Tom Buchanan Character Analysis

Most think that Gatsby and Tom are very different characters but they are the same in more ways than one would think. Both Gatsby and Tom use a lot of people in this novel. For example, Gatsby is only using Nick to get to Daisy. Gatsby uses other people as well; he only throws the parties to see if Daisy would come. Tom, like Gatsby, uses people. Tom used Daisy when he married her just so he could have someone to settle down with. When he meets Myrtle he realizes he truly does not love Daisy and he keeps Myrtle for sexual fulfilment. After Myrtle dies Tom runs off with Daisy because she is the only one that he has left. Both men live in luxury and both men think they should have Daisy. Both Gatsby and Tom will do almost anything and everything to get what

In this case he really feels that Wilson is not much of a man and Tom is getting away with having an affair with his wife, he almost feels contempt for Wilson. This can be seen in his treatment of women as well, when Daisy suggested going to town, “Tom broke out savagely…women get these notions in their heads.” This suggests that Tom has little regard for women and their ideas and thinks of women as play things. The use of language here, “broke out savagely” also shows Toms aggression and the ability to interrupt people as he wishes. Another very important incident is when Daisy tells Tom she is leaving him for Gatsby, Tom mocks Gatsby by saying “she’s not leaving me! Certainly not for a common swindler who’d have to steal the ring to put on her finger.” This shows that Tom has no respect for Gatsby and looks down on him as a commoner who not only has had to work for his money but has also made it by illegal means. The particular use of language here “a common swindler who’d have to steal the ring to put on her finger” is very effective because it sums Tom’s pompousness and his views on people from a lower background having little values, who would even resort to stealing.

In “The Great Gatsby” Tom Buchanan had one of the despising personalities out of all the characters. Tom’s personality was a rude, impatient, and cruel type at the beginning. There were no reasons for him to act like that. At the very beginning Tom is one of the first characters that were introduced. His first impressions were that he always had to be in command or be the dominant one. “ Tom who had been hovering restlessly about the room, stopped and rested his hand on my shoulder” (Fitzgerald 10) Even though he is a tall, muscular and broad man he sure does his research and can’t stand the fact that other races can become more superior. “Civilization’s going to pieces,” broke out Tom violently. “It’s up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things” (Fitzgerald 12-13) Tom still succeeds to being more dominant and controlling by throwing Nick out the car. “He jumped to his feet and, taking hold of my elbow, literally forced me out the car.” “Were getting off,” he insisted. “I want you to meet my girl.”(Fitzgerald 24) Being tall, muscular and with a bad personality, Tom couldn’t have treated Mrs. Wilson worse by hitting her in the nose and making her bleed. “Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand.” (Fitzgerald 37) By proceeding to very end of the book Tom still shows no signs of changing nor does he plan to. For instance Tom was going to sell his car to a garage owner, but decided to change his mind angrily and kept the car. “ The voice in the hall rose high with annoyance: “Very well, then, I won’t sell you the car at all . . . I’m under no obligations to you at all . . . and as for your bothering me about it at lunch time, I won’t stand at all!” (Fitzgerald 116) Even though Tom care about something’s he sure doesn’t care about his old friend Walter Chase since he just left him to rot. “I guess your friend Walter Chase wasn’t too proud

Tom is incredibly insecure when it comes to Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship, as he doesn’t feel like he has the same amount of influence over Daisy as Gatsby does to her. Jordan once said “If you’re a snob, why did you invite him to lunch?” when Tom wouldn’t stop criticizing Gatsby (Fitzgerald 122). The reason why he was making remarks about Gatsby is because he is afraid that Gatsby himself would take Daisy away from him and he’s very emotional at this point, doesn’t know what to do, probably can’t think straight either, so he turns to criticizing him as a way to let all the mixed emotions out of him. Tom might have it all, but so does Gatsby, the only difference is

Although Tom came from a wealth family, Tom lacks the proper intelligence for his social class. As shown in our first encounter with Tom was when Nick came over for the party, While having dinner, Tom tried to refer to a book he read to show his level of education. Although Tom tried to explain what the book was about, he could only reply with, “it’s all scientific stuff; it’s been proved”(13). Daisy, aware of Tom’s affair with another woman, passively made fun of his intelligence by saying, “he reads deep books with long words in them”(13). Tom tries to portray his intelligence by pretending to read and understand sophisticated books to fit into his class.

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

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

Tom Buchanan, a crucial character to the events of The Great Gatsby, is how Fitzgerald presents a symbol of greed and immoral acts to the reader, a character whom is corrupted by sin and iniquity. Fitzgerald uses Tom Buchanan, a disloyal and proud character, in order to suggest some of the traits that may cause one to lose their sense of morality.

1Gatsby is contrasted with Tom in several ways. Tom is overpowering while Gatsby is more reserved. Tom is described as having ‘shining, arrogant eyes” and a ‘supercilious manner’. The word ‘supercilious’ shows that he is rather presumptuous and condescending, as echoed by the description of his eyes being ‘arrogant’, proud. In contrast, Gatsby, on the other hand, is the

As Jay Gatsby enters his life, it slowly begins to crumble, as his wife enters an affair with another man (Gatsby), his Mistress is moving away, and he is being told by this man whom he just met that his wife never loved him. Although, just because a character is protective does not mean that they are a good person. Tom’s actions directly lead to the murder of Jay Gatsby, and he is cheating on his wife. Tom is the most protective of what he has and is quite conservative when it comes to any changes in his life, since he see’s his life before his run-ins with Gatsby to be

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a drama that describes the underlying hypocritical ways of Tom Buchanan. Tom Buchanan is a very arrogant man who doesn’t care for people's feelings being affected by his actions. Whether that be his wife, friends, or newly befriended people he simply doesn’t think before he acts. Fitzgerald portrays Tom as a misunderstood man in the beginning, but as the story unfolds Fitzgerald shows the true Tom. While Tom seems to be the all around infatuating man his underlying racist, cheating, and lying ways will perfectly describe the average deceptive American man.

Gatsby realizes that life of the high-class demands wealth to become priority; wealth becomes his superficial goal overshadowing his quest for love. He establishes his necessity to acquire wealth, which allows him to be with Daisy. The social elite of Gatsby?s time sacrifice morality in order to attain wealth. Tom Buchanan, a man from an enormously wealthy family, ?seems to Nick to have lost all sense of being kind.?(Lehan, pg.60) Nick describes Tom?s physical attributes as a metaphor for his true character when remarking that Tom had a ?hard mouth and a supercilious manner?arrogant eyes has established dominance over his face?always leaning aggressively forward?a cruel body?his speaking voice?added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed? (Lehan, p.61)

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.

The purpose of this chapter is to show what Tom Buchanan is like, and how he acts towards other people and his money. Also, the reader is prepared to meet Gatsby as the party scene continues to build an aura of mystery and excitement around Gatsby, who has yet to make a full appearance in the novel. Here, Gatsby emerges as a mysterious subject of gossip. He is extremely well known, but no one seems to have any

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.