The Story of Tom Brennan

After reading: Fear, drink driving, family relationships, friendship, conflict, grief and loss are all important themes of this book. Choose two themes and describe/discuss how they are portrayed in the book. (We will work through an example answer in class) THEMES How is the theme of fear portrayed in TSOTB? Sample Answer (Fear is a significant theme in TSOTB. Throughout the story we see many examples of character confronting and being challenged by fear. We also see the different ways that characters cope with fear.

Tom Brennan is frightened of many things. He is frightened by the death of Nicole and Luke, the quadriplegia of Finn, the imprisonment of Daniel, the illness of his mother, the challenge of establishing himself in a new community. How does Tom confront his fears and cope with them? Tom initially feels guilt ridden by a number of the tragedies that had occurred. With support from people such as C,T and B, Tom starts to realise that these tragedies were not his fault. He could not control what had happened. Tom pays his respects to the families of N and L.

He starts to visit Finn on a more regular basis and he acknowledges that things will never return to how they were. Tom “moves on with his life” and in doing so overcomes many of his fears. ) Character Analysis: Choose one of the following characters and provide a detailed character analysis of them: Tom Brennan, Daniel Brennan, Tess Brennan, Joe Brennan, Brendan, Gran, Finn, Kylie, Kath, Chrissie. Remember to follow the characterisation checklist. Characterisation Checklist: Name character Describe appearance Describe relationships with others

Describe thoughts, words and actions Describe personality Describe goals, ambitions, regrets Describe how the character has changed/developed/grown throughout the course of the book. Sample Character Analysis: Kath O’Neil is Finn’s mother and an auntie of Daniel, Tom and Kylie Brennan. Kath is Tess’ sister. We don’t know a lot about Kath’s appearance. She would most likely be a strong, capable woman who has a active life. Following the accident and the responsibility of caring for Finn. Kath has to get used to lots of physical lifting and work.

Kath shares positive relationships with others, however, the nature of these relationships would have been significantly compromised by the accident and Kath’s feelings as to may have been responsible for her son’s quadriplegia. Kath appears at times to be very stressed and very angry. This of course would be a natural reaction to what has transpired in her life. She is also determined to what she can for her son. No doubt Kath’s goals, ambition and regrets would have changed significantly with the crash. Her life going forward was changed hugely and she would have had huge regrets at the loss of her family’s life as it had once been.