Fitzgerald's Tom Buchanan

 In the novel of The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates an ordinary social life background in America by introducing main characters during the 1920s. The author provides some essential symbols and characteristics of characters, especially for Tom, based on the certain period of America. In the novel, Tom Buchanan plays the role of antagonist, who has a different personality than others, but a typical one in America during the 1920s. Throughout The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald sets Tom Buchanan’s personality with some important symbols: carelessness, racism, arrogance, and sexism towards Daisy. 

In the novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald introduces Tom in the first chapter as the symbol of carelessness to describe his personality. The symbol of carelessness links to Tom’s background as well. Since he was a great fortune from his family, he did not have any economic difficulties and he did not even have any experience of working hard himself to get something that he desperately wants, because he could get anything he wants. Fitzgerald sets Tom as the character who enjoys partying, drinking, and money. 

"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, and next they'll throw everything overboard and have intermarriage between black and white (229).” From these, Tom is described as an insensitive and thoughtless person. For example, tom abuses Myrtle and makes her to believe that he could fall in love with her if he wants by attracting her with his money. He does not care much about his relationship with others, even though he has his wife, Daisy. 

At this point, he demonstrated his carelessness when he does not concern about how other people would think about him, and he married with Daisy to show his wealthy. 

Tom Buchanan demonstrates himself to the readers with not only his carelessness personality, but also he acts as a racist in the novel. As he was born with great fortunes, he thinks he is better than other people, and he is proud of himself. The background of Tom also makes him to become a racist. For instance, since the East Egg and the West Egg are separated and the East Egg is the town where rich people live like Tom, he regard people depends their backgrounds. As Tom considers himself as a very rich and special person than anyone, he disrespects other people who live in West Egg. The evidence of racism for Tom is shown in the beginning of the novel when Tom says that “It’s up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things (17).”  His quotation demonstrates that he and those of who live in the East Egg and the white people have the control of everything with money. This directly explains that Tom plays the role of racist. 

Tom Buchanan is a great example for an evidence of the typical behavior of rich people in the 1920s in America. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald provides some themes of Tom Buchanan, and one of his themes is arrogance. From Tom’s social attitudes, he demonstrates his arrogance, which also include racism. For instance, He disrespect people who live in lower condition of the town and people that he considers as lower class than him. His personality also might effect from his family background. Since he did not have any concerns or difficulties, he does not feel guilty from what he is doing to others and he does not even know the value of money. His social attitudes are based on racism and sexism; he treats woman badly, especially Daisy and it also shows that he is arrogant and never consider other’s feeling. 

The relationship between Tom and Daisy also highlights Tom’s personality of sexism. In this novel, their relationship status is unstable. Since both Tom and Daisy are from wealthy background, and they enjoy everything they want. The cohesion between Tom and Daisy is money. Tom attracts Daisy from his wealthy background, and they got married because Daisy is looking for happiness with money. However, since Tom is regarded as a crucial man who is careless and violent, Tom is showing how he controls Daisy easily. However, Daisy does not have any power to control Tom, since he is very rich and that is what she wants from him. At this moment, Tom seems like a sexist, who treats a woman harshly. Tom also lacks the faithfulness and kindness to other people. Both are in unstable relationship, since they are selfish and they are in love with their appearance of marriage. 

Throughout the novel of The Great Gatsby, the author demonstrates the people’s lives in America during the 1920s were idealistic, especially for Tom Buchanan. The upper class people, such as Tom, are desperate of money and it controls their lifestyle. From the character Tom, the author displays how the life in the society with money was very important by introducing Tom as a careless person and arrogant person, a racist, and a sexist. 

Tom Buchanan

In the book, The Great Gatsby written by Scott Fitzgerald, the author presents the situation of the 1920's American dream - self made wealth and happiness, the spirit of the youth and resourcefulness and the ability to make something of one's self, despite of one's origins. Most of the main characters in this novel symbolize an important message, especially from the 1920's. In the book The Great Gatsby, Tom Buchanan is described as the typical "old money", having a high social status, and also physically strong and brutal; he can be regarded as the evil antagonist of the novel. However, he may also be recognized as intelligent, the successful man, who we as the readers wants to become as, and perhaps, a motivation for Gatsby due to jealousy, of the strength and power Tom Buchanan has achieved.

