Tom Brennan's 'My Father Began As A God'

Moving into the world involves different pathways to new experiences and gaining a deeper understanding of oneself and others. Transitions act as a catalyst for individual transformations, as significantly seen in J.C. Burke’s novel ‘The Story of Tom Brennan’ and as seen in Ian Mudie’s poem “My Father Began as a God”. The Story of ‘Tom Brennan’ focuses on a family who comes to understanding that laboriously overcoming the obstacles and challenges of the past, can enhance self-growth and deepen, as well as renewal the perceptions of one’s life and of others. The poem 'My father began as a God' is about a man's self-reflection on his own life, and also a reflection on his father's life and values that he role modeled to the speaker as a child.

Transitioning into a new phase of life offers individuals the opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of themselves and of others.

‘The story of Tom Brennan’ chronicles a young man named Tom as he faces obstacles which arise as a result of a fatal car accident caused by his brother’s drink driving. Burke incorporates flashbacks, juxtaposing the past with the present. The past symbolises happiness and the present depicts misery. She uses evocative imagery throughout her novel to enhance the reader’s experience of Tom’s physical transition and emotional transformation. Toms initial transition is explored through the internal monologue as he says “my father closed the door of our home for the last time.” The closing of the door symbolising the uprooted comfortable communal existence which was once had in

Mumbilli.
"I hadn’t decided if I was playing rugby this year. In fact, I hadn’t decided if I was playing ever again. I didn’t know if I could without my brother.” Rugby makes up much of Tom’s own self-identity – he’s reluctance and indecision to play again signifies the uncertain period he’s going through. Tom is forced to re-define himself without his brother for guidance, of whom he lived in the shadow of for his entire life. He’s now confronted with the task of negotiating the adult world, on his own. Without his brother, and without Mumbilli, Tom feels he can’t continue with rugby, meaning he’s lost much of his identity. However, as Tom becomes more optimistic and outward looking, we see Tom is growing physically, emotionally and spiritually. This is evident as Tom sees his uncle Brendan crying over photos of Daniel, he then begins to evaluate life ‘but for the first, time it helped me look at everything with a bit of distance...We were all on our own journey, and some days the traveling was worse than others.’ The use of the collective pronoun ‘our’ in conjunction with the adjective ‘own’ illustrates how Tom has developed an understanding that everyone has their own journey. However, the individual is able to receive help along the way from others in order to complete it. This shows how Tom believes support is key to moving on. ‘helped me to look at everything from a distance’ reflects how Tom has come to realise how to move on as he views the journey from another perspective helping him become level-headed in order to improve and cope. The metaphor of the ‘journey’ is used to represent the slow change happening to each of them revealing that he has gained the understanding that transition will not happen instantaneously.