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Chapter 16: The Search
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
Inside the cupboard, Will, bruised all over, roped to a pipe, sits in his own pee and vomit beside an empty baby bottle. The warden asks Will to hand over the baby, but when the warden reaches for her, Will shrinks back. While the police officer goes for an ambulance, Tom squats down and says that he and Sammy came looking for Will. He gets Will free of the ropes and maneuvers the boy, still holding the baby, from the cupboard. The ambulance arrives, and Tom gets in with Will and Sammy. The warden joins them, furiously criticizing Mrs. Beech’s outward religiosity and hidden crimes. Tom thanks the warden for listening to him and helping him.
This scene makes clear that Mrs. Beech’s abuse of Will has escalated: rather than simply beating and neglecting him, she has imprisoned him in a closet without allowing him to use the bathroom and abandoned him with a baby in a city at risk of bombing. Moreover, the empty baby bottle hints that the baby girl may not have eaten in some time. The warden’s anger at Mrs. Beech’s crimes is heightened by his sense of her hypocrisy, due to her religious posturing.
Themes
Tom suggests to the warden that they get a blanket for the baby. The warden, realizing what Tom is up to, gets a blanket. Tom asks Will for a look at the baby. When Tom unwraps her, he sees she’s dead. He and the warden share a look, and the warden says he has a blanket for the “chap.” Will says hoarsely that she’s a girl. When the warden asks her name, Will says that he calls her Trudy. The warden calls Will “Willie,” and Will says that’s not who he is. When the warden whispers that Will must be in shock, Tom explains that they didn’t call Will “Willie.”
Here, the narrator reveals that the baby has died, possibly of starvation due to Mrs. Beech’s neglect. Will’s refusal to let go of the dead baby suggests that he may be in shock, but his insistence that his name is Will, not Willie—his mother’s nickname for him—makes clear that he has rejected once and for all his relationship with his abusive mother. Meanwhile, his decision to name the baby Trudy highlights his understanding that his mother’s decision not to name the baby was cruel and strange.
Themes
Though confused, the warden calls Will “Will” and asks to wrap up the baby. Tom gently pulls Will’s rigid arms from around the baby and the warden takes the body. Will whispers that his arms hurt, and Tom explains that they hurt because Will held them in the same position for so long. When they reach the hospital, Tom carries Will inside, with the warden carrying the baby. A harried man in a white coat bustles toward them and proclaims the baby dead. When Will echoes, “dead,” the warden says, “dead cold” and winks at the doctor. The doctor, grasping the situation, agrees and briefly examines Will. He orders the nurse to take Will to the children’s wing.
It may seem strange that the warden winks at the doctor in such a disturbing and tragic situation. Yet the warden is not winking humorously—he is winking in a desperate attempt to alert the doctor that Will doesn’t know his little sister has died. He and the doctor then try to convince Will that Trudy is “dead” (meaning “extremely”) “cold” rather than simply dead. Their attempts to conceal from Will the tragedy that has occurred emphasize the severity of the abuse that Mrs. Beech has inflicted on him.
Themes
A nurse takes a terrified Will away, Tom promises him he’ll stay nearby. The warden, having given the baby’s body to a nurse, says he has to go make a police report and suggests they go to a friend’s post around the corner for tea. The warden tells the nurse to let everyone know where Tom is if Will’s condition changes. Then the warden and Tom walk to the post of a warden named Alf, who greets the Deptford Warden—named Sid—and offers to make tea. After Tom tells Alf Will’s story, Alf asks what Tom will do. Tom says he’ll take Will back to Little Weirwold. When Alf suggests that the police will probably put Mrs. Beech in prison and Will in a children’s home. Tom insists he’ll take Will back home.
Alf’s suggestion that the police will put Will in a children’s home (an orphanage) makes clear that the law is unlikely to recognize the non-biological, non-official family ties between Will and Tom. Tom’s insistence that he plans to take Will home indicates that Tom plans to honor those family ties, nevertheless.
Themes
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Tom walks back to the hospital, ties Sammy up outside, and waits for news of Will in the lobby. Finally, in the afternoon, a nurse approaches and tells Tom that a psychiatrist has interviewed Will and has agreed to let Tom see him. When Tom says that Will isn’t mentally ill, the nurse says that Will keeps screaming, so they’ve had to sedate him repeatedly. Tom suggests that Will may need to scream. When the nurse retorts that they need to think about the other patients, Tom thinks that it will be good to get Will into open spaces soon.
Tom takes the nurses’ decision to sedate Will repeatedly as a sign that the hospital is not a supportive environment for a traumatized boy. This perception of Tom’s heightens his resolve to get Will back to the open spaces of Little Weirwold, where he can scream if he needs to without disturbing anyone else. Tom’s tight focus on Will’s needs emphasizes his fatherly concern for Will.
