Tom Howland Character Analysis

Alice and John’s second child and only son; Lydia and Anna’s brother. Tom is a third-year student at Harvard Medical School and is specifically studying cardiothoracic surgery. Tom and John are very close because both study biology and share a number of common interests. As Alice begins reevaluating her priorities and what she wants to do with the time she has left, she notes that she wants to see Tom—who dates and breaks up with a number of women, but has never had a long-term relationship—finally fall in love. Tom goes to Stephanie Aaron to get tested for the same gene mutation that caused Alice’s Alzheimer’s and finds out that he did not inherit the gene. In the early stages of Alice’s struggle with Alzheimer’s, Tom argues that they should be discouraging her from trying to remember unnecessary things (such as what time Lydia’s play is) so she can save her energy for remembering more meaningful things. When John is offered a job in New York City, Tom is against him taking Alice with him because it’s too far from everything that’s familiar to her.