Tommy Boy

**Passage in Ch 6**

In this passage from The Prince of Tides, Pat Conroy illuminates Tom Wingo's sarcastic, violent, yet emotional personality. By using the point of view, dialog, details, and juxtaposition Conroy illustrates the conflicting aspects of his character, reflecting the same conflicting emotions in his soul.

The point of view in this passage skews the facts about Tom because it is Tom who recalls events the way he remembers them sprinkled with his personal biases. The major event in this passage that Tom relates to Susan is him beating Sue Ellen's father because her father beat her. Because it is Tom telling this memory, his reasons and feelings about his actions are clear. He states that his reason for beating Sue Ellen's father is because he made a promise when he was young to never allow a man to beat his family, allowing for his determination and his receptiveness to shine. Tom's insecurity about himself is highlighted when he answers Susan's question about what the memory meant and he replies with “nothing”. Similarly, he believes that he was neither right nor wrong in committing such an act leading the reader to conclude that Tom cannot arrive at any one answer because he does not know who he is. Also, since Tom is narrating this passage, he directly declares himself against separating the professional and personal lives: “That sounds so cold and remorseless to me... I'd listen to these stories all day and they'd drive me crazy all night”.

Conroy also juxtaposes certain phrases to amplify specific aspects of Tom's personality, mostly his emotional and moral stances on abuse. For instance, Susan tells Tom that she has learned to separate her work from her personal life where as Tom mentions after his story that he is “not the type to keep [his] professional distance”. By placing these two opposing statements close to each other, Conroy emphasizes Tom's sensitivity and emotional connection towards victims of abuse. These two stances that Susan and Tom take towards other's problems further highlights the fact that Tom takes immediate action when he feels it is absolutely necessary and is capable of standing up for himself and protecting those who cannot fend off their aggressors.

The selection of details and their symbolic meanings that Conroy strategically includes in this passage draws attention to Tom's bitterness as well as his sensitivity. The description of the “salty ghost of the loathed and pungent olive” in his martini emphasizes Tom's bitterness