The Ballad of Black Tom

In Tommy’s quest to obtain supernatural powers, he loses his moral compass and gives himself over to evil. By the end of the novella, is Black Tom a tragic hero, an anti-hero, or simply a villain?

The second half of the story is from Detective Malone’s point of view. In what ways are Malone and Tommy similar or different? What might LaValle be trying to say by setting up a white character and a black character as mirrors for one another?

The Ballad of Black Tom is a retelling of H.P. Lovecraft’s 1925 short story, “The Horror at Red Hook.” What does LaValle take directly from the original short story, and what changes does he make? In what ways is The Ballad of Black Tom a critique of Lovecraft’s work?

The themes of racism and segregation loom large in this story, but the novella almost never discusses gender. What commentary on gender—for both men, women, and all genders—can you find in the story? What is the significance of nearly all of the main characters being men?

LaValle chose to tell this story in close third person narration, sticking closely to Tommy Tester’s perspective in Part 1 and Malone’s in Part 2. What is the impact of this narrative choice on the story, both positive and negative? How might a different choice—such as first-person narration or telling the entire story from Tommy’s point of view—have changed the meaning of the plot?

As a trope, a white savior is a white person who helps non-white people for self-serving reasons, believing themselves to be of superior intellect or abilities. Which characters in this story are white saviors? How do they think they are “helping?” How do the people who are being “helped,” including Tommy, feel about their efforts?

There are many forces in this story working against the protagonist, including Robert Suydam, Malone and Howard, and white society in general. Robert Suydam is the main antagonist of the story, but why might LaValle have created a story where almost everyone is against the protagonist?

At the end of the story, Black Tom says, “I wish I’d been more like my father […] He didn’t have much, but he never lost his soul” (148). Was Tommy’s transformation into Black Tom inevitable, or did he have the power to decide his own fate? If Tommy had made different choices, how might things have turned out differently?