Similarities Between Tom And Daisy Buchanan

Daisy is Tom’s prized possession throughout the novel because of her wealth and his ability to control her. Daisy is able to give Tom the high status he desires. Though, he describes his relationship with Daisy as, “‘Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself but I always come back…’” (Fitzgerald 131). Tom stays with Daisy because he cannot lose the high position in society that Daisy’s inferiority and riches bring him. His marriage brings him respect in society. As a matter of fact, Tom chooses Daisy over Myrtle when he is about to lose them both. Tom’s desire for high social status is put to the test when Daisy decides to leave him for another man and Myrtle consider leaving town with her husband. In the end, “When Tom's own "property," wife Daisy, disappears around the bend in his car driven by a bootlegger in a pink suit, he makes the decision to pursue what is, at least legally, his” (O’Meara 6-7). Tom chooses Daisy because they are the same blood, both old money. They are both the upper class citizens that Myrtle will never be because of her current status as lower class and lack of wealth. Tom’s possessiveness over Daisy is prioritized over Myrtle and evidently leads to Myrtle’s demise in power and in

Marrying Tom, Daisy married into the Old Money life style. The people who live by the Old Money lifestyle inherited all of their riches from at least two generations back in the family. They also don't flaunt their money with buying and having extravagant cars, houses, parties etc. Fitzgerald differentiates Old Money and New Money by placing them on separate sides of Manhattan. Old Money on East Egg and New Money on West Egg. Tom and Daisy live on East Egg and prefer small get-togethers. Tom and Daisy had a party and the only people who were invited were Nick and Jordan. Whereas

So, Tom is able to continue his relationship with Daisy, even though he had no interest in her at the beginning, by moving her away from Gatsby. Therefore, it can be seen that due to his wealth, Tom is able to be careless and dangerous with his actions since he does little to stop the affair between Daisy and Gatsby, abuses Myrtle and cheats on Daisy. However, while Tom uses his money to continue his careless and dangerous action, Daisy uses her money to stay irresponsible with her actions.

Tom has been controlled by wealth ever since he was born into a rich family. Tom and Daisy’s negligence is what eradicates their morality. Their view of life is absurd which causes their foolish actions. Money is their leverage against society and the world. Tom also continues to show his licentiousness through his affair with Myrtle. When Tom and Myrtle first exchanged looks at the garage, Myrtle “walked through her husband as if he were a ghost, shook hands with Tom, looking him flush in the eye” (Fitzgerald 26). Tom then says, “I want to see you. Get on the next train” (Fitzgerald 26). Being already married to Daisy, Tom still decides to have relationships with other women, clearly indicating the his indecency. He acts as if what he is doing is acceptable because his possession of money provides him a sense of self-conceit. The upper class assumes that since they have money, they are able to do anything they want, whether it is ethical or not. Based on the events in East Egg, Fitzgerald is able to explicitly stress how wealth is one of the factors that intensifies moral decay in society.

Daisy is one of the main characters whose obsession with wealth influences her life decisions. “ Her voice is full of money” (Fitzgerald 128). this quote shows that even people around Daisy can hear the longing for money in her voice. She is obsessed with money and thinks that if she has it she will achieve happiness. “ She wanted her life shaped now, immediately- and the decision must be made by some force-of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality-” (Fitzgerald 161). Daisy thought money and love would make her life more fulfilled and she believed it was the only way for it to be more adequate. She wanted her life to be perfect and she was willing to go with whoever could provide her more money and love. In Daisy’s marriage with Tom she felt a lack of love because of Tom’s mistress, which is why she was drawn to Gatsby once again. When Gatsby and Daisy first met he was lacking money but they were in love. Daisy was consumed by the idea that she must have both money and love in order to get happiness, that she ended

Daisy sacrifices love and happiness for being wealthy. Nick believes “that the thing for Daisy to do was to rush out of [her] house, child in arms-but apparently there were no such intentions in her head” (25). In making this comment, Nick argues that Daisy refuses to break off her marriage to Tom because she will lose her “membership” to the East Egg social class. Not even Gatsby, who is one of the wealthiest men in the Northeast, can convince her to leave him. In Roberts’ literary criticism, she describes the aspects of Gatsby that Daisy disapproves. Roberts claims that Gatsby “Misread[s] the signs of American gentility … [by moving] to West Egg, instead of the more elegant East Egg (Fahey 74), [and throwing parties that] attract theatre people and gate crashers rather than a social elite” (Roberts) which repulses Daisy. In making this remark, Roberts claims that Gatsby is not everything Daisy could want. His mansion’s location and guests at his party ultimately is not enough to motivate Daisy to leave Tom. Close states that “we can’t be happy without at least one meaningful, close relationship.” Her claim that a close relationship brings happiness rests upon the questionable assumption that people in close relationships are always happy. In fact, some close relationships can bring more despair than joy. Hence, the cause of unhappiness for wealthy people, like Daisy, can be avoided if they choose their overall wellbeing over the amount of money they

Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby’s relationship was damaged by their contrasting social classes, but also because he had a lack of status and wealth. In relation to this Daisy married Tom for his wealth and status not for his love, which suggests Daisy is a materialistic character is more concerned about her money and possessions than she is about intellectual and spiritual objects. “Gatsby is an idealist, he seeks for

Pride, precision and perfect product” by Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby George Wilson and Tom Buchanan are pretty dissimilar. Tom is wealthy, a bully and never works while George, who works all the time, he is bullied and is miserable. But both men have something very similar, they are wild men. Their anger controls their lives and mind, also how their life terminated.

