Michael Barbosa
Mr. Farkavec
ENG 3U1
30 May, 2015
Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan are they similar or different?
The Great Gatsby shows the reader how wealth and power were important elements during the Roaring Twenties. Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan are characters who have been tarnished by their prosperity and power. This so-called wealth and authority has not only affected how they perceive the world around them, but has also changed them as people. Jay Gatsby is a man who obtained his fortune illegally, and his sole drive was his love for Daisy. Jay Gatsby believed that if he became wealthy, he would truly be happy as he would be able to capture the heart of Daisy with his fortune. Tom Buchanan’s wealth was obtained through the inheritance
Gatsby 's sole objective is to conquer Daisy and for Tom his objective is to keep Daisy from leaving him. Tom believes that he does not have to put much effort into keeping Daisy because he is of a better class than Gatsby. Also, he has not had to compete for anything because he has had everything given to him. There is no need for Tom to make any effort for anything; he has everything he wants. Gatsby’s remembers his past relationship with Daisy and wants her to love him like she had done before. He is a hopeless romantic because during the novel he never stops believing that he will get Daisy back and that he is the only man that Daisy ever loved. What Gatsby fails to see is that you cannot go back in time and rewrite the past. Gatsby eventually sees that even though he loves Daisy, and she loved him once she also loves Tom. Gatsby feels uncomfortable when Daisy expresses her love for both men. ‘“Oh, you want too much!’ she cried Gatsby. ‘I love you now-isn’t that enough? I can’t help what’s past.’ She began to sob helplessly. ‘I did love him once-but I love you too.’”(Fitzgerald, 132) What Gatsby fails to see is that Daisy is not in love with either man but more so with what they can provide her. Gatsby forces Daisy to decide between him or Tom, and this ultimately leads to Gatsby’s death. Tom was brought up to live his life the way he sees fit with no regard for others. Gatsby grew up poor, and once he
Scott Fitzgerald also makes it a point to show similarities between Gatsby and Tom. One of the first similarities that the reader can see is that both men use people to obtain what they want. Gatsby uses Nick Carraway to meet Daisy “‘I don 't want you to get a wrong idea of me from all these stories you hear.’”(Fitzgerald, 65) He befriends Nick to find out information on Daisy. Gatsby also uses all the people he invites to his party as his only objective was to find anyone who might know Daisy. Gatsby didn’t want all these people he was just doing it for selfish reasons. Gatsby uses Nick to ensure that Daisy will come to tea so that he can see her again. While Daisy and Nick are at Gatsby’s house, Gatsby forgets all about Nick and only concentrates on Daisy. Once Gatsby got what he wanted he forgot about Nick. Tom also uses people to obtain his desires. The first person Tom uses is Daisy when he marries her. He does not love her; he just wants someone that’ll fit into his socialite life. Even on their honeymoon, Tom cheats on Daisy, which shows how much he cares and respects her. “The girl who was with him got into the papers, too, because her arm was broken-she was one of the chambermaids in the Santa Barbara Hotel.” (Fitzgerald, 77) Tom also uses Myrtle as he does not treat her right because he has no plans of leaving Daisy to stay with Myrtle. Tom would not jeopardize his status as he loves himself more than anyone else. This is seen when Myrtle dies; Tom
Shannon L. Alder once said, “If you want to discover the true character of a person, you have only to observe what they are passionate about.” There are many ways to see the truth about a person whether it is through what they do or how they act. True colors often show when people least expect it and many would be surprised. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, “The Great Gatsby”, Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby may seem like very similar people, but there is more than meets the eye.
In the beginning, Gatsby was a poor army boy who fell in love with a rich girl named Daisy. Knowing from their different circumstances, he could not marry her. So Gatsby left to accumulate a lot of money. Daisy, not being able to wait for Gatsby, marries a rich man named Tom. Tom believes that it is okay for a man to be unfaithful but it is not okay for the woman to be. This caused a lot of conflict in their marriage and caused Daisy to be very unhappy. Gatsby’s dream is to be with Daisy, and since he has accumulated a lot of money, he had his mind set on getting her back. Throughout the novel, Gatsby shows his need to attain The American Dream of love and shows his determination to achieve it. You can tell that Gatsby has a clear vision of what he wants when Nick says, “..he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I gla...
