Good Night, Mr. Tom Literary Elements

Children's Fiction

England, World War II, during the time of the Luftwaffe bombing raids in London

Third person narrator, Willie's point of view

Foreboding with the threat of war, as well as happy and carefree for Willie and his friends who are enjoying growing up in the countryside

Protagonists: William Beech and Tom Oakley. Antagonist: Willie's mother

The major conflict is the abuse of Willie and the struggle of Tom Oakley to rescue him from London and let him stay in Little Weirwold permanently. There is also the ongoing conflict of World War II as a backdrop, and which is a catalyst for Willie being sent to Tom's house.

Mr. Tom finds Willie abandoned and beaten in Deptford, tied to a copper pipe in a stairwell and close to death.

The news of evacuees being sent back home foreshadows that Willie will have to return to London soon. The tone and reactions of Willie's mother when Willie is back home foreshadow her abuse and abandonment of her children. The recurrent news of bombings foreshadows bad news concerning people from Weirwold: George's brother, Mr. Hartridge, Zach.

Tom telling Zach that he is wearing an "unusual jersey" is a huge understatement as the jersey is flamboyant and wildly colored.

When Zach is stuck in quicksand under the Anderson shelter he says he is having a "Buster Keaton moment," alluding to the silent movie star who is often stuck in mud in his comedies.

"The early-morning air was clear and crisp and all the fields and hedgerows were covered with a layer of sparkling dew. The sun filtered through the trees so that Will and Zach were constantly moving into patches of gloom and out into sudden patches of sunlight" (286). This image not only adds to the theme of the beauty in the countryside compared to the bombed out city, but it also mirrors the way in which Willie has alternated between gloom and light in getting away from his mother and being adopted by Tom.

As Little Weirwold returns to normalcy after frantic preparations for war, the war is just beginning to impact the world at large in increasingly escalated ways.

There is a parallel between the characters of Willie and Geoffrey, as both have lost a best friend in the war and are struggling to come to terms with it. There is also a parallel between Tom and Will in the way that they both need to confront painful truths (for Will, the death of Zach, and for Tom, the death of his wife and son) in order to heal their grief.

In the cemetery, Willie is said to "sit back down on Elizabeth Thatcher," where the name refers not to the person of Elizabeth Thatcher but her gravestone.

Carrie and Ginnie comment that the trees look like they have decided to wave their arms, as if they are people.