Thomas Rommely Character Analysis

The father of Katie, Evy, Eliza, and Sissy, the husband of Mary Rommely, and the maternal grandfather of Francie and Neeley. He is an immigrant from Austria. Thomas is remembered as a cruel, hateful, greedy man. However, he is also thrifty and hardworking—qualities that Katie inherits. He leaves Austria with Mary to avoid being conscripted into the army. Thomas has strict views about racial and ethnic-mixing, believing that such unions produce “mongrel children.” Though he is competent in English, Thomas stubbornly refuses to speak it and forbids it in his home, though Mary has insisted that the girls speak English. As a result, the Rommely girls have little communication with their father while growing up. However, he never speaks to them anyway, except to curse them. With his wife, he is a brutal lover who kills all desire in her. When Thomas arrives from Austria, he gave his tithe of labor to the Church that the Nolans attend at Christmas. He carved the left side of the altar and saved the bits of gouged-out wood to make crucifixes for each of his three daughters, which Mary gave them on their wedding days, with the intention that the crosses would be passed down to each generation of daughters.