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Chapter 1: Meeting
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
Willie wakes up and sees Tom reading a book. Sammy is nearby. Tom gives Willie some tea, explains that Sammy is harmless, and shows Willie how to pet Sammy in a way that Sammy won’t find threatening. Sammy licks Willie’s hand but then becomes overexcited, so Tom suggests they all go outside. As they walk down the hall, Tom explains that the ladder leads to Willie’s attic bedroom. Willie is shocked that he’ll have a room of his own. Tom notices that Willie’s raincoat is very thin.
Rather than punish Willie for threatening his dog, Tom calmly demonstrates to Willie that his dog is friendly, not a threat. This demonstration shows Tom’s good sense and generosity, in contrast with Willie’s mother’s punitive abuse. Willie’s thin raincoat implies that Willie’s mother has neglected his needs, such as adequate clothing.
Themes
As Tom walks, he notices Willie is having trouble keeping up with him. As they walk past thatched cottages, Willie gapes and says the cottages have “straw roofs.” Tom says he’ll show Willie some pictures of thatch later. A woman exits her cottage and says hello; Tom greets her as “Mrs. Fletcher” and tells Willie to go mind Sam. Tom asks whether Mrs. Fletcher could knit a sweater and whether she knows where he could get small boots. When Mrs. Fletcher points out that “they” were supposed to bring clothes, Tom says “he” didn’t and asks whether she can make the sweater. When she says yes, Tom thanks her and leaves. Mrs. Fletcher hurries to her neighbor’s house, announcing that her neighbor will never believe it.
Willie’s difficulties keeping up with Tom—who is not a young man—suggests that Willie is in poor physical condition due to his mother’s abuse and neglect. Willie’s astonishment at “straw roofs”—thatch, a type of roofing made from layered straw or other dry vegetation—emphasizes that he has grown up entirely in an urban area where he would not have encountered thatch. Unlike the other evacuees, Willie hasn’t brought clothes, which implies that the neglect he has suffered is unusual among evacuee children. Mrs. Fletcher’s astonishment and desire to gossip about Tom when he asks her to make Willie a sweater suggests that Tom’s reputation around the village is that of an antisocial curmudgeon, not a caring guardian.
Themes
Tom rejoins Willie and Sammy, telling Willie to let him know if he walks too fast. They walk to a nearby farm. Inside the farmhouse, a brunette woman named Roe tells Tom he’ll need extra milk—Lucy, her fat-cheeked six-year-old daughter, saw him approaching with Willie. Tom, noticing that Lucy isn’t much shorter than Willie, wonders how they treat children in the city. Later, as Tom and Willie leave with a jug of milk, Willie sees Roe putting black curtains up on the windows and asks what she’s doing. Tom explains that they all have to put up blackout curtains so they won’t be bombed, though he says that the war will probably be over by Christmas and, anyway, no one would bother to bomb the town of Little Weirwold.
Eight-year-old Willie is nearly as short as six-year-old Lucy, another detail implying that Willie’s mother has neglected his physical needs. The villagers are putting up blackout curtains to keep German planes flying by night from using their lit windows as targets for bombs. Tom’s casual assumption that the war will be over in a few months shows that many people didn’t guess at the outset how long World War II would last (it lasted from 1939 to 1945) or how many civilians it would kill.
Themes
On the walk home, Tom and Willie get caught in the rain. Back in the cottage, Tom searches Willie’s bag for his pajamas. He finds none, but he does discover a note from Willie’s mother, explaining that she hopes Willie’s caretaker is “God-fearing,” that she packed a belt for Willie to be beaten with, and that she has “sewn him in” for winter. Tom leaves the belt in the bag and tells Willie that they will be following Tom’s rules in Tom’s house: Tom has never hit children, and if he did, he would do it with “the skin of his hand,” so the belt will not be making an appearance. As Tom takes the bag away, Willie cries a little.
In the same letter, Willie’s mother hopes that Willie’s new caretaker is “God-fearing” and instructs that caretaker to beat Willie with a belt. The proximity of these two ideas may imply that Willie’s mother believes abusive physical discipline of children is necessary to keep children from sin. What she means by having “sewn [Willie] in” isn’t immediately clear. Though Tom has never hit a child, he distinguishes between beating a child with a belt and slapping a child with “the skin of his hand”. This distinction implies that in England in 1939, some violent physical discipline of children may have been culturally normalized—but that Willie’s mother has taken violent discipline well beyond what was socially acceptable at the time.
Themes
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Tom suggests that Willie remove his wet clothes so Tom can dry them. As Willie removes his shirt and shorts, Tom sees that Willie’s limbs are spotted with bruises. Then Willie explains that he can’t remove his undershirt and underwear, because his mother has sewn them together. Tom picks up a pair of scissors, but Willie won’t come near Tom until Tom has promised to sew his underthings back together before he is sent home. Tom cuts Willie free, cuts one of his own nightshirts to fit Willie, towels Willie dry, and dresses him in the nightshirt. Tom tells Willie to towel Sammy dry, which Sammy enjoys.
Willie’s extensive bruising further reveals to Tom how much physical abuse Willie has suffered. This passage reveals what Willie’s mother meant in her letter by “sewn him in”—she has literally sewn Willie into his underclothes, either not realizing or not caring that this will prevent him from easily using the bathroom. Willie’s extreme reluctance to let Tom cut him out implies that Willie’s mother would punish Willie if she knew Tom had freed him from the sewn-together underclothes.
Themes
Tom prepares dinner. Willie eats in a frenzy. Then Tom gives Willie a slice of cake, which Willie has never had before. After dinner, Tom suggests that Willie look at his books, but Willie says that he has to read the Bible. Tom suggests that he tell Willie a Bible story instead. When Willie agrees, Tom finds a book with some animal pictures and tells the story of Noah’s Ark. Willie is fascinated by the pictures; by the time the story is over, he’s staring at Tom with “adoration.” Tom is embarrassed yet pleased by Willie’s enjoyment of the story.
When Willie tells Tom that he has to read the Bible, it implies that his mother has used the threat of pain and punishment to make Willie read the Bible. Tom is perfectly willing to tell Willie child-appropriate Biblical stories, which implies that Tom is religious himself or at least has a religious background—but, clearly, Tom’s religious practice isn’t cruel and punitive like Willie’s mother’s is. Willie’s immediate “adoration” of Tom for showing him a picture book and telling him a story hints yet again at how deprived his childhood has been.
Themes
Tom makes Willie hot cocoa and shows him his room. When Willie lies under the bed, Tom is shocked: tells Willie to get inside the bed. Willie, shocked in turn, gets in bed under the sheets. Sammy jumps onto the bed and licks Willie’s face. Willie starts crying, but he tells Tom he's happy. Though Tom warns himself not to get attached, he starts thinking about getting Willie more clothes. He blows Willie’s lamp out, takes down his blackout curtains, and tells him to say his prayers. When Willie agrees, calling him “mister” again, Tom says that Willie should call him “Tom.” Willie says, “Good night, Mr. Tom.” Tom goes downstairs and contemplates Rachel’s wooden box.
Willie is shocked that Tom wants him to get into bed rather than lie under it, which implies that his mother made him sleep under her bed rather than giving him a bed of his own—more evidence of her abuse and neglect. When Tom warns himself not to become attached to Willie, it indicates to the reader that Tom is already getting attached. Good night, Mr. Tom is the novel’s title; its appearance here emphasizes that the relationship between Willie and Tom will be at the heart of the novel. Tom’s contemplation of his long-dead wife’s paint box at this moment hints that he hasn’t had a meaningful emotional relationship with anyone since she and their infant son died.
Themes