The author represents Tom Buchanan as the brutal, lack of moral, and racist. And judging by his acts, he really is the villain in this novel; he is incapable of feeling guilt, or any other emotions towards anyone, including Daisy, "Two shining, arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face...It was a body capable of enormous leverage-a cruel body"(Chapter 1 Page 9). However, his peremptory heart might have been the key to the success of his career. Because showing emotions, and acting with weakness will only let you get consumed by the society, rather than improving your social status. The author stresses that Tom Buchanan is the evil, but in other words, that might be the way he chose to live as.

It is true that Tom Buchanan was born in an enormously wealthy family. However, that does not mean that he did not try himself to become successful. He attended Yale, which means that he was intelligent, and as described from Nick, one of his fellow Yale graduates, "one of the most powerful ends that ever played football",(Chapter 1, page 8). which must have taken a lot of time and effort to reach to that point. To refer to the statement above, Tom Buchanan was already born with wealth, and therefore there were no real reasons needed to push himself to work hard, "His family were enormously wealthy—even in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproach".(Chapter 1, page 8) But he did, and it shows that he is mentally prepared. As the readers, we can take this as a lesson, and remind ourselves to work hard even if you are at a good position.

Even in the novel, Jay Gatsby lost his love, Daisy, to Tom Buchanan obviously because Tom has a higher social status, as well as money, and physical appearance, "Daisy was my second cousin...Her husband, among various physical accomplishments"(Chapter 1 Page 8). From the novel, it can possibly inform that Daisy is the direct reason to Jay Gatsby's seeking of American Dream and his strong wits. However, Tom Buchanan can be regarded as the indirect reason to Gatsby's endless strive. Because Jay Gatsby wants to stand toe - to - toe with Tom Buchanan no matter what it takes, so he can take Daisy back. In other words, Tom Buchanan is not only a villain that represents the antagonist, but also a motivation for Jay Gatsby.

In order to provide an apposing force for Jay Gatsby, the author stresses that Tom Buchanan is the evil, antagonist that Jay Gatsby has to struggle against. However, Tom Buchanan is only a regular person who has become successful by his striving motivation and his sturdy heart that rejected any unnecessary emotions. And even though he was raised in a rich family, he worked hard to achieve his own goals. Even Jay Gatsby, our title character, he envies the power that Tom Buchanan has achieved. As the reader, he might actually be the ideal character that we want to become as.

Revealing the Antagonist

There are always protagonist and antagonist in most stories. Protagonist is a hero in a story and he desires something or someone. Whereas, antagonist is a rival character of protagonist and he obstructs protagonist to achieve his goal. Therefore, there is a conflict between protagonist and antagonist, and that develops and leads the story. In a romance novel, the antagonist disrupts protagonist’s love and tries to take him apart from his lover. Antagonist is usually described as a wicked person. Sometimes the author describes him directly and sometimes he is decided by his behaviors. In Scott Fitzgerald’s famous novel, “The Great Gatsby,” the author illustrates Tom Buchanan as antagonist indirectly through his interactions with the central characters: Nick Carraway, Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker and Tom Buchanan himself. 

First of all, Nick Carraway is a first-person narrator of the story and Daisy’s cousin. The way he describes and treats Tom Buchanan indicates Tom Buchanan is antagonist of the story. Nick is Tom’s college friend. Nick and Tom are not close friends, but Nick does not hate Tom. However, Nick describes him pretty negatively in the first meeting in a long time at Tom and Daisy’s house party. Nick states that Tom has a supercilious manner and he is dominant, aggressive and even his voice is fractious (Fitzgerald 9). That is not because Nick hates Tom, but as a narrator, Nick implies that Tom is not a good natured man and is going to play an evil role in the story. 

