# Tom Foster — Winesburg, Ohio character guide

> Tom Foster in Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Drink Tom Foster, Tom

**First appearance:** 0023-drink

## Snapshot

A gentle, drifting young man whom Winesburg loves for his openness, until a single profound experience sends him toward drink.

## Who they are

Tom Foster does odd jobs around town, sleeps in a cast-off fur coat, and finds absurd happiness in the smell of roasting coffee at Hern's Grocery. His grandmother dotes on him and scrubs the lawyer's office where he rents a room for a dollar a month. He has the power to be part of and yet apart from the life around him—a quality that makes his eventual turn to drink feel both surprising and inevitable.

## Relationships

### [George Willard](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/winesburg_ohio_se/characters/george_willard)

_friendship_

George is a sympathetic confidant to the shy, gentle Tom Foster, who is in love with Helen White.

### [Helen White](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/winesburg_ohio_se/characters/helen_white)

_social_

Helen is kind to the shy Tom Foster but does not reciprocate his romantic feelings.

### [Helen White](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/winesburg_ohio_se/characters/helen_white)

_social_

Helen is kind to the shy Tom Foster but does not reciprocate his romantic feelings.

### [George Willard](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/winesburg_ohio_se/characters/george_willard)

_friendship_

George is a sympathetic confidant to the shy, gentle Tom Foster, who is in love with Helen White.

### [George Willard](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/winesburg_ohio_se/characters/george_willard)

_friendship_

George is a sympathetic confidant to the shy, gentle Tom Foster, who is in love with Helen White.

## In the story

### [Drink](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/winesburg_ohio_se/chapters/drink)

A gentle, quiet young man who moves to Winesburg with his grandmother. He falls in love with Helen White and gets drunk for the first time on a spring night.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/winesburg_ohio_se/characters/tom_foster
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/winesburg_ohio_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/winesburg_ohio_se/characters