The Story of Tom Brennan Essay Questions

How does the technique of flashbacks impact the reader’s emotional response to Daniel?

If the story were told in a straightforward chronologically linear fashion, the emotional response to Daniel might be significantly altered. This would be even more so if the story were told in a fashion in which the accident at its center did not take place until well into the narrative. Daniel is really almost two different characters in the story. The flashbacks reveal a distinctly unpleasant young man who the reader is forced to compare to the emotionally fractured individual he becomes after the accident. Structuring the story so that the reader has to reach of point of sympathy for him after establishing him strictly as the uncaring and volatile person he was before would be a very difficult task. The use of flashbacks thus facilitates the process of being able to identify with a character most readers would otherwise be quite averse to sympathizing with otherwise.

Daniel Brennan is described as an “accident waiting to happen.” Is it equally fair to say he is also an accident that could have been avoided?

This question is, of course, one of the pervasive themes of the story. A key line in the novel has the narrator describe his brother during one of the most significant points in a person’s life, their senior year of school: “Most of the time Daniel was tired, hung over and bad tempered.” Only very slightly less significant is the line which follows the repetition of the recognition that Daniel was a ticking time bomb: “So how come the township of Mumbilli saw it coming and we didn't?” And it is there, in those two lines, that the question is answered. The narrator could hardly have been the only family member capable of recognizing that Daniel was spending most of his senior year in an alcohol-fueled haze. That the rest of the town could sense the danger there while apparently the family could not leads to one inevitable conclusion: the Brennan family does not see alcohol as posing the same kind of danger that hard drugs would.

This is hardly uncommon in families and the tendency to view alcohol abuse as somehow more societally acceptable inevitably leads to many situations that mirror exactly the incident taking place in the book. Ultimately, responsibility for the accident lies only with Daniel, but Daniel getting to the point that allowed the accident to happen rests firmly upon every other member of his family. He may have been an accident waiting to happen, but only because steps weren’t taken to make sure he didn’t become an accident that could have been avoided.

A lot of guilt is expressed in the book related to the accident. Why is Kylie, in particular, wracked with guilt over the events of that evening?

Perhaps one could say that not enough guilt is expressed by members of a family that chose to overlook a member clearly swirling out of control. On the other hand, Kylie’s guilt—while perfectly understandable—seems misplaced. It springs from her having played a role in raising the heat of the simmering romantic feelings between Claire and Fin, the result of which is that they were both together in the car during the accident. While it can be argued that Claire and Fin being together that night stimulated Daniel’s rage which enhanced the likelihood that his "accident waiting to happen" had finally arrived, Kylie’s motives were pure and her intent clear. Of all the family members' guilt about the accident, Kylie's might be the least deserved.

How does Tom’s relationship with his family deepen over the course of the novel?

At first, it seems as if all the accident has done is break up an extremely happy family. However, as the novel progresses, we see the ways in which that isn't quite true. We learn that Daniel had a much closer relationship to their grandfather and to Brendan, whereas Tom was somewhat distant from the adults in his family. Living in Coghill gives him the opportunity to deepen his relationship with Brendan over their morning runs and to get to know Gran during the time they spend together in the house. With his immediate family, Tom learns how to navigate their relationship given the new circumstances, with Kylie and Tom becoming particularly close. Even with Daniel, Tom is able to deepen their relationship by being able to acknowledge Daniel’s flaws and support him from a distance.

How does playing rugby with the Bennie's boys show Tom a different way of relating to the game? How does that connect to his life in general?

When Tom initally meets the team from St. Benedict's, he thinks that he's in for an awful season since they're not as good as the team from his old school. This is a mentality he struggles to shake off, but little by little, he begins to see the benefits of a team like Bennie's. They're not overly competitive and know not to take life too seriously; more than anything else, they have learned how to love the game, even if they're losing. This lesson is important not only on the field, but off of it as well. Over the course of the novel, Tom learns how important it is to be able to find joy in life, to laugh, and to spend time loving the people closest to him.