Hypocrisy In The Great Gatsby Analysis

Tom Buchanan is a former football player of Yale. Whom is the husband of Daisy, and lover to his mistress Myrtle. He comes from a well off Midwestern family. Unlike Nick, Tom is a rather cruel, rude, and a racist man. A description in the story views him as vigorous; “Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and have him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward”. He condemns his wife for her adulterous behaver with Gatsby, but has acts of his own with a taken woman. Tom is rather wealthy opposed Nick, and can be over powering with it.

In The Great Gatsby, the author F. Scott Fitzgerald shows the destruction of morals in society. The characters in this novel, all lose their morals in attempt to find their desired place in the social world. They trade their beliefs for the hope of being acceptance. Myrtle believes she can scorn her true social class in an attempt to be accepted into Ton's, Jay Gatsby who bases his whole life on buying love with wealth, and Daisy, who instead of marrying the man she truly loves, marries someone with wealth. The romance of money lures the characters in The Great Gatsby into surrendering their values, but in the end, "the streets paved with gold led to a dead end" (Vogue, December 1999).

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.

In many instances, Gatsby showed signs of selflessness. But, if the reader were to dig deeper into the roots of the story, they will be able to see that under the kind acts and good deeds, Gatsby’s intentions were always selfish. After the car scene, Tom, Jordan, Daisy and Nick returned to Daisy and Tom’s house. As Gatsby waits outside of the home, Nick, unknowingly, asks Gatsby whether or not Daisy was driving. Gatsby replies saying, “Yes, but of course I’ll say I was” (Fitzgerald 143). When Gatsby took Daisy’s place in the murder of Myrtle, although seeming kind-hearted, his only reason for this was to earn Daisy’s love and to impress her. Gatsby has somewhat put up an image of himself to be the pure and almighty man that deserves Daisy more. Meyer Wolfshiem, Gatsby’s business partner, mentions to Nick of Gatsby’s chivalrous actions towards women saying, “Yeah, Gatsby’s very careful about women. He would never so much look at a friend’s wife” (Fitzgerald 72). Although Meyer Wolfshiem’s comment on Gatsby about him being a gentleman, and how he would never look at another man’s wife, Gatsby proceeds to exceed all expectations and have an affair with Tom’s wife, Daisy Buchanan. Yes, some might say his only reason for doing so was out of true love and destiny but, in either case, it was morally wrong. In every action that Gatsby commits for Daisy, his selfishness secretly hides beneath it, shading itself from light so no one will approach the real man that lurks behind the curtains of self pride.

Why do we often look up to the higher class? Why do we crave the fabulous lifestyles of the wealthy and famous? Murder, cheating, gambling and wild parties are just some examples of what went on in The Great Gatsby. First of all, the rich were also criminals and may have gotten their endless money in illegal matters. Secondly, most all of the rich characters shown throughout the book were unfaithful to his or her spouse. Thirdly, the wealthy were lavishly wasteful and did not seem to care about others. Finally, a character that expresses immorality the most is Tom Buchanan. In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, his intentions were for people to learn to know that being rich or the hunger for money can lead to the immoral actions including some

Tom Buchanan plays a large role in the great Gatsby and is greatly representative of the rich “old money” part of society, and, in many ways what was wrong with it. F. Scott Fitzgerald may have made Tom a villain because of their rejection of him in his earlier life. Fitzgerald has used Tom in The Great Gatsby, to demonstrate the power that men had during the 1920s. In order to understand Tom's purpose in the book, it must be known that he has been purposely set up as a character the reader does not like. Fitzgerald has done this, as he does not like men whose lives mirror Tom's. Tom is a violent man, who is completely in control of the women in his life. He shows how disrespectful some

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

The plot of The Great Gatsby, a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is driven by Jay Gatsby's