Because of his family’s money, Tom has always had the ability to control his life, which caused him to become a control freak. We see this when he talks of “profound” books that claim the white race is superior to all other races and if they do not watch out, the “other races will have control of things,” (Fitzgerald 13). The way he speaks of the other races is as if they are mentally and physically unable to contribute to society. Additionally, Tom Buchanan is such a hypocrite when it comes to Daisy having a relationship with Gatsby. He says shortly after meeting Gatsby, “I wonder where in the devil he met Daisy. By God, I may be old fashioned in my ideas, but women run around too much these days to suit me,” (Fitzgerald 103). Despite being the one who runs around meeting sketchy girls all the time, having a full on affair with Myrtle, Tom does not like the idea of Daisy being with anyone else because it means that he has lost control of her. Thus, in his desire for control which came about because of his privileged upbringing, Tom is extremely hypocritical, which shows the corrupt nature of wealth. Both Tom and Daisy exist in the Great Gatsby as examples of the corrupting nature of money, which is exemplified through the whole

Daisy stuck with Tom through years of his cheating, and when Nick invited her and Gatsby over so they could meet again, she had another chance. Gatsby did everything he could to become rich and to find Daisy. This meant that Daisy had everything she could have wanted. She had a man who loved her, who was wealthy, and all she had to do was end her marriage with Tom. What Gatsby had was new money, and Tom had old money. “What Daisy requires is not only money but old money. Old money is better than new, not because it can somehow buy more or because they will be more of it, but because it has fashioned the tastes, values, attitudes, matters, and intellects others possessors.”(Lathbury 59). Something about the old money was more valuable and appealing to Daisy, so she gave up Gatsby to be with Tom.

At first glance, they appear to have everything they could possibly wish for: a luxurious home, each other and more money than they need. However, beneath the façade of happiness lies dissatisfaction with life. Tom in particular is not content with his marriage as he has “got some woman in New York” that he is having an affair with. Tom and Daisy epitomise the couple who have everything that can be achieved by the American Dream, but they are such despicable people that they give the American Dream no value or merit at all. They are “careless people”, without morals, and show how you do not have to work hard to have everything the American Dream promises, as they do nothing at all meaningful with their time, to the extent that Daisy has to ask “What do people plan?”. Another character that clearly displays the corruption of the American Dream is Myrtle. She is a dreamer - like Gatsby she wants status and power, and she thinks that she will get this through her affair with Tom Buccanan. The meaning of the noun “myrtle” is very telling of Myrtle's character as it is a climbing plant, just as Myrtle wants to climb the social ladder. However, she is deluding herself as Tom Buchanan clearly shows no real affection for her and even behaves in a violent way towards her and he “broke her nose with his open hand”. The way in which Gatsby's and Myrtle's, the two dreamers in 'The Great Gatsby', lives end

In the movie version of The Great Gatsby, I found it easier to identify more with a character. The character’s name was Daisy Buchanan. I felt like I could relate to what’s going on when I see her reaction and emotions in the movie. For example, at 1:43:11 Daisy is seen acting very heartbroken and furious because Tom Buchanan (Daisy’s husband) and Jay Gatsby are fighting over who Daisy actually loves. Gatsby is saying that Daisy doesn’t love Tom, and that Daisy actually loves Gatsby.

Character Values In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the story takes place in the 1920s. During the 1920s probation caused many people to have private parties. Many of the characters have values that have to do with finding someone or something they need. Also some of the characters values change by the end of the story.

In the Buchanan household, which has been relocated several times to escape the bad publicity wrought by affairs, this kind of behavior is to be expected, showing how even the educated upper class is unable to escape the corruption of America, and what it stands for. The general lack of concern for affairs continues when Gatsby believes that he can turn back the clock and rekindle what he and Daisy once had. Gatsby not only hopes that Daisy will wait for him, but expects it, scoffing at Nick’s assertion that things have changed over time, and that Daisy is now married and a with a child and therefore uninterested in him: “Can’t repeat the past?...Why of course you can!” (116). Gatsby believes that Daisy will be willing to give up what she has for him, building his whole life on the assumption that she will be willing to forget all she has for him. This attitude of indifference for marriage is mimicked in the actions of Tom as well as Myrtle Wilson, showing that it may be widely held. Tom takes advantage of Wilson, replying to Nick’s concerns by simply saying that Mr. Wilson “thinks [Myrtle] goes to see her sister in New York. He’s so dumb he doesn’t know he’s alive” (30). Myrtle’s ability to easily lie to her husband shows that the marital corruption of the upper class is prevalent in the lower classes as well. Fitzgerald uses the diverse characters, from the removed yet decidedly elite character of

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