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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
In August, Tom, Will, and Zach bicycle to the seashore: Tom and Will on a tandem bicycle that carries Sammy in its front basket, and Zach on the bicycle he refurbished, whose frame he has painted red. They stop in a fishing village called Salmouth and find a widow named Mrs. Clarence willing to board them. While she makes up their rooms, they take a walk in the village, looking at shops and the sea. The sea makes Will feel as though his traumatic memories are floating away. He’s happy at the idea of spending two weeks in Salmouth drawing things.
Zach’s repaired bicycle, which the novel has subtly used to symbolize Will’s healing psyche, has a red frame. Mrs. Beech taught Will that red was sinful, but Will loves the color. As such, the red bicycle symbolically suggests that Will is not only healing from his mother’s abuse, but also that he’s learning to reject her extreme, abusive religious beliefs. Will’s belief that his bad memories are floating away on this bicycling vacation further emphasizes his healing. Meanwhile, his excitement to draw reminds readers that Tom, Zach, and others have fostered and supported his talent.
Themes
After looking into a used bookstore, Will, Tom, and Zach go sit on the beach for a while. When they get back to Mrs. Clarence’s house, she tells them which rooms are theirs and gives them a meal including fish. Though Zach has eaten fish before, he’s never had a holiday with a friend his own age like Will, who seems to accept and appreciate him just as he is. By contrast, it’s Will’s first time eating fish. They talk about Will’s new freckles and how salty the air is. When Tom agrees that his mouth tastes salty too, Zach renames Salmouth “Salt-on-the-Mouth.”
The boys’ excitement at novel experiences while on vacation contrasts with their historical moment, World War II. This scene both suggests that people can have happy moments even in wartime and that the boys are not fully cognizant of the global horrors occurring at the same time as their vacation.
Themes
After Zach and Will go to bed, Mrs. Clarence asks Tom whether Zach is his son’s friend. When Tom echoes, “My son?” Mrs. Clarence says Will has Tom’s mannerisms. Tom says, “Evacuee”—but she takes him to mean that Zach is the evacuee. She praises Tom for his generosity at letting an evacuee join his vacation. Tom, uncomfortable, says nothing else. Meanwhile, up in their shared room, Zach is talking excitedly about the excellence of the vacation, and Will praises the sound of the waves.
Tom has clearly had a paternal influence on Will: a woman who has known them only for a short period, Mrs. Clarence, notices that Will has picked up Tom’s gestures. Yet Tom is uncomfortable with discussing his relationship with Will since, although he loves Will like a son, they still have no official relationship beyond that of an evacuee and the person housing him.
Themes
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When Zach wakes up the next morning, Will is sitting in the window drawing the sea. Mrs. Clarence calls them down to breakfast. After eating, Zach, Will, and Tom walk down to the beach. Tom hasn’t gone for a swim in 20 years, and Will doesn’t know how, but all three of them wade into the water and splash around. Will quickly learns how to float—something Zach can’t do, though he knows several different swimming strokes. For the next few days, the vacationers spend most of their time at the beach, practicing swimming or playing in the sand. After 10 days, Zach can float a little and Will has learned the breaststroke.
This quasi-familial vacation among three unrelated people shows the importance of chosen family as a source of love and human flourishing. Meanwhile, Tom, Will and Zach encourage one another to do things they wouldn’t normally do and learn things they don’t yet know how to do—showing the importance of a supportive community to learning and to nurturing one’s talents.
Themes
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Meanwhile, the war gets worse. Zach’s mother now drives an ambulance while his father has joined the Auxiliary Fire Service, so Zach sneaks out of bed to listen to the news. Large towns in England are being bombed. One day, a bombing kills 300 people in Croydon. On one of the last days of their vacation, terrible news is printed: “South West London Blitzed, Malden Badly Hit.” Zach reads Mrs. Clarence’s paper anxiously: he hasn’t had a letter from his parents in a while. Tom, noticing Zach’s anxiety, suggests that they call the Littles and see whether Zach’s parents have left a message. They find a telephone and, to Zach’s relief, learn that his parents have left a message with the Littles: they are safe but very busy helping others due to the many “casualties.”
The Auxiliary Fire Service was part of the UK’s Air Raid Precautions service/Civil Defence Service, organizations composed of volunteers that helped protect English civilians. As a member of the Auxiliary Fire Service, Zach’s father would be a volunteer fire fighter, and his duties would include responding to fires caused by German bombs. Meanwhile, the news is reporting intensified German bombings of London and the greater London area. Zach’s anxiety over his parents in this scene makes clear that English civilians in London are in grave, potentially fatal danger at this point in World War II due to the Nazis’ bombings of English civilian targets.
Themes
On the last day of vacation, Zach goes to the beach by himself and prays aloud in Hebrew, which makes him feel better even though his parents say that God can “probably understand silent thoughts.” Afterward, Mrs. Clarence makes her visitors a special lunch, and Zach, Tom, and Will go for a final bike ride to the beach. That night after eating, Zach and Will go for a walk and talk about their dreams: Zach wants to be a globally famous “entertainer,” while Will wants to act in the fall play and keep drawing.
In contrast to Mrs. Beech’s religious beliefs, which are paranoid, cruel, and self-serving, Zach enacts his religious beliefs in a loving way: he prays to God to communicate a desire for his parents’ safety even though God “probably understand[s] silent thoughts.” The boys’ respective ambitions both highlight their differences (Zach’s ambitions are far more dramatic than Will’s) and make clear how Little Weirwold has supported both of them in developing their talents—Zach has had opportunities to be an “entertainer” in various shows, while Will has received opportunities to act and been given much attention for his talent at art.
Themes
The next morning, Tom, Zach, and Will say goodbye to Mrs. Clarence. When they arrive back in Little Weirwold after several days’ journey, they find that George, Carrie, and Ginnie have left them “welcome-home goodies,” while Mrs. Fletcher has bought them groceries and left soup on the stove. After they eat, Zach walks home. On the way, he runs into Carrie, who announces anxiously that she passed the high school entrance exam and won a scholarship—she’s going to high school.
The “welcome-home goodies” and food that Tom, Will, and Zach receive from their friends and Mrs. Fletcher illustrate how loving and supportive a community they have found in Little Weirwold. Carrie’s success at the high school entrance exams, meanwhile, proves that her struggle to receive adequate support for her academic talent from her teacher, family, and school paid off: she will be the first girl from Little Weirwold to attend the academic high school.
Themes