Nothing is more important, to most people, than friendships and family, thus, by breaking those bonds, it draws an emotional response from the readers. Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan had a relationship before he went off to fight in the war. When he returned home, he finds her with Tom Buchanan, which seems to make him jealous since he still has feelings for Daisy. He wanted Daisy “to go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you” (Fitzgerald 118) Gatsby eventually tells Tom that his “wife doesn’t love [him]” and that she only loves Gatsby (Fitzgerald 121). But the unpleasant truth is that Daisy never loved anyone, but she loved something: money. Daisy “wanted her life shaped and the decision made by some force of of money, of unquestionable practicality” (Fitzgerald 161). The Roaring Twenties were a time where economic growth swept the nation and Daisy was looking to capitalize on that opportunity. Her greed for material goods put her in a bind between two wealthy men, yet they are still foolish enough to believe that she loved them. Jay Gatsby is a man who has no relationships other than one with Nick Caraway, so he is trying to use his wealth to lure in a greedy individual to have love mend his
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby provides the reader with a unique outlook on the life of the newly rich. Gatsby is an enigma and a subject of great curiosity, furthermore, he is content with a lot in life until he strives too hard. His obsession with wealth, his lonely life and his delusion allow the reader to sympathize with him.
In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald reveals to us our narrator Gatsby’s neighbor and cousin of the lovely, but shallow Daisy Buchanan, Nick Carraway, who construes to us about the infamous and mysterious Jay Gatsby. From the lavish parties, living in the fictional West Egg, and symbolic yellow car, who is Jay Gatsby? Jay Gatsby is a man blinded by his own greed and imagination. All he wants in life is money and love and the only way he affords his lavish lifestyle is by participating in crime. The era that this story takes place in, which is the 20’s, an era of economic prosperity, reflects greatly on the action...
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, tells the story of a man of meager wealth who chases after his dreams, only to find them crumble before him once he finally reaches them. Young James Gatz had always had dreams of being upper class, he didn't only want to have wealth, but he wanted to live the way the wealthy lived. At a young age he ran away from home; on the way he met Dan Cody, a rich sailor who taught him much of what he would later use to give the world an impression that he was wealthy. After becoming a soldier, Gatsby met an upper class girl named Daisy - the two fell in love. When he came back from the war Daisy had grown impatient of waiting for him and married a man named Tom Buchanan. Gatsby now has two coinciding dreams to chase after - wealth and love. Symbols in the story, such as the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, the contrast between the East Egg and West Egg, and the death of Myrtle, Gatsby, and Wilson work together to expose a larger theme in the story. Gatsby develops this idea that wealth can bring anything - status, love, and even the past; but what Gatsby doesn't realize is that wealth can only bring so much, and it’s this fatal mistake that leads to the death of his dreams.
The roaring twenties was a time for happiness and celebration, but the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, shows a different side of this dynamic decade. Fitzgerald uses a poignant, yet hopeful tone to show the shadier side of the nineteen twenties most refuse to look at, while tying in the brighter side. In The Great Gatsby, the reader is sucked into a story of corruption, and empowerment by the rich hidden by extravagant parties and bright colors. Jay Gatsby, who only dreamt of wealth and love had an ideal dream life, that ideal life could be defined as his “American Dream”. His dreams were later crushed by very powerful people, careless people, people who used and abused others to get their way, no matter the consequences. Those people were Tom and Daisy Buchanan, they were the empowered rich. They crushed Gatsby’s American Dream, by being careless. Gatsby created this extravagant life for one reason, and one reason only; to impress the girl he fell in love with, years ago. The girl he gave his heart to hold forever, but after Gatsby left for war, she married someone else, someone who was from old money, like her. She married Tom Buchanan. Although Daisy was married, Gatsby held onto the hope that they would find a way to be together again, and forever. Close to the end, the reader wonders if matters will work out in Gatsby’s favor or not, but after the tragic accident that bring three dreams to an end, the reader ignores Gatsby’s hopefulness and just hopes for a happier ending, when in reality, nothing ends the way anyone wishes it to.
In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald reflects the American society in the 1920’s and the different social groups that coexisted. The Great Gatsby portrays the failure of the American Dream, where corruption, illegal trading, superficial relationships, and social classes take the main roles. The author demonstrates how the American dream has become a pursuit of wealth and materialism through the exploration of the upper class. In addition, the author uses characterization to reflect the upper class in the 1920’s as two separate groups: the “old” money, and the “new money”. These are shown through the main characters in the novel, such as Gatsby and Tom Buchanan.
Tom functions under the illusion that Daisy not only loves him now, but has always loved him and been completely devoted to him. Daisy does admit that she once loved him, but he was not her first choice; Gatsby was. Tom is also under the illusion that Daisy will never leave him. He has an ongoing, almost public affair with Myrtle but still wants to be devoted to Daisy and demands her devotion to him. Tom feels as if he will never lose anything: his money, Daisy, or his social status.
