Tom Buchanan is an interesting character in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald carefully develops Tom’s personality, and this successfully results in the existence of an essential character who contributes to a lot of the story’s drama. Early on, the reader can see that Tom is not a good person, and this only continues to shine as he appears in the story. Tom is introduced in the first chapter, and almost immediately the narrator notes that he lives among the wealthiest people in New York in beautiful East Egg. Additionally, it is mentioned that he had previously lived in other places central for rich people including Chicago and France. Tom grew up in a very wealthy family, which granted him opportunities …show more content…
He has a lot of muscle in his legs and upper body, a trait that the narrator assumes is largely attributed to his current and past athletic lifestyle. His “two shining arrogant eyes” that “established dominance over his face” give the impression that he is vain (7). His voice, one characteristic that the narrator ponders in depth, is said to be deep and masculine but with an edge of harshness, which again supports his arrogant nature. Still early in the novel, Daisy makes reference to one of Tom’s most intimidating features, his height, which she describes as “great, big, [and] hulking” (12). All of these factors contribute to Tom’s character with the idea that he is …show more content…
Although he claims that he is happy with his wife Daisy, he still is having an affair with Myrtle Wilson, a married woman from one of the poorest parts of New York. Because of Myrtle’s low class, Tom orders her to get the drinks for the guests in their New York apartment (32). Later in the night, he breaks her nose when she starts screaming Daisy’s name, which shows that Tom does not really love Myrtle as he is more devoted to protecting his wife’s image. Instead, he uses her to supply mutual satisfaction for himself and Myrtle, but refuses to love her any more than he needs to for the
In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald displays Tom Buchanan as a significant character in his novel. Being a former Yale football player, Tom is blonde-haired, muscular, typically referred to as a “brute of a man” (Boyne 12), and around thirty years old. He was raised in an extremely wealthy family and owns an extravagant mansion in East Egg. As a result, Tom believes he is superior over society and allowed to abuse his wife, Daisy. Looking through the eyes of arrogance and racism, Buchanan views the white race as dominate and feels as if it will be diminished if other ethnic groups and cultures become popular. Although he claims to love Daisy, he owns a secret apartment that contains another mistress awaiting him in New York City and only
Tom is the most selfish character because everything he does is in concern for himself. Tom is married to Daisy simply for wealth. After finding out that Daisy wants to be with Gatsby, Tom says, “‘...women run around too much these days to suit me. They meet all kinds of crazy
It ended with an even more disgusting event: Tom broke Myrtle’s nose because she dared to mention his wife’s name many times. Tom lets himself be brutal and free from conventionalities of the upper class; thus, he behaves also more naturally, but he does not want to lose Daisy and all that she represents.
All of the wealthy characters, including Gatsby, use people and things and then discard them as trash.. Tom probably leads the most purposeless life out of the three with no career. He spends his day’s playing with polo ponies and race cars. He has one affair after another and treats his mistresses of these affairs as if they were only toys. When he realizes that Daisy is having an affair with Gatsby.
Tom realizes her desperate situation and takes total advantage of her. The clearest example of this is when Myrtle shouts Daisy’s name and Tom warns her not to say it again but Myrtle says Daisy's name anyway. Tom Buchanan in a “A short deft movement..., breaks her nose with his open hand.” Tom views her as not even being allowed to lick the dirt of his shoe. She is just another one of Tom’s possessions. Myrtle isn’t even allowed to say Daisy's name. He knows that she's in desperate situation. Tom is all she has and he knows this, he could do whatever he wants. He realizes that without her she will have to go back to George’s measly garage and she doesn't want that. Therefore Tom takes control of her desperation. Additionally, at the party, Catherine tells Nick that neither of them can stand the person they’re married to. They don't divorce and marry one another because Daisy is a Catholic. Nick knows that Tom is lying indicating to the reader, yet again, that Tom uses Myrtle for his own pleasure. She is nothing to him and he could do this because of Myrtle’s desperation. Another example in the novel is Mr. McKee asks Tom for a reference to be able to work in West Egg and Tom replies “Ask Myrtle,” said Tom, breaking into a short shout of laughter as Mrs. Wilson entered with a tray. “She’ll give you a letter of introduction, won’t you Myrtle?” She answers in confusion “Do what?” Tom is mocking her in front of
She became used to him being unfaithful to her that she suggests to him after leaving him during Gatsby wild party “ and if you want to take down any addresses here’s my little gold pencil” (105). Tom and Myrtle relationship caused problems more in Myrtle life rather than Tom’s because unlike Tom’s wide, Wilson was unaware about her unfaithfulness and reacted way differently by becoming sick. In Nick’s perspective, he explains, “He had discovered that Myrtle had some sort of life apart from him in another world, and the shock had made him physically sick” (124). Wilson behaves in way by having her locked in a room until he gets the car to move away but soon enough for jealousy to strike among Myrtle about Tom and his wife which later causes her death. Her death occurred because of the greatly amount of envy she has towards Daisy and her lifestyle with Tom. The feelings that she felt showed upon her by having “…one emotion after another crept into her face like objects into a slowly developing picture” (124). This single small affair between Tom and Myrtle became something bigger than expected by a heart broken husband, dishonesty, and death among a mistress. This crime is much relatable to many affairs in the world that ends really bad divorces and trust issues from the dishonesty from their significant
In just these few instances, readers begin to piece together Tom’s lack of impulse control. His desire for attention overtakes his other traits, and this only becomes clearer when Tom begins to lose those who give him the attention.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, “The Great Gatsby”, identities and knowledge about a person are very important in the novel. One character that has a depth to his identity is Tom Buchanan. On the surface, Tom has the appearance of a respectable, wealthy person; however, studying the novel closer brings out the self-evident truth that this is not Tom’s identity. Throughout the course of the novel, it becomes easy to infer Tom’s true identity; Tom is an unfaithful spouse, consumed with wealth, and a narcissist.
