Tom Buchanan Identity Essay

Tom is the embodiment of old money because he inherits his fortune from past generations of the Buchanan family. This money makes Tom seem like a snob compared to the other characters. For example, when the narrator, Nick, describes Tom’s “speaking voice” (7) having “a touch of paternal contempt in it” (7), making people “[hate] his guts” (7). His money is what makes Tom’s character. It makes him seem like an uptight and an overall rude person.

Tom Buchanan, as we find out in the book, sleeps with a lot of women. Tom is known for his many mistresses. Tom has a pattern of choosing lower-class women to sleep with. For him, their weakness makes his own position that much more superior. He is proud of his affairs and has had many since his marriage.

In this entry, I will be addressing Tom Buchanan. In my opinion, he is an unlikable character and an exemplary model of an antagonist. Tom is pompous, disrespectful, adulterous, and racist. I believe Fitzgerald created Tom so the reader would have a character to instantly dislike. In describing him, Fitzgerald writes: “There was a touch of paternal contempt in it [Tom’s voice], even toward people he liked—and there were men at New Haven who had hated his guts. ‘Now don’t think my opinion on these matters is final,’ he seemed to say, ‘just because I’m stronger and more of a man than you are’” (7). The quote explains that Tom treated everyone he knew, even those he liked, the same way a father would treat a confused child: in a patronizing manner,

Tom Buchanan is one of the many examples that captures the lack of morality within this time period. At the beginning of the book, it is discovered Tom has a “lady on the side,”(Fitzgerald ) even though he is already married to Daisy, but the most appalling thing about the affair is that it was typical for a man of Tom’s stature to have a mistress. And it’s not just Tom living immorally, in fact, “All these characters seem to value the material side of life and are trying to strive for wealth, acceptance and power”(St. Rosemary Educational Institution). Tom Buchanan depicts the aspects of lust, greed and pride, and virtually is the concrete representation of the crippling corruption that haunts the

A married man with an “enormously wealthy” family, Tom would be described as a “sturdy, straw haired man” with “arrogant eyes [that] had established dominance” (Fitzgerald 7). Even Nick Carraway, the main character of the novel, would note his arrogance in which “he seemed to say … ‘I’m stronger and more of a man than you are.’” (Fitzgerald 7). In spite of this behavior, Tom would label his achievements in a highly materialistic manner by displaying his superiority through things like bringing “down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest” or by displaying Daisy Buchanan as a trophy rather than his wife (Fitzgerald 6). This habit of flaunting his wealth constantly would inevitably lead a boredom that would only become satiated by a certain inhabitant of the Valley of

Someone would think that a wealthy man like him would be happy with the life that he has, but he is not satisfied with this, so he gets with Myrtle. Tom believes that he was the right to do this because of his wealth, he makes sure that he gets whatever he pleases. As a matter of fact,

Buchanan even goes as far as to say to Nick that he was “..stronger and more a man…” than he was (Fitzgerald 7), all pointing to Tom having issues regarding ego gratification, and his need to feel superior

Myrtle's desire for a better life causes her to have an affair with Tom, ultimately hurting her relationship with her husband and Tom's relationship with Daisy. The affair between Tom and Myrtle results from her dissatisfaction with her partner and her desire for a more luxurious lifestyle. "Her frightened eyes told that whatever intentions, whatever courage, she has had, were definitely gone" (Fitzgerald, 112). Daisy knew about Tom having an affair. Because of Tom's old money and the stability of his social status that it provides, Daisy is not willing to be apart of Tom.

Tom and Daisy Buchanan, the old money couple whose life is the epitome of luxury, aristocracy, and material wealth, are also the epitome of conniving inhumanity and dreadful dissociation from the world of compassion and empathy. From the very beginning of the novel, Tom is established as a man with “a supercilious manner” who has no sense of humility or any true care or concern for others, unless it benefits him and ensures the preservation of his lifestyle(1.19). The few times Tom exhibits any characteristics of a man with a soul, his East Egger lifestyle is on the line and he is simply putting on a show. For example, when Tom tells Daisy he truly loves her, he only does so to ensure that he doesn’t lose her to Gatsby, as she is a quintessential part of maintaining his reputation as an enviable, well to do East Egg man.

