Character Analysis
Jack the Jealous
Jack is Tom's oldest brother, and the heir to their father's farm. He's big, strong, and has a killer unibrow. He's also super jealous of Tom, who is at least seven years younger than him.
Even though Jack inherited the family farm, he still accuses his mam of giving Tom, "her favorite son" (12.44), anything he wants. It's alluded to that their mam had six kids just to get to the seventh—our Tom—so Jack might have a point with that whole favorite thing.
She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not (That Much)
Jack's wife, Ellie, is "warm and friendly in a way that makes you feel that she really cares about you" (1.29). Most of Tom's family is emotionally distant, so it's nice that Tom has this connection with Ellie. However, her sweetness in Chapter 1 makes us even more hearbroken when she tells Tom, at the end of Chapter 14, that he's only welcome in their house when it's daytime. (We don't really blame her, though; troubles follow that boy like ghosts follow people who get all up in the houses they're trying to haunt.)
Ellie's declaration tells us that, despite her love for Tom, Jack and Ellie will always put their own first. Ellie has a baby during the course of the novel, and that baby is their first priority. Pretty much everything they do is with their child's best interest in mind. Sorry, Tom, you may be the baby of the family, but you're not the baby of this family anymore.