Character Analysis
Mr. Hook, no relation to the one-handed pirate captain, is one of the bosses of the Ackerman & Hook Feed and Flour Mill. He is also one of the strongest examples of a character who changes because of his interaction with Tom.
Mr. Hook Pre-Tom
When Tom first meets Mr. Hook, he's a quiet man who Tom thinks "must lead a lonely life" (34.9). Mr. Hook lives alone in town with no wife or children. He had been married at one time, but his wife "had gone off with another man not long after they were married. No one knew what lay behind it, but George Hook hadn't married again, though there were plenty of young women who would have been glad to oblige him if he had ever asked" (12.4). Single tear.
Mr. Hook Post-Tom
Mr. Hook starts to move away from his broody bachelor solitude as he gets to know Tom. He says that Tom is always welcome to stay at his house if the weather is ever too bad to walk home from the mill, and he helps Tom understand what's going on with all the confusing red tape when the Widow Breen dies.
Pretty soon, Mr. Hook moves beyond this kind of practical help to make friendly, even fatherly gestures. He arrives as a surprise visitor on Christmas to give Tom a book on carpentry. The next Christmas, Mr. Hook brings Tom an actual family heirloom, a set of tools that had belonged to his uncle. Sharing generational knowledge and heirlooms is something that happens within families, and so these moments start to take on a father-son intimacy.
The more time Mr. Hook spends with the family, the more he also seems to take a liking to Polly Ann. He begins dropping by for tea, and one day he and Polly Ann drive up for an impromptu picnic lunch with Tom and Birdy while they're taking down the barn. On that trip, Polly Ann tells stories about her family, which shows that she is also becoming more comfortable with the idea of letting someone new into her life. As Polly Ann and Mr. Hook drive away, Birdy notes, "Them two look to me as though they was getting pretty partial" (41.2). Since Mr. Hook had previously been closed off entirely to the idea of marrying again, this is a big change.
George Hook vs. Birdy Morris
There is some unspoken competition between Mr. Hook and Birdy. For a long time, Birdy was the only man who came around to offer assistance at the Dolan house and to serve as a friend and father-figure to Tom. When Mr. Hook comes into the picture, he begins to take on those roles as well, sometimes pushing Birdy out of the picture.
This dynamic is never more obvious than on Christmases. The first Christmas Mr. Hook comes around, Birdy leaves when he shows up. Tom tries to persuade Birdy to stay, but "Tom knew he was uneasy in front of Mr. Hook and let him go, but he felt sorry as the old man drove off" (29.25). Mr. Hook arrives in a new cutter with a fine horse, nice coat, and a matching collar and cap. He's not of the same economic or social class as Birdy. That bird has flown.
Then there's the next year:
Mr. Hook came by Christmas Day as he had the year before, and this time he brought candy for the girls and Polly Ann as well as a set of carpenter's tools for Tom. He said they had belonged to an uncle and they showed they had seen use. But Birdy Morris said that tools that had been used and kept well were always worth more than brand-new ones. He admired them and nothing was said about his having given Tom a saw the year before. (34.2)
This last passage has a subtle way of crushing our hearts. Birdy has always been there for Tom, and here comes Mr. Hook, swooping in and taking over that role. Mr. Hook and Birdy do become friendly, an indication of Tom's special talent for bringing people together. Still, the interaction between Mr. Hook and Birdy suggests that Mr. Hook is the more conventional type of father-figure and that a man like Birdy will always be on the margin of society, never fully folded into structures like family or the traditional labor force (see Birdy's character description).