Scott Fitzgerald designed Tom Buchanan in an effort to showcase the absurd idea that society is conforming to-- the idea that being unfaithful to a significant other is morally justifiable. Fitzgerald was not naive when it came to the people around him, and he uses his writings to allude to the major problems that society faces. Statistics drawn have shown that infidelity has increasingly been becoming more popular, especially with the younger generations. This page about the “truth about deception” found that cheating is more common for those under thirty and is becoming more popular in modern times due to the increasing amount of younger members of society having numerous amounts of sexual relationships before marriage. Not only was F. Scott Fitzgerald able to accurately illustrate a growing problem through his character, Tom Buchanan, but he was also able to portray through this character just how few cheaters actually leave their original relationships that were unsatisfying to them. According to a study completed by the Pennsylvania State University, it was found that those who cheat in the relationship were less likely to leave the relationship while those who discovered that his or her partner was unfaithful were more likely. Tom fits these facts well-- even though he is thirty in the timeline of “The Great Gatsby”, his relationship with Myrtle Wilson was said in the novel to have been going on for some time, and he had also confessed in being in other affairs before. Even though he knew his actions and how it was hurting his wife, he still refused to leave her or let her leave him when she found a man who would give her the love she
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is his statement of lifestyle in America in the 20’s. The author develops unlikable characters like Tom Buchanan an Old Money racist and Daisy a vapid spoilt individual to show the greediness and wealth in the 20’s. Overall, the worst character in this novel is Daisy Buchanan because she is careless, insensitive, and disloyal.
In the novel,” The Great Gatsby”, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author portrays inner conflicts of Tom Buchanans through various vices that have negative effects on the individuals surrounding him. Tom is a wealthy white male that was born into a wealthy family. He went to school with the narrator, Nick. Tom is married to Nick’s cousin, Daisy. Nick describes Tom as, “It was a body capable of enormous leverage—a cruel body… His speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed (Fitzgerald 7).” This description of Tom leads us to not like him as much. There is a use of negative words that help us to form our first
Throughout the novel, one of Tom 's biggest careless acts was when he cheated on Daisy. Tom is a cocky, confident man shown many times throughout the novel like when Nick arrived at his house and "Tom Buchanan in riding clothes was standing with his legs apart on the front porch" (Fitzgerald 6). His stance showed his arrogance, and how highly he thought of himself because of his wealth. Tom was a man who often acted without thinking things through, like having an affair with Myrtle. Despite both Tom and Myrtle being married, they both had affairs. Tom doesn 't hide his affair from Nick and introduces him to his mistress Myrtle at Wilson 's garage. Tom doesn 't seem to care if anyone finds out because he feels as though nothing would change due to his wealth. While at Myrtle 's husbands garage, Tom tells Myrtle to meet him at the train station. They end up going to their apartment in New York City that they keep for their affair. While at the Morningside Height 's apartment Myrtle starts to talk about Tom 's wife Daisy, ""Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!" shouted Mrs. Wilson. "I 'll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai-"" (Fitzgerald 37). Tom didn 't like Myrtle overstepping her boundaries and to show
An example of this is when Nick is talking to tom about his accomplice in adultery and Nick says “Doesn’t her(Myrtle Wilson) husband object?” and Tom replies with “Wilson? He thinks she goes to see her sister in New York. He’s so dumb he doesn’t know he’s alive” (Gatsby 26). This indicates that Tom is very cocky and ignorant. Tom’s immoral acts in the novel stem from his overconfidence and ignorance due to his wealth and power. This is further proved by the fact that when his first and only child was born, he left Daisy without any support only one hour after the birth of their daughter.
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.
Tom Buchanan is Daisy’s rich, uptight, rude husband. He is a racist bigot and thinks the world revolves around him. Tom makes himself out to be a powerful man through