Tom’s relationship with Myrtle has no intimacy; it is solely to avoid attachment to Daisy. Nick describes Myrtle as a “smoldering woman with an immediately perceptible vitality.”(30).Tom brings Myrtle to fancy restaurants around his male friends so he can boost his selfdom which proves his distance from emotion to Myrtle and Daisy rather than love and devotion to the women. Tom’s interest in other woman has become so habitual that Daisy has come to be accustomed with it. At one of Gatsby’s parties, Tom tells Daisy he wants to eat dinner with a group of strangers rather than her and Daisy responds by offering a “little gold pencil” in case he wants to take adresses down of other women.

According to Nick, Tom Buchanan is a “sturdy, straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner” (13). Tom shows careless and arrogance multiple times

Myrtle had fun with her fling. They would all sit around and talk about how much they hated the person they were married too and Myrtle confirmed it seriously and violently. She hated her husband and ran him down like he was trash to her. They speculated about divorcing and moving away to the west and starting a new life together. But Tom did have some feelings for Daisy still. Every time Myrtle would mention her name, Tom would slap her so hard that her nose would break. When Wilson discovered that his wife and Tom had a relationship going on, he wanted to lock Myrtle up and move away as soon as possible. But Myrtle refused, she wanted to get away with Tom in the car she expected him to be in which caused her horrible death. It wasn’t Tom in that car that’s for sure. Going back to their first meeting, she kept thinking “you can’t live forever, you can’t live forever!”(Gatsby, pg. 38 l. 17-18). Some even thought that Myrtle began going crazy for Tom when she discovered he was extremely wealthy and she saw an opening where she could leave her boring and unpleasant life with her husband Wilson, so she tried her hardest to go for it. Tom was very sexually attracted to Myrtle because of naturalness and her constantly going after Tom and wanting him. He obviously didn’t get that affection or attention that much at his home with Daisy. Soon after Daisy and Tom married, Daisy stopped the admiration she had for Tom. The affection and spark between the two went away. Tom

He may care for them, but he’d rather just think about what he wants. It also could be because he has loved confused with a different emotion, lust. Tom says “and what’s more, I love Daisy too. Once in awhile I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time” (138). Tom seems to just want to treat himself whenever he gets bored of Daisy, like he said he goes off on a spree and messes around with other women. Tom might have loved Daisy when they first got married, but after awhile he just got bored of the same old thing. There’s also the fact Tom doesn’t want anyone to see him with Myrtle, because she isn’t as sophisticated and able to control herself as Daisy is. Daisy is the perfect, schoolgirl type, while Myrtle is more the party goer, that would rather run around than sit still. Myrtle also seems a bit crazy. Tom treats Myrtle as if she is merely an object of his desire. Once in the book he hit her, and broke her nose. Tom and Myrtle had gotten in an argument about Daisy and in the end he made “a short deft movement” (41), and broke Myrtle’s nose with his “open hand” (41). Tom also never goes over there when Myrtle wants him to, it has to be a convenience for him or else Tom just doesn’t care. A long time passed before Myrtle was ever mentioned in the book again. Granted, Tom could’ve been going over the fromtime-to-time, but why would he when he was preoccupied by Daisy and Gatsby’s relationship. Tom also just kept her in the idea that he was going to get rid of his boring wife, and then marry her right after. As Catherine, Myrtle’s sister, was saying, “It’s really his wife that’s keeping them apart. She’s a catholic, and they don’t believe in divorce” (38), but nowhere was it mentioned that Daisy was a Catholic. Tom wants someone who doesn’t care whether or not he loves them, and just cares about the fact that he has a large sum of

Tom Buchanan, Daisy?s husband, was a man from an enormously wealthy family. Nick, described Tom's physical attributes as having a "hard mouth and a supercilious manner?arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face?always leaning aggressively forward?a cruel body?his speaking voice?added to the impression of

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