Apparently being wealthy is not all Gatsby wants, but also wants love from Daisy. He loves her so much he wants her to break Tom’s heart and come with him. This man is clever and cold hearted like Lord Voldemort and Sauron. Jordan glanced at Nick and told him in a calm tone, “Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (Fitzgerald 78). Gatsby’s way of being in love with Daisy is to be a creepy stalker, never giving her space and always spying on her.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, reveals thin threads woven between himself and the novel, revealing the truth about a corrupted society filled with discontentment and superficiality. From marriages to women to an impossible dream, all these aspects of Fitzgerald’s life influences his work, The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald’s novel quite closely resembles his own circumstances through his portrayal of the characters and the society of the 1920’s. Though Fitzgerald himself lived in a society of shallowness, he was able to portray that the emptiness in society would not bring anyone happiness. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the characters in The Great Gatsby to represent the people in his own life and to show that wealth causes corruption.
The novel The Great Gatsby displays deceitfulness in many of its characters. The deceit brings many of the characters to their downfall. Gatsby had the greatest downfall of them all due to the fact it took his life. In The Great Gatsby , “ Gatsby goes to spectacular lengths to try to achieve what Nick calls ‘his incorruptible dream’ to recapture the past by getting Daisy Buchannan love” (Sutton). Gatsby always had an infatuation with Daisy, Jordan Baker said,”Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (Fitzgerald 83). Gatsby and Daisy did have a past together. While Jordan was golfing, “The Officer looked at Daisy while she was speaking in a way that every young girl wants to be looked at sometime[…]His name was Jay Gatsby and I didn’t lay eyes on him for over four years-even after I’d met him in long island I didn’t realize it was the same man” (Fitzgerald 80). Daisy is now in an abusive relationship with Tom Buchannan, “Nick Carraway attends a small publicly blames Tom for the bruise on her knuckle” (Sutton). When they meet again Gatsby showers Daisy with love and affection, wanting her to leave her husband Tom, but she does not want to in their society. Tom and Gatsby get into an argument and tom tells Daisy about Gatsby’s bootlegging that brought him to his riches. Tom yelled, “He a...
Hugh Hefner once said, “I looked back on the roaring Twenties, with its jazz, 'Great Gatsby' and the pre-Code films as a party I had somehow managed to miss.” The parties of the Roaring Twenties were used to symbolize wealth and power in a society that was focused more on materialism and gossip than the important things in life, like family, security, and friends. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, portrays the characters of Tom and Daisy Buchanan as the epitome of the era. The reader sees these characters acting selfishly and trying to meddle with others’ lives. On the other hand, Nick Carraway, the narrator, acts more to help others and act honestly. Initially the reader sees Carraway’s views towards Jay Gatsby as negative as Gatsby’s actions are perceived as being like the Buchanan’s. As the novel moves forward, the reader notices a change in Carraway’s attitude towards Gatsby. Carraway sees Gatsby for whom he truly is, and that is a loving person who only became rich to win Daisy’s heart. But in this the reader also sees how corrupt and hurtful Gatsby’s actions were to the love of his life. Gatsby’s relationship with Daisy reveals that just as Gatsby’s dream of wooing Daisy is corrupted by illegalities and dishonesty, the “American Dream” of friendship and individualism has disintegrated into the simple pursuit of wealth, power, and pleasure.
The Quote, “All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual”, by Einstein fully illustrates the meaning in the work, The Great Gatsby; each character contrarily portrays characteristics accordingly to its wealth and social status. While character such as Tom and Daisy is bemused and reckless in the world of wealth, other characters such as Nick and Wilson live a submissive and cautious life style within a lower class. Even so, both juxtaposing groups experience similar joys and tragedies within their social class. Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby signifies the influence of wealth and social status during the 1920’s American society on characters through plots, dialogs, and setting.
Throughout Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, there is a broad spectrum of moral and social views demonstrated by various characters. At one end, is Tom, a man who attacks Gatsby's sense of propriety and legitimacy, while thinking nothing of running roughshod over the lives of those around him. A direct opposite of Tom's nature is Gatsby, who displays great generosity and caring, yet will stop at nothing to achieve his dream of running off with Daisy. The moral and emotional characteristics of Gastby and Tom are juxtaposed, Tom, the immoral character and Gastby, the moral character while the other characters' moral and emotional developments appear between these two.