Tom Dolan

Character Analysis

Just for fun, set a timer for 60 seconds and list all the famous Toms you can think of from American lit and history. Waiting…waiting…

Okay, here's a few we came up with: Tom Sawyer, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Edison, Tom Brady, Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Tom (& Jerry).

We run the gamut here from actor to politico to sports star, but as a group, these Toms have a vibe about them that make us think success. We can think of a few bad ones too like Tom Buchanan who is Mr. Pretension in The Great Gatsby, or the stereotypical slave figure Uncle Tom from Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. And Tom the Cat is a bit iffy, come to think of it.

In general, though, Tom is a solid name that makes us think of the American spirit and American values. Add to that list our main man, Tom Dolan. He's far less flashy than, say, Tom Cruise, but he represents an American ideal in his own quiet way by putting his nose to the grindstone and making something out of himself, in spite of very poor circumstances.

The American Dream

Tom could be the poster boy for the American Dream. Seriously. He makes us want to eat apple pie at a baseball game while reciting the pledge. The American Dream goes like this: no matter how humble your beginnings, where you came from, or who your family is, you can attain any goal through hard work, initiative, and self-reliance. That's Tom's trajectory to a T.

Tom gets the inkling that he'd like to change his family's life for the better when he's just a lad of eight, observing his mother's hard work to keep their family afloat. The idea blossoms when he goes with Birdy to see the Breen barn, and the Widow Breen reads his cards. That's right: the cards tell the future.

In the cards, Mrs. Breen sees that Tom will quit school, get a little money, and then get more money later on. Not a bad future, eh? Still, even though good things are predicted to happen, Tom doesn't just sit back and wait for destiny to send him leprechauns with buckets of gold. He makes things happen himself.

He quits school (Friendly Shmoop disclaimer: don't be too quick to jump on the Tom Train and throw in your backpack and textbooks. If you check out our "Theme" page on education, you'll see that the book really doesn't condemn education). With school out of the way, he thinks about how a boy like him could get money, and he has the spectacularly mundane idea that he could go out and get a job.

So he does. He gets a low-paying, entry-level job at a mill. Tom works his butt off, not just at the mill, but also doing chores at home and fixing up his family's property to prepare it for the new barn, even from early in his working days. When he finally gets the barn, he pulls long days, working his regular mill job and then doing construction on the barn in the evenings. You might be yawning just thinking about it.

As for the "more money," Tom eventually finds a couple chests of gold hidden under the Breen barn floor—no, not delivered by leprechauns. But by this point of the story, he's already proven his work ethic and he finds the chests through the sweat of his own brow. Plus, there's the sense that he'd still be successful even if he didn't find the chests.

The moral of the story? When Tom starts helping himself, he finds success. We call that the American Dream.

The Tom Effect

Funny thing: when Tom starts helping himself, not only does he find success, but he finds that other characters are more than happy to lend a hand. In fact, many of the adult characters evolve way more than Tom does, even though Tom's the main character.

Don't get us wrong; Tom does change some throughout the novel. He becomes more capable and confident, morphing from a little boy strapped with a bad family history to a young man well on his way to becoming a successful farm owner. While these changes are definitely impressive, they're not really all that dynamic.

That is, they're not substantive character changes. Tom has always been a good, helpful, and hardworking boy; he becomes even more so as the book goes on. The deep character changes come in the adult characters Tom has an effect on. Just take a look at these examples:

Polly Ann:
Before Tom: jaded, isolated, defensive, defined by poverty and history
After Tom: hopeful, successful, liberated from the past

Mr. Hook:
Before Tom: lonely cuckold
After Tom: father-figure open to the idea of courting a young lady (Polly Ann)

Birdy:
Before Tom: isolated old man
After Tom: a respected leader in the community and a valued family friend

Billy-Bob:
Before Tom: shifty lawyer
After Tom: helpful pro-bono lawyer who thinks of others

What is it about Tom that sparks so much change in those around him? He has a lot of pretty universally admirable qualities: strong work ethic, initiative, motivation, and care for his family. He's humble, and he's never a whiner. He's also the only young character among adults, and youth has a way of reminding old fogies about change, possibility, and dreaming big.

A Greedy Streak?

Now that we've sung Tom's praises, we have to consider what seems to be his most obvious possible weakness: greed. Tom's motivation comes from his desire to improve life for his family, but it also comes from comparing his material possessions to those of others. Even as an eight-year-old, he "began thinking what it would be like to have real Holstein cows in a barn with a cement floor like Massey's" (2.8).

Tom never gives up that comparison to Mr. Massey even after he gets his own barn. He admits to feeling like "when you had a thing you wanted, it always led you on to wanting one thing more" (58.8). Sounds like the definition of greed to us.

Moreover, throughout the book, Tom is kind of obsessed with counting, tracking, and saving money. Having good financial sense is usually a positive quality, and Tom spends money to provide for his family and buy them gifts. That's nice and all, but his total preoccupation with it can make him seem a bit like a Scrooge McDuck at times.

The biggest strike against Tom when it comes to greed is that it never occurs to him to share the money he finds in the Breen barn with Birdy despite the enormous help Birdy has been to Tom. Billy-Bob has to prompt Tom to set aside some money for Birdy, reminding him, "Without [Birdy] you wouldn't have been able to move your barn at all, Tom" (54.40). Yeah, duh.

Does all this make Tom evil? Not at all. It's more like it makes him human, and it emphasizes Tom's youth. Tom doesn't have the life experience to always consider the big picture, including those who help him. As soon as Billy-Bob points out Tom's mistake in forgetting Birdy, Tom corrects it. Likewise when Birdy tells Tom it would be wise to hold off on the cement floor, Tom listens. At least, for the time being.