. When Mrs. Beech asks who they are, he mentions Zach, George, and “the twins.” Mrs. Beech asks whether they go to church. Willie says that George, Ginnie, and Carrie do. When Mrs. Beech is angry that Willie has “mix[ed] with girls,” he repeats that all his friends go to church but Zach. She asks why Zach doesn’t go to church. He tries to avoid giving a straight answer but eventually says that Zach is Jewish. She screams and hits him across the face. When he protests that Jesus was Jewish, she calls him a blasphemer and beats him till he dissociates, watching the attack from the outside his body.

When Willie regains consciousness, he discovers that he smells like blood and has been locked in a cupboard under the stairs. Thinking of Tom, Zach, and the baby girl, he feels that he has said goodbye to the “Willie” part of himself—he is now Will. Will momentarily regrets having gone to Little Weirwold, because it revealed to him that his mother was a cruel person. He whispers for “Mister Tom,” curls up, and tries to sleep.