Character Analysis Of Tom Gatsby

Throughout the novel Fitzgerald shows that Daisy is self-centered and careless at heart; she is a dreamer who fails to face reality. Continuing an affair with Gatsby with no real intentions of leaving her husband eventually leads to the death of Gatsby. In return she shows little to no concerns over the death of her “love” Gatsby and returns into the arms of her corrupt husband. Tom, who is also unfaithful in their relationship has a mistress of his own who is killed in a car accident while Daisy was driving. Tom as well shows no remorse in her death and moves on like nothing ever happened. Daisy and Tom are the prime example of corruption in both material success and with what wealth can bring; “They instinctively seek out each other because each recognizes the other’s strength in the corrupt

In the beginning, some people try to appear that everything about them is "in black and white, until later their true colors come out (Anthony Liccione). In literature, authors show a character's true colors through their actions throughout the book. In the beginning of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, he presents Tom as an immoral person through his actions.

Sometimes it’s perceived easier, that is when you come across people like Tom Buchanan. The author presents him as an individual with high moral standards for those around him, however when it comes to him, the yardstick gets smaller. Tom represents the quintessence of a hypocrite, in fact, Fitzgerald uses him to refer especially to politicians, aristocrats and bureaucrats. As Tom, they make statements about how people should behave towards one another, yet in their lives, they terribly fail to fulfill their own standards. In The Great Gatsby, Tom has an affair that is fairly public, and he is not bothered about it, but when he finds out his wife has been cheating on him, he outrages about it. Not satisfied, he begins to talk about how the institution of family should be respected, when he is the one who is completely transgressing it. "Self-control!" Repeated Tom incredulously. "I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife. Well, if that's the idea you can count me out […] Nowadays people begin by sneering at family life and family institutions,” (Fitzgerald, 7, 229). Fitzgerald uses Tom, to depict the greatest example of a hypocrite, using examples from real life

In the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tom Buchanan lacks the intelligence of a normal high class member, but he has a very good eye at seeing through lies. Our first introduction to Tom establishes him as a “hulking”(12) figure with “a cruel body” (7) with “two shining arrogant eyes” and “a supercilious manner” to show his dominance over others. Tom is from a wealthy family and takes great pride in his college days as a star football player. Although it seems like he has it all, money and a trophy wife, Tom is not satisfied with himself so any remarks to him angers him greatly.

Tom Buchanan is one of the many colourful, intriguing and enigmatic characters of the masterpiece “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. He is the antagonist of the novel and rightly so. He is racist, a hypocrite, an immoral cheater, a short-tempered brute and misogynistic. Tom is also part of an old and out dated sort of world that is being swamped all-round the edges by a new and better society. That is the reason why he is acting so tough and also why he hates Jay Gatsby so much, it is because he is afraid, afraid that the world that he knows and all the old-fashioned values of love, wealth and masculinity will come crashing down on him. He dislikes Gatsby because he is part of the new generation and he got rich by a different way

One of Tom’s most prominent traits is his disloyalty, especially to his marriage. During the dinner party at Daisy’s house in the East Egg, the telephone receives a call, from Tom’s mistress, resulting in Daisy exclaiming “She might have the decency not to telephone him at dinner time, don’t you think?” (Fitzgerald 15). Daisy is frustrated that Tom is cheating on her, but not for the right reasons. Rather than being upset at Tom for having an affair, she is upset because the phone call is merely disrupting the dinner party. One of Tom’s proudest moments takes place at the dinner party when Daisy, Nick, and Jordan discuss races in America and his opinions on it. He mentions that “It’s up to us, the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things” (Fitzgerald 18). Tom upholds the white community in America to be at a higher standard than those that were not born/raised in America. He sees members of the white community as higher beings than those who are not, holding himself at an upper level.

Gatsby is a character who aspired to be successful and to realize his dreams of love and wealth, however, when he faced his reality he was never able to fully accomplish his dreams, revealing that one will use all their energy to hold on to a dream that will never reach a reality.

