Tommy Barban Character Analysis

Tommy, “an unmistakably Latin young man,” is a friend of Dick and Nicole Diver’s. He is particularly fond of Nicole and goes to great lengths to protect her from gossip and rumors. Tommy is a soldier and insists that he has “no home” other than the battlefield. He claims to have fought in several different wars, and that his “business is to kill people.” Defending Nicole when Violet McKisco discovers evidence of her mental illness, Tommy gets into a frenzied argument with Violet’s husband, Mr. McKisco. Enraged and desperate for conflict, Tommy challenges his opponent to a duel, which both men survive. Much later in the story, Tommy and Nicole become romantically involved. Although Dick is initially jealous of their love affair, when Tommy insists that he and Nicole should be together, Dick hardly fights it. On the day that Dick leaves for America at the end of the story, he sees Nicole and Tommy—happily married—playing on the beach with his children.