Tender Is the Night

Tender Is the Night

by

F. Scott Fitzgerald

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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.

Tommy Barban Quotes in Tender Is the Night

The Tender Is the Night quotes below are all either spoken by Tommy Barban or refer to Tommy Barban. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Excess, Destruction, and the Failed American Dream Theme Icon
).
Book 3, Chapter 8 Quotes

A little later, riding toward Nice, she thought: So I have white crook’s eyes, have I? Very well then, better a sane crook than a mad puritan.

Related Characters: Nicole Diver (Nicole Warren) (speaker), Dick Diver, Tommy Barban
Page Number: 373
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 3, Chapter 13 Quotes

Perhaps, so she liked to think, his career was biding its time, again like Grant’s in Galena; his latest note was postmarked from Hornell, New York, which is some distance from Geneva and a very small town; in any case he is almost certainly in that section of the country, in one town or another.

Related Characters: Dick Diver, Nicole Diver (Nicole Warren), Tommy Barban
Page Number: 402
Explanation and Analysis:
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Tender Is the Night PDF

Tommy Barban Quotes in Tender Is the Night

The Tender Is the Night quotes below are all either spoken by Tommy Barban or refer to Tommy Barban. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Excess, Destruction, and the Failed American Dream Theme Icon
).
Book 3, Chapter 8 Quotes

A little later, riding toward Nice, she thought: So I have white crook’s eyes, have I? Very well then, better a sane crook than a mad puritan.

Related Characters: Nicole Diver (Nicole Warren) (speaker), Dick Diver, Tommy Barban
Page Number: 373
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 3, Chapter 13 Quotes

Perhaps, so she liked to think, his career was biding its time, again like Grant’s in Galena; his latest note was postmarked from Hornell, New York, which is some distance from Geneva and a very small town; in any case he is almost certainly in that section of the country, in one town or another.

Related Characters: Dick Diver, Nicole Diver (Nicole Warren), Tommy Barban
Page Number: 402
Explanation and Analysis: