Tom Buchanan Quotes In The Great Gatsby

In the Great Gatsby Tom is an unlikeable character. How does Fitzgerald use language to portray him like this?

“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a story filled with lust, bloodshed, and greed. In the story many charters act immoral and greedy. The reason for this is because they have been corrupted by money and power. A prime example of this corruption is Tom Buchanan. In the story “The Great Gatsby” it is evident that Tom Buchanan was corrupted by both money and power when he only cared about other people’s stature, demonstrated that he was very ignorant, and lacked any type of moral values.

It was the last days of summer. The atmosphere began to change, leaves falling, and the sky the perfect crisp blue like a never ending ocean. Gatsby decided it was the perfect day to take a dip in the pool, since he hadn’t used it all summer. But, that dream was unfortunately brought to a fatal end. Do you know what it’s like to be shot? Do you know what it’s like to drown in your own pool of blood? Your body sinking to the bottom as the water engulfs you. Your lungs now only filled with blood, and only thing you can do is lie in the abyss of your death. This is Gatsby’s story as he was killed in his own home.

Tom’s infidelity in his marriage clearly expresses his views about his wife, Daisy. In seeking an affair, he conveys that Daisy is deficient and not worthy of devotion. Daisy knows of his affairs, but because of the time period and their social class, she is helpless to do anything. As a woman in the 20th century, it would destroy Daisy to divorce Tom, even though the entirety of New York knows about Tom’s affair.

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

Throughout The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, we learn about Tom Buchanan’s life and his outlook on the way he views others. Fitzgerald introduces Tom Buchanan as an overbearing man but later on disillusioned by the loss of control of his multiple relationships. Even after the realization of the loss of control, his mindset on love and marriage remains unaffected.

​In The Great Gatsby the character Daisy Buchanan was one of the characters that due to her decisions in the past her present is not what she wanted. This affects the story from the beginning to the end. Daisy was from Louisville, Kentucky before the war, many military officers chased her. In those many officers Gatsby included he lies to her about his past and tells her that he is wealthy, soon after she falls in love with Gatsby and promises that she will wait for him. But during the war she marries a man named Tom Buchanan, who promised her a wealthy lifestyle. Later, Nick her cousin helps her and Gatsby reunite after so many years, they have at first an awkward meeting, but after Nick leaves them alone and comes back they seem to be happy.

Tom Buchanan is a villain, there's too much he’s done to deny the name. He has a mistress, and Daisy knows it: she barely conceals her knowledge of it. Completely being hypocritical, he suspects that Daisy may have a novel that angers him. He is a supremacist, and a pompous “thug” who has more money than values. And Tom sends Wilson after Gatsby, accusing Jay of Myrtle’s death (when Gatsby was innocent), and Wright kills Gatsby.

Through the means of characterization, Fitzgerald expresses Tom Buchanan as another immoral character. Tom is portrayed as an egotistical, hypocrite who advocates white supremacy. His hypocrisy is shown when he speaks to Gatsby, he conduct himself as a “high” class citizen but dwells as a “low” class citizen. “I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him, and I wasn’t far wrong.” “What about it?” said Gatsby politely. “I guess your friend Walter Chase

The Buchanans represent cowardice, corruption, and the demise of Gatsby's dream. Gatsby, unlike Fitzgerald himself, never discovers how he has been betrayed by the class he has idealized for so long. For Gatsby, the failure of the rich has disastrous consequences.

Even though Tom is now aware of his origin it does not ultimately change all of his behavior and attitude or as it is described in the book “In several ways his opinions were totally changed,…, but the main structure of his character was not changed and could not be changed”. This condition only lasted for a certain period of time until he “dropped gradually back into his old frivolous and easy-going ways…” p.57 A similar thing happens to Chambers by the end of the story after Tom has gotten convicted to murder and Pudd’nhead Wilson has found out about the real identities of Tom and Chambers. Being a free man, the original Tom does not know how to deal with this situation because “his manners were the manners of a slave”. He did not learn how to write or to read, nor did he spend much time somewhere else but in the kitchen.

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.

When Nick first visits Tom and Daisy, he describes their house as “a cheerful red and white Georgian Colonial Mansion” (6). The Buchanan’s are the epitome of old wealth, as both of them come from families that have been affluent for generations. Old money is associated with class and nobility, yet the Buchanan’s are ironically neither of those things. Both Tom and Daisy are in dishonest relationships, which do not coincide with the principle of nobility. Yet they choose to stay together for the sake of having a good reputation, which portrays their desperate need to be thought of as classy. Furthermore, Tom once says that “if we don’t look out the white race will be – utterly submerged”(13). The emphasis on the “white race” portrays the shallowness of the East Eggers, by how they are obsessed with keeping their rank out of reach from those who they consider minor to themselves. Likewise, in the 1920’s, the non-white races were usually a big part of the working class. The superficiality of the upper class is additionally shown by Tom’s adulterous relationship with Myrtle Wilson. Though Tom “can’t stand” (33) Daisy, he refuses to start a serious relationship with Myrtle, for the sake of his reputation. Tom’s unwillingness to risk his reputation is shown when he makes Myrtle “[sit] discreetly in another car” (26) while he sat with “those East Eggers that

Tom Buchanan is the person most dominantly representing these people. His actions are generally self-centered and depict him as racist. Tom’s self-centered nature is revealed in his actions in East Egg. For instance, Tom cares only for himself and his well-being. He mistreats his wife Daisy by hurting her physically. This is evident when Daisy says, “Look! ... You did it, Tom… I know you didn’t mean to but you did do it” (17). Daisy is trying to trigger Tom’s guilt, but fails as he disregards her complaining and changes the topic of the conversation, thus, proving his self-centered ideals that concern no one other than himself. Moreover, Tom’s racist nature reveals itself when he discusses with Nick on the topic of a new book that Tom has been reading; ‘The Rise of the Coloured Empires’. Tom says, “It’s up to us who are the dominant race to watch out or these other races will have control over things” (18). Tom thinks that the white race is the supreme race and that all other coloured races are inferior, coupled with the belief that the supreme race should watch out or else they will end up losing their title. This ideal is common in the 1920’s and it correlates with the moral deterioration of the upper class in society since they are willing to do whatever it takes to ensure the supremacy of the white race. Finally, Tom’s self-centered nature in East Egg best reveals itself when Tom excuses himself from the dinner table in order to talk to his mistress

Tom does nothing of the sorts to deny the accusation. Further on, Tom and Amanda reconvene their aggression towards one another in a heated argument where Tom declares, in chunks of being interrupted, “What in Christ’s name am I supposed to do! Look- I’ve got no thing, no single thing, in my life here that I can call my own” (III). This matter shows Tom’s desire to feel important, and even needed, by his family, and how his career gives him the sense of slavery. He points out to Amanda that he pays for their home by shouting, “who pays rent on it, who makes himself a slave to -” (III) before being cut off by her and storming away once more.