How does the way tom is treated by mr. weems differ from the way he is treated by his mother? what motivates their attitudes toward his health?

The above characters are from the story "The Deep" written by Anthony Doerr. The setting of the story is in Detroit during the Great Depression. Tom suffers from a heart condition and is about to die due to it before he would be 18.

His mother, after finding this out, decides to do everything in her power to protect him. The doctor told them that too much excitement is not good for Tom’s condition, so his mother, in a bid to protect him, made a recluse out of him.

The way that Mr. Weems treated Tom was totally different from the way his mother treated him as can be seen below:

•Tom’s mother had become overprotective of him due to his health.  

•She wanted to keep him protected from the whole world and it resulted in him becoming cut-off from the rest of the world. She even used to whisper while talking to him so as not to cause him any discomfort.

•She even did everything for him so he didn’t have to do any work by himself.

•Mr. Weems rented a room in tom’s house. He did not agree with the way Tom’s mother was treating him.

•When a girl Tom liked came to give him a jar full of tadpoles, his mother angrily threw them away. This is where Mr. Weems decided to talk to her and he told her that tom deserves to live a full life and by not doing anything he wasn’t living properly.

•Mr. Weems also helped Tom find a job and covered for him too to avoid him getting fired.

Towards the end of the story, Tom had more freedom from his mother and still alive at 21 and happy to be living his life.

Learn more about The Deep here:

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that’s the kind of bug henry was; and if we’d a had him along ’stead of our kings, he’d a fooled that town a heap worse than ourn done.”