“A prisoner of his own nature”: Tommy’s subversion of self and other

Tommy’s stoicism and careful mannerisms seem to contrast with the undercurrent of chaos and the inevitable “cracking open” to which Anna continually alludes.  Such bodily and psychological entrapment, however, points toward a potential unraveling, or at the very least, an instability inherent in his nature.  He appears detached, not meeting the gaze of the others and is described as “closely-welded” (32), suggesting a gluing together of something that is broken or, at the very least, revealing the existence of separate parts.  Separation, for Tommy, seems to be the way in which he maintains control:  “His mouth moved in the act of eating as it did in the act of speaking, every word separate, each berry whole and separate” (33).  This separation indicates both fission (the need to “weld”) and wholeness or integrity (“each berry whole and separate”).  Tommy’s surprising power over the others (“He’s bullying us all” says Anna) in the scene on pages 33-39 is fueled by his perceived “blindness” and “silence”—traditional indicators of an inability to assert the gaze and to communicate.  Tommy doesn’t want to be defined by an action, suggesting his search for stability and order (an identity not based on something that can be taken away from him).  He does, indeed, seem to have many of the same preoccupations as Anna, but perhaps his “silence” (in contrast to Anna’s writing/creation in the form of the notebooks) will ultimately lead to his “cracking open.”