In chapter 8 Nick tells Gatsby that he should leave town before his car is identified and anything happens to him. Jay tells Nick the story of how him and Daisy first met while he was in the military but got deployed overseas during ww1 and then went to Oxford in the United Kingdom. He also states that by the time he returned Daisy was already in a relationship. Nick tells the audience that Jay lied to Daisy about his financial situation to try and impress and get her to love him again. Some of Gatsby’s servants recommend draining Jay’s pool, but he declines because he has not been in it once yet this entire summer. George Wilson decides that whoever was driving the car must have been the one that his wife was having an affair with. George

The imperfect characters that exist within The Great Gatsby highlight Fitzgerald’s already fantastic writing the most since it displays his characters from a jaded perspective. This is exemplified in the development of Tom Buchanan and Daisy’s relationship is toxic in the sense that both parties seem to be missing fundamental emotional components. One of these missing components can be broken down into the observation that Daisy must only love money and herself which is why she is an egoist. On the other hand, Tom can also be considered an egoist due to his arrogant attitude in assuming everything belongs to him. In fact, Tom doesn’t care about Daisy at all, he only cares about possessing his trophy wife, which is an extremely sinister trait in any relationship. Hence, the most unhealthy relationship within the book is Tom and Daisy’s because they possess several malicious character traits that debilitate them as couple which are: Tom’s belief that everything belongs to him, Daisy’s inherently materialistic nature, and both of their total unconcern toward each other’s extramarital antics.

Tom and Daisy Buchanan disguise themselves as wealthy, upper-class people from the East, but, when their immorality threatens their reputation, they find they are no better than their heritage, which stems from the Midwest. When Tom and Daisy constantly try to position themselves as having a better reputation, it establishes that they do not have the status necessary to be part of eastern upper-class. Tom and Daisy both initiate affairs in which neither truly care for the person they are having the affair with. Nick witnesses “Tom Buchanan [break Myrtle's] nose with his open hand” (Fitzgerald 37). Tom uses Myrtle, his mistress, for sexual pleasure, but does not care for her well-being. Tom uses her because his marriage with Daisy was not made for love, but rather to increase their social standing. Daisy also has an affair with her former lover, Gatsby, and after observing his wealth, she develops a relationship with him. Both Tom and Daisy are unsatisfied with their relationship, but rather than tarnish their social status with divorce they choose infidelity. Tom and Daisy’s desperation to maintain their status causes their immorality. Furthermore, in many instances Tom insults Gatsby, especially to degrade his wealth and achievements. For example, Tom says, “I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife” (130). Tom knows that he can only cause true damage by insulting Gatsby’s accomplishments. Tom desires to damage Daisy’s

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.

Daisy Buchanan has a similar lifestyle to Tom, she’s wealthy ‘voice is full of money’ and always wore ‘white’ symbolising her purity and wealth. However as a woman of a higher class, there not much she can do in her ‘shallow life’, as she has the money but doesn’t know how to plan events ‘what do people plan?’. This shows that she is not content with her knowledge and understanding of life therefore even with money she isn’t ‘happy’. This leads her to ‘have an affair’ with an ex-lover whom she so adored before she married Tom ‘I did love him once – But I loved you too’. In the novel, Daisy only every seeks true love when she’s with Gatsby but ‘a rich girls don’t marry poor boys’, so due to this social difference between them, she knows the only place she will ever have security is with Tom. Tom describes their affair as a ‘presumptuous little flirtation’ because to Daisy, she knew she was never going to marry Gatsby but to Gatsby it was just never

The relationship with Daisy Buchanan and Tom Buchanan is filled with betrayal and abuse. Tom cheated on Daisy with Myrtle and Daisy cheated on Tom with Gatsby. Tom emotionally and physically abuses Daisy with his control. Tom’s abuse is shown when Daisy says, “You did it, Tom, I know you didn 't mean to, but you did do it.” (Fitzgerald 12) Daisy stays with Tom for security and comfort that Gatsby could not provide. They are so wealthy that they put blame on others and retreat back to their money to keep them safe. This is shown when Tom and Daisy leave without a trace once Gatsby took the blame for killing Myrtle.