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Chapter 3
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Old God’s Time, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Memory
Grief and Ghosts
Abuse of Institutional Power
Personal Trauma vs. Collective Trauma
Summary
Analysis
That morning, Tom decides he wants to deep clean his flat and goes to the store for cleaning supplies. In the checkout line, he examines the traces of food on the storeowner Mr. Prendergast’s apron, which reminds him of a crime scene and causes him to ponder how forensics is much more elegant than the old way of intimidating and beating up suspects. Tom wonders if the forensic experts at the station would be able to piece together the events of Mr. Prendergast’s life from the stains on his apron. When Mr. Prendergast warmly thanks him for his patronage, Tom is surprised by the gentleness and warmth of his voice.
Tom once again finds life and memory in inanimate objects via his examination of Mr. Prendergast’s apron, which also serves to highlight Tom’s detective instinct to investigate everything he sees. However, his shock at Mr. Prendergast’s warm demeanor shows that objects do not always tell the whole story, and that people still have the capacity to surprise Tom.
Themes
Tom walks through town. He feels alienated from everyone else since, as a police officer, he was trained to be aloof to everyone around him, even when they were suffering from terrible crimes. He runs into a young woman with a baby stroller, which causes him to reminisce about June’s pregnancies. He passes some nice restaurants, with Mr. Tomelty exiting one of them in a fine suit. He pulls Tom aside to talk, confessing that one of his tenants is a sex worker and asking Tom not to report her or her patron. Tom, who was worried Mr. Tomelty was going to ask him to investigate them, finds himself endeared to Mr. Tomelty and says it’s none of his business. Resuming his walk home, the woman’s affairs remind him of making love to June. He grieves that she never grew old with him.
Although Tom feels isolated from others even when he’s out and about, his conversation with Mr. Tomelty creates another new bond. Tom’s response to the revelation that his neighbor is a sex worker is also revealing of Tom’s character; although he is a former detective, he has no interest in destroying a woman’s life over affairs that have nothing to do with him. This once again suggests that he finds more value in personal relationships than strict morality—at least now that he’s retired from the force.
Themes
Close to Queenstown Castle, Mr. Tomelty pulls up in his car and offers Tom a ride, which Tom accepts out of a newfound fondness for the man. They reach the building, where inside a well-dressed man passes Tom without regarding him. Tom wonders if the man disregarded him as a servant, but Mr. Tomelty tells him that the man is the aforementioned woman’s “benefactor.” Mr. Tomelty then invites Tom into his flat, where Mrs. Eliza Tomelty brings him a lemonade and sits to talk. Mr. Tomelty is mostly quiet, but Eliza talks enthusiastically with Tom and shows him a book on tea roses she wrote. Tom thinks of when he saw Mr. Tomelty wearing tattered clothes in his garden even though he wears finery now, and he admires the multitudes that the Tomeltys contain. In the corner of the room, he spots a silver figurine of a unicorn.
Tom’s visit to the Tomeltys’ flat is pleasant, but somewhat unusual, particularly owing to Mr. Tomelty’s place in the encounter. Although Mrs. Tomelty is warm and talkative, Mr. Tomelty, who was previously quite jovial with Tom himself, is largely silent. Furthermore, his finery is a sharp contrast with the tatters he usually wears, prompting Tom’s mild confusion. The seemingly random mention of a unicorn figurine at the end of the chapter also contributes to the faintly surreal tone of Tom’s evening with the Tomeltys, hinting that something might be slightly off.
Themes
