For a person's character to be built or changed, there needs to be a significant experience to provoke them into taking the first steps. This can be seen through the entirety of The Story of Tom Brennan, in the first few lines of the novel Tom says ‘I wanted to be back home having a barbie. Having our normal Australia day. Our Brennan Australia Day, the way we always did.” The colloquialism of the statement and the three words ‘home’, ‘Brennan’, and ‘always’ all used together show that all Tom wants is to have the positive family environment and traditions of the past that because of his brother’s stupidity in causing the car accident he believes he will never be able to have again. Later in the novel Tom decides to visit his brother in gaol, Tom states ‘I took the books out carefully, page…