Through the means of characterization, Fitzgerald expresses Tom Buchanan as another immoral character. Tom is portrayed as an egotistical, hypocrite who advocates white supremacy. His hypocrisy is shown when he speaks to Gatsby, he conduct himself as a “high” class citizen but dwells as a “low” class citizen. “I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him, and I wasn’t far wrong.” “What about it?” said Gatsby politely. “I guess your friend Walter Chase

The language several characters used revealed many instances of satire. Tom Buchanan speaks for one type of satire Fitzgerald displayed. Tom found a way in every and any conversation to tear down a woman or insert racial jokes. On page twelve, Tom asks if anyone had ever read The Rise of the Colored Empires. Then, he states “The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be utterly submerged.” Then he claims this has been scientifically proven. This speaks to his lack of knowledge due to his smothering arrogance. Later on in the novel, Tom would refer to women as “its” and pronouns instead of addressing them by their names. Fitzgerald had Tom display this manly patriarchal role to make subtle hints of what a typical, upper class, white man thought during the historical context of when this book occurs.

Tom Buchanan shows that he opposes the idea of new people with differing ethnic backgrounds to be entering America. As Tom talks about a book, The Rise of the Colored Empires, by Goddard it becomes clear that he follows along with what the book is based on. “The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be - will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff; it’s been proved.” The quote shows how Tom gains the title of a racist by saying, “the white race will be submerged” Tom is stating that with more and more ethnicities entering the country the white race will be taken over. At this point the main character, Nick Carraway, has caught on that the old Tom he knew in college has changed a lot. “...Nowadays people begin by sneering at family life and family institutions and next they’ll throw everything overboard and have intermarriage between black and white.” If it

In this way, Daisy rebels against Tom’s infidelity by using Gatsby to get back at him. However, Daisy has never considered leaving Tom, even though all this time she knows that Tom has been having an affair with another woman. The main reason why is because Daisy longs for the love, financial stability, and the practicality that Tom can provide for her, and she knows that Tom would never leave her for the simple reason that they complete each other, with Daisy giving Tom increased social status by being from the higher class and an attractive wife, while Tom gives Daisy the stability that she needs in her life.

One example of the moral decay of the upper class in the novel is when Tom Buchanan repeatedly cheats on his wife Daisy with multiple women, with his main mistress being Myrtle Wilson. Not only does Tom cheat on her, but he doesn’t even try to hide it. He enjoys showing Myrtle off to people as some sort of prize he is excited about winning. “The fact that he had [a mistress] was insisted upon wherever he was known. His acquaintances resented the fact that he turned up in popular restaurants with her and, leaving her at a table, sauntered about, chatting with whomsoever he knew” (Fitzgerald 24). Tom is a hypocritical controlling racist, who has no moral qualms about his affair with Myrtle. However, when Tom catches wind of Daisy and Gatsby having an affair he freaks out and confronts Gatsby. Tom demands the highest respect from those around him, but at the end of the day he is a careless man that only worries about himself and his money. Tiger Woods is the most famous name in golf today, but not

In a world where wealth determines power, the character, Tom Buchanan, is an exemplary model of the American dream and how it is unattainable. Tom represents a lifestyle which is becoming increasingly more common, especially in the United States. In today’s society, infidelity is becoming more and more acceptable to each generation. F. Scott Fitzgerald could see this happening to society around him, and he, in turn, created Tom Buchanan, in “The Great Gatsby” to illustrate that ideology that was slowly becoming acceptable and portray it in its true and repulsive form.

Tom Buchanan is a strong, powerful, and forceful picture of a man who cares only about himself. He first meets Gatsby in the second half of the book because Gatsby is trying to steal daisy from him. Although Tom is a powerful rich man he is also a coward. He told George “The yellow car that I was driving this afternoon wasn't mine”(Fitzgerald, 140). There were many more ways for tom to give out the information, from turning it to the police or for waiting for george to ask him. Even though Tom offers George false information, eventually leading him to Gatsby's home, he is still less culpable than others. Tom's actions were unwarranted and could have been avoided. This is because his wife was the person who tempted Gatsby first.

Fitzgerald presents his audience with Daisy, a married “girl” who eventually reunited with the lost love of her life, Jay Gatsby. While breaking rules and being adventurous, Daisy ultimately brings Gatsby to his death. Although she explores her sexuality and runs off behind her husband Tom’s back, Daisy continues to be oppressed. Tom’s aggressiveness and wealth force Daisy to depend on him, making her a slave of her husband. Because of this, she can not leave him to be with Gatsby, the one she loves. Doing so would mean losing economic support and losing a stable life. In this way, her husband defines her life. There is an evident contrast however with Tom’s role. Tom keeps an apartment away from home for his mistress and gets away with it. Because he is the man, society would not dare punish him for exploring his liberties. Daisy on the other hand is inferior to Tom and, as a social norm, is not allowed to indulge in such freedoms because doing so would bring shame to her honor.