The Cement Garden Character Sketch (0)

The Cement Garden - Ian McEwan
Character Sketch - Tom
Tom is the brother of the narrator of the story. He is the youngest child in the family.
Tom was a 6- year -old little boy with pale skin . He had a bit big ears , black hair and his smile seemed idiotic.
Tom was tender but mettlesome. Since he was the youngest child in the family he was mostly left out due to his age. Other siblings had their own activities together and Tom was too young to understand or take part . I.g. the game of scientists examining a specimen from outer space . His relationship with his father had changed after his father had become semi-invalid. After the incident Tom’s father was very severe with him. He felt like he had to compete for mother ’s attention and frequently spited him with stinging criticism. Tom was afraid of his father. Tom’s mother was aware of the situation but did not intervene . “She took all this in silence. If Father then left the room she would smile briefly at Tom or tidy his hair with her fingers.” Tom wanted to spend as much time with his mother as he could. But when his mother got ill Julie prohibited being around her that much. He did not like the evenings without her.
Tom hated and was afraid of going to school because of the bullying . It was hard to force him to go to school, he screamed and pounded. He was clever in a petty and argumentative way — the perfect victim on the playground. “Tom was just this sort of whom to nag at” ( translated ). He believed that being a girl would had been easier because girls were never hit. Tom had a couple of friends who he sometimes played with outside, but they were never allowed to come to the house.
Tom was still a little child who did not understand that much in this world. When their mother died Julie took the responsibility, she believed that she needed to be the new mother in all the possible ways and Tom, pretending to be a little baby, helped her to play her role . Tom was a living doll for the girls and dressing him up as a girl was just a fun game while Tom himself did not understand it’s disapproval in society. Jack was envious of Julie’s attention to Tom.
Tom had to pretend to be in infancy to cope with loss of his mother. Although he was still a boy who sometimes peed in his bed, playing a baby helped him to forget responsibilities and problems, and find again motherly love in Julie. Tom soon forgot his real mother as something that was natural but he can not be blamed for that because it seems like he had not had any other choice.
Tom was a neutral character for me who was part of a bigger puzzle . He did not do anything wrong, just the series of things he was supposed to do as a family member . And I kind of feel sorry for him that he had to suffer as a child and by suffering I mean from perspective of adult . He had to have both parents to grow up with and happy childhood but was deprived of this.