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.