Tom Buchannan Character Analysis

If you could have anything you wanted, and have all the money in the world, but in the end you are unsatisfied, what was it all for? Throughout the novel Tom Buchannan, continues to prove himself to be careless and inconsiderate by not worrying about hurting others or forming a real relationship with Daisy, someone that he should’ve cared about. People in this 1920’s society such as Tom believe that money can fix anything. As with Tom, Daisy is in love with material things, and is incapable of having a real human relationship due to her affection towards materialism. Even Gatsby, who seems to be very capable of love and seems invested in having a relationship with Daisy, proves to be somewhat unauthentic in forming relationships, as Daisy becomes
more of a part of a game to him rather than a true love. Fitzgerald is arguing that the binding force that keeps relationships together is not love, rather money and material possessions, suggesting that society was too money driven, which leads to humanity being distorted by artificial desires.
Throughout the novel, Tom is more in love with the idea of having a trophy wife, one that can accompany him to parties and one that can show off all of his riches to the distorted society of which the Buchannan’s belong to, than he is with Daisy. To Tom, Daisy becomes an object that he feels can be constantly won over by money. During the fight between Tom and Gatsby at the Plaza, Tom exclaims, "She's not leaving me!" Tom's words suddenly leaned down over Gatsby. "Certainly not for a common swindler who'd have to steal the ring he put on her finger"(133). Tom views his marriage, and marriage in general as an economic exchange. He believes that he has bought Daisy with his money, and that in order for Gatsby to ever buy a ring that would be worthy enough of Daisy’s hand in marriage, he would have to steal it. Tom views Daisy’s love as nothing but a possession, proving that love is a lost factor in Tom and Daisy’s relationship. Tom realizes that everyone is aware of his affair with Myrtle, and he admits that “once in a while 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"(131). Tom expects way more out of Daisy than he does himself. He expects Daisy to maintain a good reputation for herself and act in a professional manner, but yet Tom has an affair and still able to come home to Daisy every night, who pretends that nothing is wrong with that for fear of losing her wealth or being abused by Tom. Although this power dynamic was expected in upper class relationships during the 1920’s, it still proves that society was driven purely off money, with no regard for forming actual real relationships.
Daisy, being in love with money and all of life’s luxuries, is capable of affection, yet still incapable of actual loyalty or care when faced with situations that can alter her life of luxury.
On the eve of marrying Tom, Daisy has a drunken night with Jordan and demonstrates her true feelings towards Tom while saying “‘Take 'em down-stairs and give 'em back to whoever they belong to. Tell 'em all Daisy's change' her mind. Say: 'Daisy's change' her mine!’”(76). When Daisy is drunk, and not thinking right, she proves that she is only with Tom for the luxuries in life, such as the expensive pearls that he gave her. Her drunken self realizes that she is not in love with him. Waking up the next morning, she returns to the her that society has morphed her into, ready to marry the guy that has the money and can provide her with all the finer things in life, even though she doesn’t love him. During her meeting with Gatsby, he is set on showing Daisy what a lavish life he is living, which moves her to the point of saying, "They're such beautiful shirts," she sobbed, her voice muffled in the think folds. "It makes me sad because I've never seen such – such beautiful shirts before"(92). Daisy is so in love with the materialistic aspect of life that seeing how much there is for her to still acquire moves her to tears. While laying in Gatsby’s closet, she realizes that there is more to life than simply what Tom can offer her with money, and that there are greater opportunities that just
Tom for her to live a life full of riches. Sure, Daisy did love Tom, and yes she loves Gatsby, but when faced with an opportunity to acquire more possessions and possibly live a happier life, she abandons all loyalty or care that she once had, in order to live a richer life. While realizing that Gatsby can bring her such a great life, she is moved to tears with fear that she may have made the wrong decision by marrying Tom just for his money.
Gatsby, having invented Daisy up with such an idealistic perfection that she will never be capable of achieving, leaves him viewing Daisy as a goal that he is set on achieving, rather than simply a love interest. In Gatsby’s great conquest to win the game with Tom, and acquire Daisy as a trophy wife, it “had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one” (93). Once Gatsby finally meets with Daisy after building her up in his head, this dream of her vanishes, and she becomes an attainable object more than just a vision in his head. Gatsby only ever loved the idea of Daisy, but he continued to keep Daisy in his grasp in continuing the competition between him and Tom over who would win the prize of the trophy wife. This continues to prove the idea that love in this novel is simply that, a prize. Gatsby gets to the point of begging Daisy to tell Tom “the truth- that you never loved him- and its all wiped out forever’”(132). After Gatsby had been around Daisy for a while, he continued to build up this dream of her and what they could be together, but his feud with Tom overrides that. He wants to steal the prize from Tom so much that he is practically begging Daisy to tell Tom that she never loved him, even though all of the people at the Plaza are slowly becoming aware that Daisy is incapable of being loyal to anyone, as well as incapable of living up to Gatsby’s dream of her. This proves the point that materialism had truly distorted 1920’s society into a place that was incapable of creating true relationships, because every member of this luxurious society had one thing on their mind, not love, but money.
Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby have all of the possessions that they could possibly want, yet still wanted more.
These three characters became obsessed with the materialistic things in life to the point where they ended up with nothing meaningful. Every relationship that they attempted to form was either based off money, lacked any loyalty, or corrupted by money, which begs the question, what was all of the money for? The 1920’s ideal of such great desire for money left these three people without anything meaningful in a society where they basically had everything. The lack of authenticity and truth in this society where the only thing on the minds of its inhabitants was money made this novel into the thrilling story about the corruption and distortion of humanity that it
is.