Character Analysis of Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby
Tom Buchanan
3) Tom beginning and end
Tom Buchanan in the beginning of the novel is described to us as a intimidating, controlling, and a physically big character who doesn’t care about anyone and isn’t happy with anything, his actions related to his description as he cheated on his wife Daisy for Myrtle and didn’t show feelings towards anyone and to top it off applied racism.
Tom didn’t change a lot through the novel as toward the end he was still controlling and powerful mentally and wealth wise, but what he did do at the end which we wouldn’t expect looking at the start was he showed emotions towards myrtle just before her death and after her death, he also stood up for daisy and defended her.
5) Critics description of Tom
Daisy’s immensely wealthy husband, once a member of Nick’s social club at Yale. Powerfully built and hailing from a socially solid old family, Tom is an arrogant, hypocritical bully. His social attitudes are laced with racism and sexism, and he never even considers trying to live up to the moral standard he demands from those around him. He has no moral qualms about his own extramarital affair with Myrtle, but when he begins to suspect Daisy and Gatsby of having an affair, he becomes outraged and forces a confrontation.
-Spark notes
Tom's family is rich. Really rich. Not well-to-do like Nick's family, and not nouveau riche like Gatsby, but staggeringly wealthy, with money going way back. (Or as far back as any money in America goes, anyway.) And he does extravagant, crazy things with it, like bringing "a string of polo ponies for Lake Forest" (1).
Okay, yeah, that doesn't mean much to us, either. It's probably something along the lines of buying a private jet: you know people can do it, but it's a pretty flashy move. Especially because he's so (relatively) young: "It was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that."
In his own way, Tom is just as flashy as Gatsby. But everyone somehow knows that
3) Tom beginning and end
Tom Buchanan in the beginning of the novel is described to us as a intimidating, controlling, and a physically big character who doesn’t care about anyone and isn’t happy with anything, his actions related to his description as he cheated on his wife Daisy for Myrtle and didn’t show feelings towards anyone and to top it off applied racism.
Tom didn’t change a lot through the novel as toward the end he was still controlling and powerful mentally and wealth wise, but what he did do at the end which we wouldn’t expect looking at the start was he showed emotions towards myrtle just before her death and after her death, he also stood up for daisy and defended her.
5) Critics description of Tom
Daisy’s immensely wealthy husband, once a member of Nick’s social club at Yale. Powerfully built and hailing from a socially solid old family, Tom is an arrogant, hypocritical bully. His social attitudes are laced with racism and sexism, and he never even considers trying to live up to the moral standard he demands from those around him. He has no moral qualms about his own extramarital affair with Myrtle, but when he begins to suspect Daisy and Gatsby of having an affair, he becomes outraged and forces a confrontation.
-Spark notes
Tom's family is rich. Really rich. Not well-to-do like Nick's family, and not nouveau riche like Gatsby, but staggeringly wealthy, with money going way back. (Or as far back as any money in America goes, anyway.) And he does extravagant, crazy things with it, like bringing "a string of polo ponies for Lake Forest" (1).
Okay, yeah, that doesn't mean much to us, either. It's probably something along the lines of buying a private jet: you know people can do it, but it's a pretty flashy move. Especially because he's so (relatively) young: "It was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that."
In his own way, Tom is just as flashy as Gatsby. But everyone somehow knows that