Themes
The nurse leads Tom to Will’s room. Will’s head has been shaved, revealing more bruises. He tells Tom that they’ve been giving him injections that paralyze him after he has nightmares and asks how long he’ll have to stay. Tom says not long. Will says that the psychiatrist told him he’d go to a children’s home and asks whether he can go home with Tom instead. Tom says yes—they’ll figure out the law of it all. When the nurse tells Tom he has to leave now, Will begs him to stay. The nurse and a loud, middle-aged sister eject Tom from the room. As Tom walks away, he sees them giving a distraught Will an injection.
Will wants to go home with Tom as much as Tom wants to take him home—yet because they are not biologically related, Tom has limited rights as Will’s guardian. The lack of legal protections for Tom and Will’s chosen father-son relationship means that Tom has limited ability to intervene when the hospital treats Will badly.
Themes
In the hallway, a balding man in his thirties introduces himself to Tom as Mr. Stelton, suggesting that Will must have told Tom about him. Tom says Will told him that Mr. Stelton wants to put him in a home. Mr. Stelton says that he believes that the treatment Will would receive there would help him. When Tom asks about the treatment, Mr. Stelton says it would be psychoanalysis to help Will uncover “why he is the way he is.” Tom snaps that it’s obvious: Will comes from a loveless home. He announces that both he and Will want Will to come home with him. Mr. Stelton points out that Tom isn’t related to Will but suggests Tom could come visit Will at the home, where staff will be taking Will in two days. Then he leaves.
The lackluster figure of Mr. Stelton, who wants to psychoanalyze Will to determine “why he is the way he is,” makes clear that the officials associated with the hospital do not know what is best for Will. By contrast, Tom knows Will and can clearly see that Will is experiencing psychological aftereffects of his mother’s abuse. Despite Tom’s greater knowledge of and fatherly investment in Will, however, he has less power than the psychologist to determine what happens to Will.
Themes
Tom goes outside, unties Sammy, and asks the dog what they should do. Then he asks Rachel what he should do. In Tom’s imagination, Rachel tells him to kidnap Will. Tom, though initially shocked, starts considering it. Later, he sneaks into the children’s ward, wraps a sedated Will in a blanket, and walks through the lobby amidst hubbub caused by two arriving ambulances. Once outside, he runs to Sammy. While Sammy keeps watch, Tom dresses Will in regular clothes from Tom’s bag, wraps Will in his overcoat, and starts walking. On the way, Alf the warden stops him and asks whether Tom got Will. When Tom nods, Alf says, “Good on you.”
Before Will, Tom largely avoided thinking about Rachel and his dead infant son due to the emotional pain they caused him. By now, however, his father-son relationship with Will has healed Tom’s grief sufficiently that he asks his mental Rachel for advice—and she suggests that he “kidnap” Will, saving him from the orphanage. In a sense, Will saved Tom from his grief, which leads Tom to save Will in this moment. Alf’s approval of Tom and Will’s reunion suggests that Tom’s fatherly love of Will is clear even to outsiders—though Alf presumably does not know that Tom is taking Will away without any kind of official permission.
Themes
After several bus rides, Tom and Will spend the night in a shelter. The next morning, no trains are going to Weirwold, so Tom buys tickets to Skyron, a town most of the way there. When Tom is sitting on the train with a sedated Will, a police officer taps on the window and asks Tom whether an air raid kept Will up the night before. Then he wishes them safe travels. When they reach Skyron, Tom hitches a series of rides. He has to walk the last five miles to Weirwold carrying Will—and, eventually, Sammy too. It’s almost midnight when he reaches the blacksmith’s, where he left his cart. The blacksmith’s wife sees the bruises on Will and praises Tom for getting him back. Tom asks her not to spread any gossip about it.
Tom’s long, arduous journey carrying Will back to Little Weirwold emphasizes how invested he is in their familial relationship and in Will’s safety. When the blacksmith’s wife praises Tom’s decision to take Will, meanwhile, it suggests that Tom did the right thing despite the illegality of his actions.
Themes
It’s night when Tom hitches his cart and starts driving it to Little Weirwold with Will. Will wakes and asks how he got where he is. Tom explains that he kidnapped Will, and then he bursts into laughter. Will falls back asleep; when he wakes, Tom is carrying him into Dr. Little’s house. Dr. Little examines Will and says the hospital did a good job. After Will falls asleep again, Tom explains to Dr. Little and Nancy what happened. Dr. Little suggests that officials will hunt Will down, but Nancy says that there’s too much going on for officials to keep track of all evacuees. Dr. Little says that Will’s physical wounds will heal before his emotional ones. Tom swears to give Will the help he needs—and Zach, bursting into the room, swears that he will too.
Tom’s semi-hysterical laughter after admitting that he “kidnapped” Will emphasizes that Tom made a spur-of-the-moment decision out of love for Will and fear for his safety—but Tom doesn’t have a well-thought-out plan. Nancy’s suggestion that the officials can’t keep track of all the evacuees makes clear how difficult and complicated the country’s situation is during World War II. Meanwhile, eavesdropping on Zach’s assertion that he’ll help Will too shows that Tom isn’t the only person in Little Weirwold who cares about Will.
Themes
