Motifs In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Daisy and Tom were sitting opposite each other at the kitchen table… He was talking intently across the table at her, and in his earnestness his hand had fallen upon and covered her own. Once in a while she looked up at him and nodded in agreement.” -Fitzgerald, 146

Tom is an immoral character. He is very unlikeable because of his uncivilized attitude. He is a very arrogant, dominating and boorish man who doesn’t cares about anyone focusing only on what he wants and looks down on poor, helpless people. Not only this, but he is also racist and a complete hypocrite.

despondent marriage. Tom is depicted as a grumpy person, his significant other would conceal nourishment from him

When Tom claims that Daisy actually does love him, he suppresses her opinion by putting words in her mouth to aid his argument. Tom perceives the need that he must speak for his wife as if she can not speak for herself. Also, Tom claims that Daisy obtains “foolish ideas,” and that she “doesn’t know what she’s doing.” He implies that she is crazy and it is understandable that she fools around because of that. This reflects the misogynistic views men had towards women in this time period as they silenced women with their opinions to prove their

F. Scott Fitzgerald includes many motifs and symbols within The Great Gatsby. One important motif is the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg. Fitzgerald ultimately uses the eyes to show disapproval and criticism of society and how God watches over everyone and everything. The eyes of Dr. Eckleburg represents the all seeing, overlooking eyes of God. The eyes of Dr. Eckleburg develops religion as the desire of wealth and social class have replaced spiritual values in American society during the 1920s.

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

Tom Buchanan: Most Corrupt Character There are many characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, “The Great Gatsby”. From the most innocent, to the most corrupt. For example, the main character of the story is a man named Nick. He didn’t do anything to his friends, didn’t lie as much as other characters, and respects anyone he meets.

Tom Buchanan’s characteristics were fabricated to mimic those in society who decide against treating their significant other with the respect and love that he/she deserves. In the novel, Tom was never content with just having the wife he claimed he loved (Daisy), so he also began to an affair with his mechanic’s wife. He never exhibited any remorse for his infidelity, even after Daisy reveals that there have been more affairs on page 131: “Do you know why we left Chicago? I’m surprised they didn’t treat you to the story of that little spree.”. She reveals this in an attempt to get her husband to feel some remorse for his cheating or at least to convince him to allow her to leave him for Gatsby. Her attempts fail, however, and he fights even more to keep her as his own. Although Daisy uses a term with a less harsh connotation to mimic Tom’s verbal evasion of his actions, Fitzgerald makes it clear that Tom refuses to have a monogamous relationship, yet demands Daisy to do so.

The paradox here is that Tom is, in a sense, George himself as Tom's wife, Daisy, is in the process of being taken away from him.

“[I] have a wife as miserable as [myself], [we] are so miserly that [we] conspire to cheat on each other.” (Irving 1).

The use of Irony in To Kill a Mocking Bird proves that you don’t know someone until you walk in their shoes. The quote, “And so a quiet, respectable, humble Negro who had the unmitigated temerity to ‘feel sorry’ for a white woman has had to put his word against two white people’s” is a perfect example. This quote shows how Tom was a respectable

"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had." He didn't say any more, but we've always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. In consequence, I'm inclined to reserve all judgments […]. (1.2). In the novel, The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott FitzGerald portrays not only lying but the consequences of lying which is one of the main focuses throughout the book, and is shown between multiple characters that later face the consequences because of their lying. Lying in The Great Gatsby is expressed by multiple characters from different social classes and some pay the price for their actions while the higher class doesn’t pay for their mischievous deeds.

Lastly, a person could not know that they are being a hypocrite. Some people see no wrong in what they are doing. I have met people that would do wrong on so many levels, and think its okay. But that's when we as humans need to step in and fix the problem before it gets worst. Even myself have suffered battles as a christian where I thought it was okay to party and do other stuff as long as I go to church and repent my sins every sunday. It is so hard sometimes to live up to what I know I need to be but I do know the difference between wrong and right, and this paper should show you the difference as

he has flaunted the hypocrisy of the Victorian social structure and has also become a hypocrite himself.

A sense of dramatic irony is thought to be used throughout the reading. However, the