In addition to Nick, Daisy’s behaviors show that he is antagonist of the story. She describes Tom as a “brute” and “big hulking specimen” (Fitzgerald 15) Even when Tom is talking about the book, ‘The Rise of the Coloured Empires’ by Goddard, she makes a sarcastic comment that Tom’s getting very profound (Fitzgerald 16). Also when Tom gets phone call, she gets suspicious about that and goes into the house so that she can hear it. That implies Tom is seeing another woman and Daisy is suspicious about it. It is true that women’s social position started to go higher in 1920s. However, the way Daisy treats her husband is pretty unusual at that time. Detection of his dubious character was to be expected at this point. That makes Tom even more negative in the story and implies Tom is antagonist. 

Like Daisy, the way Jordan Baker act in the story support that Tom is antagonist. In the dining table with Tom and Daisy’s house, she tells Nick that Toms has some women in New York (Fitzgerald 18). Also, Jordan is the first one who meets Gatsby and tells Nick the fact that Gatsby is Daisy’s ex and he wants to have tea-time with Daisy. That is the root of the all conflicts in the story. Because of Jordan, Daisy meets Gatsby, and Tom finds out and interrupts them. 

Lastly, Tom Buchanan’s behaviors support that he is an opponent. His attitude toward other characters is arrogant and dominant. Tom acts like he got everything, and he knows everything. His behaviors toward other characters are disrespectful. For example, when Daisy mentions the word ‘hulking,’ Tom objected to Daisy right away (Fitzgerald 15). Furthermore, he cheats on his wife, and a friend of his wife and brother-in-law know that. That makes other characters hostile to him somehow. Moreover, it results in the situation that other characters connect to Gatsby. As a result, he becomes antagonist who disrupts Gatsby’s goal later.

In sum, the author does not say that Tom is a bad, evil character to the readers directly. Instead, he implies that indirectly through the characters’ behaviors. However, that way of saying approaches to the readers’ unconsciousness, so it is indirect but more effective.

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Gatsby: Loneliness

Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, is one of the most well-known stories about the alluring characters Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan and Nick Carraway. Gatsby is a main character who passionately pursues Daisy Buchanan. Carraway does not only narrate the story but also casts himself as the book’s author. Tom Buchanan is another fascinating character in the story – he is represented as a villain in the novel who is negatively portrayed as an arrogant, authoritative and wealthy masculine man. Yet, general reputations about Tom Buchanan could be changed. Since there is the only one way to see him through Nick’s point of view, most readers have been prone to have a hasty prejudice against the impression of Tom Buchanan. Although Nick describes himself as nonjudgmental and tolerant at the beginning of the book, we need to reinterpret the most debatable character, Tom Buchanan. If we look at him with a thoughtful and refreshing perspective, we could easily draw different sides of him that we could feel compassion for - Tom is a pathetic character who leads a lonely, meaningless life and he doesn’t know how to sincerely love anybody.  

First, although Tom Buchanan seems as though he is a powerful man with everything who might have never felt any sense of insufficiency, one can infer that he is a lonely person. If those who spend their life in pursuit of power and wealth have consideration for others or show a modest attitude, everyone might respect and follow them. However, if not, they would be subjected to criticism and people would not find pleasure in their company, like Tom Buchanan. For example, Nick Carraway describes Tom’s college year that “his freedom with money was a matter for reproach” (8). Also, there is another Nick’s reflection that we are able to see Tom’s isolated life: “there were men at New Haven who had hated his guts” (9). Tom has never had to work for anything or earn anything on his own – he lacks the humbleness and earnestness that people often learn from such pursuits. These scenes reflect that his wealth and supercilious manner could lead to him being alone for his whole life. 

Moreover, it is possible that Tom grew up in an unloving family without strong bonds. Those who have gained other’s affection also know how to love other people. Daisy tells Nick about the moment that her daughter was born, “she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where. I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned feeling and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl” (20). It is hard to even imagine that Tom abandoned Daisy at that moment. If Tom was conscious of a concept of family and its preciousness, he wouldn’t conduct himself so irresponsibly. Most people who have never felt a family’s love tend to feel difficulty when they have a family. Tom Buchanan, who doesn’t know how to love others and make a harmonious family, might be living a miserable life. 

Finally, even though Tom Buchanan is depicted as a character who has enviable conditions such as riches, prestige and privilege, underneath the surface, however, he would often feel emptiness in his heart. Nick mentions that Tom is one of those men who have to keep searching for something forever, “…I felt that Tom would drift on forever seeking a little wistfully for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game” (8). Nick also comments about Tom when he came back home, “Something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas as if his sturdy physical egotism no longer nourished his peremptory heart” (24). Tom is an unfulfilled pathetic man who has to pursue something new and sensational for self-contentment. He lusts for lost glory of his youth because he does not build anything worthwhile in his present.

In The Great Gatsby, Tom Buchanan is defined as a villain through only Nick’s view. However, I believe that we need to see Tom from a different perspective. Although he is usually considered as the bad guy in the novel, in my view, Tom is not only the most isolated pathetic character who is living an ungratified life, but he also represents a sad and lonely man who does not know a sense of real love.

The Great Gatsby: Tom the Hypocritical National Figure

F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author of the novel, "The Great Gatsby” uses the narrating character to reveal the personalities of other characters. Nick Carraway, the narrator, is a valuable asset in understanding the character Tom Buchanan. One example of Nick providing crucial information on Tom is his description of him, "He had changed since his New Haven years. Now he was a sturdy, straw haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner" (Fitzgerald 9). This shows how arrogant Tom is. Even though Tom is depicted as a role model of the American Dream, his behaviors, and every aspect of himself are hypocritical. The author uses Nick Carraway’s observations of Tom Buchanan to demonstrate how being part of the social elite does not represent one as a moral role model. 

Nick's description of Tom displays how hypocritical Tom is. Nick points out how Tom is depicted as a role model for ‘The elite’ who have accomplished the American dream of wealth and power. The American dream inspires people to obtain a family, wealth and career, which are believed to be all the essential elements for a perfect and carefree life. Nick describes Tom as having peaked early in his life, he was the most successful in college and experiencing a downfall of his life (8). When we consider the ideal life, Tom is a character who should be admired by people. However, as Nick reveals ‘The Real’ Tom’s personality, it suggests that he is not a figure of moral standing. Nick describes him as a “straw haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner” (Fitzgerald 9). The way Tom treats other people is ruthless and disrespectful. Whoever he dealt with, he always had a “Touch of paternal contempt in it, even toward people he liked” (Fitzgerald 9). Tom’s egocentric actions are hardly defined as a moral exemplar. His beloved ones are no exception, including his wife Daisy.

During Nick’s visit to the Buchanan’s, we are introduced to the relationship between Tom and Daisy through Nick’s observations. Based on Tom’s behavior toward Daisy, he could be defined as an unscrupulous man. Marriage is a vow that a husband and wife will take care of each other and love one another for their entire lives. However, it was hard to see Tom’s appreciation of Daisy as a wife. While they are having a conversation, Daisy gets injured by Tom. Daisy over reacts and laments about marrying a “brute of a man” and describes Tom as being hulking which he is abruptly offended by and doesn’t console Daisy in any way about her injury. (15) Is this an interaction between two people who are madly in love with each other? Instead of apologizing and taking care of his beloved wife, there is nothing but indifference. Exceeding his alienation from his wife, he commits the worst crime that a man who has a family can do: adultery. Nick hears a gossip of Tom from Jordan Baker that “Tom’s got some woman in New York” (Fitzgerald 18). Leaving Daisy behind, Tom forgets his essential role as a father and a husband. Even though he has a young child, Tom is living in a life full of deception which exposes his true nature. 

 Just looking at the frames of Tom's life, outsiders may be fooled by his deceitful lies. Nick Carraway plays a critical role in exposing Tom’s personality in the novel. Tom could be a role model whom everyone would try to emulate, however, Tom fails to accomplish the role of a perfect man in the novel. Fitzgerald emphasizes Tom's arrogance and immorality to demonstrate how hypocritical Tom is and to show how having wealth, a prestigious family name, and glamorous life style does not guarantee one to be as a moral standing in the world.